I tried it once through a buddy's work's christmas party. They held it at the local curling club. I don't have any tips for you, except to back you up and say it was a fun time. It's extremely difficult to get the right distance on your shots; the left/right/spin is a lot easier. You can actually get an arm workout doing the sweeping, too. Good times, recommend it to anyone who gets the chance. Plus it's fun to slide around on the ice like you're skateboarding (you get one shoe that's slippery and another that has grip).
They had some interesting trivia. Apparently the stones the Detroit club uses were being shipped to the US during WWII and their ship was sunk somewhere near Britain... close enough for them to salvage the stones, which are incredibly expensive. I guess all of the curling granite comes from a specific quarry in Scotland that's only opened every few years when they have enough orders to justify it. So the Detroit club is still using their WWII era stones, as they apparently last just about forever.
