29 October 2024

#PCCC2024 Sports Media Trainee Blogs Day One

Sarah Boeke (21) from the United States and Rachael Pitts (21) from New Zealand are the latest winners of the Sports Media Trainee Programme. In March, they were selected to join the World Curling Media Team at the Pan Continental Curling Championships 2024 in Lacombe, Canada.

Sarah Boeke – Trainee Photographer

FINAL REFLECTIONS

All of a sudden it’s the final few days of the trip, and all of a sudden, I am feeling extremely nostalgic. Nostalgic for misty morning walks to the Gary Moe Autoplex from the Lacombe Travelodge, for the feeling (or lack of) of numbness in my toes after kneeling on the field of play for a bit too long, for lunches in the players’ lounge and four straight days of falafel and New Zealand slang confusion and laughing at nothing and sleep-deprived delirium.
 
I’ll stop with the sentimental stuff — probably much more interesting to hear about the multiple times I ate it during my first attempt at curling. I started with very very low expectations for myself when the media team took the ice Friday morning, but it didn’t make it any less of a humbling start to my day. At least I could laugh at myself (and so could everyone else).

If not for some sparse decorations in the arena I would have forgotten about Halloween entirely with the disorientation of being outside of the States. I bought some skeleton earrings to compensate, and along with one spectator in a pumpkin-patterned suit, we brought some spooky spirit to the arena. Even more frightening was the bright red ketchup-flavored chips someone brought to our snack table. So far: 0 for 2 on Canadian cuisine.

The biggest jump-scare was the end of round robin games Thursday night and the beginning of semi-finals, which snuck up way quicker than I thought it would. Up to this point, games had been pretty routine and low-stakes. Compared to the last sports event I photographed before coming to Alberta — a football game where fans rushed the field and players cried — the civil handshakes of curling celebrations were, respectfully, a bit anticlimactic. With more competitive matches, I was excited to start seeing some energy, some happy tears, some hugs, some “real” curling celebrations, according to Stephen. Stephen, Anil, and I talked over a game plan for our play-off coverage, hopefully putting at least one of us in a spot to grab shots of some reactions.

After using an empty back hockey arena as my office for a Zoom meeting with a professor, bronze matches began on Friday morning. The only hiccup in the day was when the heater over the media table stopped working. After we tried to fix the issue by pressing random buttons around the media table, praying they didn’t set off the hockey horns, I turned to hot coffee to stay warm. Some of my panning shots, usually requiring steady hands, may or may not have been wrecked by my caffeine shakes.

On the final day, Rachael and I took a break from our well-practiced schedule to check off the last landmark on our Lacombe travel list: Tim Hortons. From the maple leaf-patterned hockey stick door handle, I had high hopes for the Canadian classic. I bought the most Canadian donut they offered — a Maple cream — and was not disappointed. With mini donuts in hand for the rest of the team, we made our last walk to the arena for the gold matches.

It was a packed day with the closing ceremony and eventful games in the A and B divisions. And thankfully, I saw my first “real” curling celebrations with emotion and jumping and happy tears, grabbing some of my favorite photos from the week.

Rachael and I headed to the post-competition banquet where we were horribly underdressed, but had a great time anyhow. We joined the media team at Lacombe’s singular bar, Uglies, for some much needed celebration after a very, very long week.

Sitting in the Seattle airport during the fifth hour of my accidental nine-hour layover, I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on the past ten days. As a team we covered two divisions, over 100 games, and 35 teams from across the world. I don’t want to try to count the number of photos I’ve taken. I’m no curling expert, but I’ve grown to like the sport more than I expected to. Or maybe it was just the wonderful media team at World Curling who made it feel that way. I’ll miss covering curling, and am so grateful to everyone at World Curling who made the experience one of the most fun, exhausting, exciting weeks of my photography career. 

MIDWAY CHECK IN

According to Mike Haggerty, World Curling Senior Writer, “every day is a learning day.” 

He’s right, although somehow the more I learn about curling, the more confusing curling becomes. This has meant I’ve gotten very good at asking stupid questions. It just so happens that every person I manage to ask these stupid questions happens to be a past curling champion or a curling media industry veteran, so I could stand to dial it back a bit. 

But, it’s better than my original approach of smiling and nodding and just pretending to know what “hammer” and “takeout” and “pancake” mean.

On Sunday, A-Division day one kicked off and I got the chance to hear some feedback from Stephen on my work so far. He’s given me some great advice on getting cleaner, more marketable shots. My favorite part about this experience is the flexibility to try tons of creative shots I usually don’t have the freedom to as a photojournalist. Back at school when I cover sports for the newspaper I work for, I focus on action and emotion. If I’m lucky, I’ll get both in the same shot. 

Here, I’ve been cropping limbs and faces, blurring shots so much you can barely tell what’s in the photo, and making an effort to abandon every photojournalistic guideline I’ve lived by for the past few years. It’s a very thin line between pushing the boundaries and getting a bit too funky with it — I think I might have crossed it at this point.

Curling can be slow-moving at times, but from my seat up close on the ice I’ve taken a bit of a different perspective. Focusing on player interactions, and the smaller moments of celebration, frustration, even desperation, has been a fun challenge to take on. I hope I’ve been able to communicate the story of curling through my photos, along with the artsier content.

On Monday, Rachael and I took one afternoon off to journey to Lacombe’s shining landmark: the World’s Largest Fishing Lure. I had very high expectations, and I was thankfully not disappointed. After admiring it for a bit we tried to prop a phone up to take a photo together in front of it, but we must have looked pretty pitiful because a kind man came from his car to offer to take it for us. Later that day I stepped in front of the camera once more to make my TikTok debut in a collab with Rachael!

The days and matches have been running together a bit, but I think that means I’m at least getting more comfortable with the day to day workflow. The anxiety of being on the ice right next to the athletes has faded a bit, but I’ve still been getting uncomfortable and learning things in other ways. 

Two experiences that were maybe more intimidating than they should have been were taking a group photo of about 15 officials (posing people makes me want to vomit), and taking a tour of the TV truck (so many buttons and way too quiet).

It’s easy to forget that we’re in Alberta after being inside the arena all day, but snow on the walk home was a very quick and unfortunate reminder. Tomorrow will mark a week since we arrived, and just a few days until the final games. I’m looking forward to capturing some of the extra energy and excitement during the play-offs, and not so excited that this surreal trip is starting to pass by so quickly.

DAY ONE – SARAH

After hearing I’d been accepted to the World Curling Sports Media Trainee Programme as a photographer, I don’t think I fully believed the programme was real until I arrived in Alberta a few days ago.

The days here are long, but they’ve been going by so fast already. I’ve learned some of the rules of curling, so I’m counting that as a win for the first few days! I’m so grateful to be here working with this incredible media team and can’t wait to see what the rest of the PCCC has in store.

Rachael Pitts – Trainee Content Creator

FINAL THOUGHTS

Amongst all of the actual learning I have done over the past ten days (which is a lot). One of the main takeaways I have from this experience is that my accent is thicker than I thought, and apparently quite easy to make fun of. Which is saying something in a crowd of Scots, I’m sure it’s just that I’m outnumbered and definitely nothing to do with my voice being annoying or anything. 

Capturing the final shots of games for the Insta story seems like an easy task…especially for someone who is supposed to know how curling works. The B’s semi-finals would proove this theory wrong. 

Stephen and I managed to not only miss that one of the games was in the 10th end and throwing their final stones, but then I didn’t count how many stones the Philippines women had left before they ran out of rocks and had to shake. 

I was able to make up for it with the gold medal games, capturing some great team celebrations (and one of the Philippino men’s honest and passionate plan for how they were going to celebrate their win, profanities included.) 

Thanks to Emily, I was stoked to finally be able to scratch the FOMO itch that watching curling all week had given me. She got us on the B ice before their first draw and seeing Shona and Sarah try to slide for the first time was pretty crack up. I want to rinse them for being reminiscent of baby giraffes learning how to walk, but impressively after about 20min they had both somehow become not bad at all, most likely due to Emily’s coaching. 

The finals day felt a little surreal, only having one game to worry about at a time made it chill, but it being the games for gold also made it feel like a bigger deal. The last shot of the entire tournament was insane and caused a measure for the women’s gold. The suspense felt fitting to how I wanted to drag out the week for as long as possible. Which we managed to do quite well after the closing banquet and meeting up with everyone at the one bar in Lacombe, the perfect way to end the week (not that I agreed the next morning leaving at 8:30am).

I wanna say finishing the week is bittersweet, but honestly, I can’t think of much that’s sweet about this amazing experience ending. I have both been challenged and completely in my element.

I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed the writing side of everything, if you had told me before I started that I would be asking Mike if I could write up about the playoff matches I would’ve thought you were taking the miki. Don’t get me wrong, I’m aware I’m not the best or most formal of writers, and Mike had a good laugh at some of my slang, but I’m pleasantly surprised that I wasn’t totally rubbish. (Tip for future trainee’s; don’t try to call the New Zealand teams ‘the Kiwi’s’). The editing and social content were where I felt most comfortable, but even then I’ve learned so much over these past days. I was made to think about content from a new angle, and had the two best mentors showing me how to interact with the athletes (and Rhona) to get the best from them. 

I don’t really like to get too gushy or in my feelings. So I’m just going to say that this week was straight from my dreams. The sport, the atmosphere but most importantly, the people. If I could replay this week I would do it in a heartbeat. 

Mid competition update

Lacombe is a city of many attractions; the footpaths only on certain sides of the road that you get to zig-zag across, zero hills obscuring your view probably all the way back to New Zealand, and the largest fishing lure in the world. 

After checking off two of the three things to see on the first day, Sarah and I saved the best for last – the fishing lure. For being the attraction Lacombe is best known for, they don’t make it the easiest place to get to. After our trek through the industrial area and past about five different car dealerships, we had the entire pond to ourselves. 

Without a sign warning against climbing the structure, I was up it in a heartbeat, coming down took a little longer but with a few swings and a touch of dangling later, I was back on solid ground. 

We have been treated here with the scran on offer, or maybe my standards are just low after three years of being a broke uni student. I have to make a conscious effort not to eat myself sick every meal-especially with the snack table behind me on the media bench. 

The highlight from lunch so far was when Sarah asked me “are peanut allergies a thing in New Zealand?” I’m still not quite sure where she was going with this because I was laughing too hard to let her explain what she meant by that. 

Having the B side of this tournament adds a lot more value than I had anticipated before coming here. All the teams have so much fun on the ice, and the vibes are always high. 

I went over to film a couple of videos with them and everyone was more than happy to join in. When I was spotted by the players beside the ice filming some of their shots, they gave waves to the camera and even posed for some photos. A perfect balance of the serious athletes on the A arena. 

There is so much to learn here, I don’t think I could get bored if I tried. Every day the team give me something new to do and I absolutely love it. I got to try my hand at clipping highlights from the Japan vs United States women’s match on Monday evening, at the time I didn’t realise the luxury that this game was with both teams making good shots. 

The next game I clipped I wasn’t so lucky, the Korean men put down Chinese Taipei which made finding clippable shots a lot harder. After Emily talked me through the analytical side of the content we’ve been posting  I started to include hooks at the start of the reels, attempting to combat the drop-off in views because attention spans are ridiculous now (mine included). 

I’m feeling with each day I’m in the rink thinking about nothing other than curling and content, more random ideas start to pop into my brain. I apologise if the TikToks get a bit rogue from now on. Although I don’t apologise for getting Rhona Howie, the curling commentary GOAT to speak absolute brain rot and lie down beside the ice. That’s a memory I will treasure forever. 

I keep thinking it can’t get better than this, yet each day seems to be another step up.

DAY ONE – RACHAEL

We all have our strengths and weaknesses, right? 

Day one weakness: forgetting my accreditation at the hotel. 
Day one strength: turning a 30 min walk into a 20 min run from the rink to the hotel and back (this time with accreditation in tow). 

During the last session of the day, I managed to sneak in a good amount of spectating, and then grew a backbone enough (with the encouragement of Mike and Amy) to interview Matt Hamilton after his ‘rollercoaster win’ over Korea by myself.  

Honestly, this feels like I’m living my dream, and it’s only day one.