Rolling with it

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/02/2021 (2080 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The pandemic has altered nearly every facet of our lives — the way we work, parent, eat, learn and socialize. Even a simple walk in the park isn’t so simple anymore.

The countless changes we’ve experienced have caused many of us to reflect on life pre-pandemic. We often find ourselves longing for the simple moments and experiences that brought us joy. For Jim Llewellyn, that was bowling.

As the owner of Coronation Bowling Centre on Taché Avenue for more than 20 years, it’s safe to say bowling is in Llewellyn’s blood. But the pandemic has hit the business hard — it had to close last March for almost three months, reopened in the summer and then had to close again back in November.

“It’s been tough. There are times when I go into the bowling alley and turn the machines on just so I can hear the machines running and the pins clanking,” Llewellyn says. “The hardest part is missing all the people. When you work at a bowling alley, you see thousands of people in a week.”

After months of missing the sights, sounds and crowds of a busy bowling alley, Llewellyn decided to get a little creative in his Island Lakes neighbourhood in southeast Winnipeg.

“We have an active lake area here where there’s a trail around the lake, hockey rinks and toboggan slide, and I frequent it,” he says. “One day outside, I thought, ‘I’m going to clear off some snow and put up some bowling pins.’”

Soon enough, there it was — a community ice bowling lane. Llewellyn’s homemade lane uses real bowling pins from Coronation and milk jugs instead of bowling balls.

“The bowling ball wasn’t working so well on the ice so I got some milk jugs,” he says. “And I painted (the pins) gold to make them look nicer and stand out on white snow.”

Within minutes of Llewellyn setting up the pins, the neighbourhood’s newest outdoor activity was already garnering attention.

“I had it set up for a few minutes and a family that was tobogganing nearby came over and started bowling,” he says. “There was also an elderly couple that came over to try it. They were from Europe and had never tried five-pin bowling. So their first five-pin experience was on the lake.”

The outdoor activity has only been set up for a couple of weeks but it has quickly proven to be a popular activity. In fact, it’s such a hit that Llewellyn built a second lane nearby. He kept the area socially distanced by building the lanes in opposite directions.

He says both lanes are always busy with both adults and kids.

“Everyone has been thanking me because it got the kids out of the house. It’s definitely enjoyable to hear all the compliments from parents and grandparents,” he says. “People also told me they had never visited the lake area until they heard about the bowling lane.”

Llewellyn’s newfound passion for snow bowling inspired him to contact local schools to see if they’d be interested in trying out the sport for their outdoor gym classes.

“I reached out to a couple schools to give snow bowling lanes a test run,” he says. “(The lanes) are set up outside on packed snow on the school grounds with five pins and real balls. That’s what they’re doing for their gym class.”

Llewellyn plans to make ice bowling a yearly activity in his community. There’s no question the demand is there.

“It’ll get bigger and better. People are even asking me for score cards out there,” he says. “I’ve had people contact me and ask me where it is — I’ve probably received more than 50 messages. I’ve had people commenting on social media posts asking me if it’s free and if the lane has hours.”

With restrictions on so many of our previous activities, it’s not surprising that many of us are looking for new ways to fill our time. And while some of us have pivoted during the pandemic, others are taking up new hobbies or re-engaging in activities they haven’t tried in a long time.

For more than 20 years, Aaron Cohen has played competitive ultimate Frisbee in Winnipeg. He has been to multiple national championships, both as a junior and an adult, and was supposed to compete at indoor nationals in Montreal last April.

“Well, that didn’t happen,” he says.

The sport is a big part of Cohen’s life. But he stopped playing ultimate last February, just before the first lockdown. And even though the league started again in the summer with modified rules, Cohen chose not to play.

“I didn’t feel that playing ultimate was safe. You’re running around with 13 other people, plus the people on the sidelines,” he says. “You’re throwing a piece of plastic that everybody touches and is sweating and breathing on. It’s almost worse than going to the gym.”

Cohen shifted his time to another disc sport — disc golf. He had tried the sport recreationally in the past but it was otherwise new to him.

Disc golf is similar to traditional golf; however, instead of a ball and clubs, players use a flying disc.

It became a way for Cohen to stay active and see friends in a safe manner.

“Everything happened outside following guidelines,” Cohen says. “Disc Golf Manitoba even had return-to-play guidelines that we followed. I could go on and on about the new community I’ve become a part of.”

Throughout last spring, summer and fall, Cohen played on his own or as a foursome with friends outside at public parks. There are three disc golf courses in the city — Happyland Park, La Barriere Park and Kilcona Park.

“(Disc golf) was a great way to get outside, safely see my friends and be competitive at the same time,” he says. “As we got better at it, we all started competing with each other.”

Over the course of several months, Cohen managed to play more than 100 rounds, according to the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) tracking app, competed in a weekly league and participated in two tournaments — winning one in the recreational division.

As an athlete, Cohen says pivoting to a new sport during the pandemic has helped him keep his edge.

“I’m a competitive person and because of my experience with ultimate, I had a step up on the game,” he says. “There’s a strategy on how to approach it.”

Cohen keeps his disc bag in his trunk and plays whenever he has extra time on his hands — even on his lunch break.

“I’ve played a ton of solo rounds. I put my headphones in, listen to music or a podcast and play a round,” he says.

And even though getting outside to play is a little tougher in the winter, Cohen continues to improve his game.

“My fiancée’s family got me a collapsible disc golf basket that I set up in the basement,” he says. “Even though I can’t do any long throws with it I can still play in the basement.”

Finding disc golf has allowed Cohen to improve his game and keep motivated. Through the PDGA tracking app, he’s able to see his metrics since last spring: 102 rounds, 1,756 holes, he threw the disc 139 kilometres and walked 485,871 steps — that’s equivalent to 371 kilometres, or nearly nine marathons.

Hobbies and self-care are crucial right now and many of us are getting more creative in how we (safely) spend our time. We’ve tried new activities, picked up new skills and even brushed up on old ones.

For Llewellyn, building an ice bowling lane was about more than giving his inactive pins a new chance to get knocked down. His newfound outdoor passion ended up being a breath of fresh air. And although his bowling alley remains closed, the unexpected popularity of his newest hobby has given him a sense of purpose and reignited his love of the game.

“I walk around that path every day and I give the lanes a little sweep and clean them up,” he says. “When I walk by and see people playing on them, it puts a smile on my face. It’s pretty cool that people want to play. It’s more of a mental relief that people still love bowling.”

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@SabrinaCsays