American Cornhole League makes Canadian tour stop in Airdrie
The Airdrie Curling Club swapped rocks for bean bags this weekend.
That’s because the American Cornhole League was in town, the first time an ACL event has been held in Western Canada.
For Aaron Giroux, the Alberta conference director for the American Cornhole League, it was a big moment for the sport – and for him.
“I’m ecstatic to see this event come out here,” Giroux said. “To have the opportunity to bring this event to Calgary, my hometown, is a dream come true.”
Cornhole is a lawn game where players or teams take turns tossing bean bags at raised, angled board with a hole in its far end.
The goal is to score the most points by landing a bag on the board or putting one through the hole.
If it sounds like a fun way to wind down from a summer backyard barbeque, you’re on the right path.
Chris Keiper drove all the way to Calgary from North Dakota with a buddy just to check out how Canadians do cornhole.
"We’ve been playing it a long time in the states," he said.
“I’ve probably been playing 10 years, just drinking beers in the backyard with my buddies,” Keiper added. “I’ve been driving all over, Vegas, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado, the northeast, Pennsylvania and I don’t know – it’s a fun sport.
“You dive right into it and it gets competitive and you get addicted."
While there were hundreds of passionate amateurs like Keiper taking part in a variety of events over the weekend, the weekend event was also part of a pro league. There were about two dozen Canadian professionals participating, who competed for a $10,000 purse.
“I was actually the first pro in Canada,” said Connor Weiss. “This is the Canadian pro tour – so it’s kind of like golf. We all tour around like the circus. We all have full-time jobs but this is our tour.”
Giroux said the cornhole tour is returning in October with another event, where the pros will compete for a $25,000 purse.
For more information about the American Cornhole League, go here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.