COVID has pretty much put the brakes on the local curling scene.

With arena's sitting empty, Mike Libbus who makes the ice in Black Diamond and High River and manages the Okotoks Curling Club says at least two of those rinks are shutting down early this year.

"I know Black Diamond has decided to cancel the remainder of their season, just to try to save some expenses, just to be prepared for next year, so they can go into next year a lot stronger financially. And High River has the potential of maybe doing their new floor done sooner with everything going on. So, you might see them pull the cord here and maybe be done for this year as well."

He says they're hanging on in Okotoks in hopes the restrictions will be loosened enough to allow for some curling before the end of the season.

"It's a different situation in Okotoks, we're hoping curling gets back. We haven't decided on a drop dead date, but we will hopefully at our next board meeting, figure out what a drop dead date is."

Libbus says he's still slightly optimistic for some curling this year.

"We're hoping to provide some kind of curling for our members. And if those other clubs decide to cancel it, maybe we can help their members out as well to come out and get some curling in. You know if we can finish off with a couple of months of curling, I suspect we might try."

Libbus says it's too bad because they had larger numbers of curlers signed up to play this year than they've had in the past few years.