Because we are more than just hard working dedicated professionals, from time to time in this space you will find a profile of one our Local Lodge 2583 members show casing their special talents, skills and passion for life outside the work place. Do you know a candidate for a future profile?Let us know!
Here we proudly present our first member profile.
John Curtis, the Union Slider
John has been an Aircraft Sheetmetal Technician since he apprenticed with British Aerospace more than 29 years ago. He came to Calgary as a contractor on a short term work permit and enjoyed it so much that he applied to become a Landed Immigrant and, in 2000, he and his wife received their immigration papers. They arrived just after September 11, 2000 and became Citizen’s of Canada in 2006 at an elaborate ceremony at Harry Hayes building in downtown Calgary.
A member of the IAMAW since 2000, John served as Chief Shop Steward for 2 years and is now the Recording Secretary of LL2583 in his second year of term.In the UK he was a member of the AUEWA.
3 years ago, John’s wife bought him a lesson for Christmas on the skeleton track at Canada’s Olympic Park in Calgary, and after his first slide down from the half-way he was hooked.John says he has met a lot of great people at the track including current and former Olympic athletes and many future Olympians as well as those, like him, who just do it for the thrill of going face first down a concrete hard ice track at more than 110 km/h.With all that talent around him there is plenty of friendly professional advice but he says he has problems with only two parts of the track, the left wall and the right one! With a best time of 60.26 seconds at 116 km/h his goal is to break 60.00. He’s not sure when but he knows it’s coming. Craving the perfect run, John confesses he still has along way to go.
When asked what kind of rush he gets going down the track John said “The best rush of the season is my first run, all summer I've been thinking about it and when the time comes, and you're standing at the top waiting for track clearance it's the best feeling in the world!When you know you’ve nailed the top section and middle section is going good, you know your time will be great, crossing the finish-line and seeing your time and it is good, it’s a real buzz. I can only imagine the feeling seeing 59.99 on there!”
Sled and rider weigh 115kg and in corner 9 you can pull more than 4 g's. To train, John does sprints, weight training and pushing in the 'state of the art' ice house at COP. Anyone can try it at a discovery school which happens 4 or 5 times during the winter.
John on the wall at COP
John placed 20th at the 2006/07 Canadian National Championship and you can see him and all the skeleton racers most weekends and evenings at Canada Olympic Park so come out and cheer them on!
When asked what kind of rush he gets going down the track John said 
Sled and rider weigh 115kg and in corner 9 you can pull more than 4 g's.