what is the Funnest Hobby You've Gotten Into?

Competition shooting is my one true love, but it's been a long time. Had some friends out in CA that I used to do tournaments with, and shooting combat ranges or plates is epic fun.

Like Matt, fighting is another big hobby. Between Shorin Ryu, Muay Thai, Shotokan, and Judo I've been playing around with martial arts since I was a kid. Lots of fun sparring.

The last love I had was working on bikes. I liked to ride them and I made my requisite Sturgis trip, which was a week of whiskey that I hardly remember (Karaoke night's about it) but I really liked working on them. I took a Suzuki Savage one-lunger and made it into a fucking rocket. It was awesome. But, I had a friend that did a Repoman, but he tossed his wife (my friend) off the back; she hit a fire hydrant and was killed instantly. So, I sold my bikes and I'm done with that shit. Maybe I'll restore a 68 Camaro instead.

Boardgaming is a great hobby; I've met more great folks doing this than just about anything else. Great people, who are more normal than the addled dope fiends I used to chill with. Not as exciting, but I've had 3 lifetimes of that shit and I'm 36...got more important things to do than skydive, ride bikes too fast, and get spun these days.

Hockey. I love hockey. I hope I can keep playing until I'm in the ground.

Love the anticipation and chatter while getting ready in the dressing room, the first steps out onto the rink (or pond), the feeling of speed as you are flying down the ice with the puck, the flow of the game, everything about it.

Also, beer never tastes better than it does in the dressing room after a game.

Wow. I have so many hobbies and interests it's hard to think of what has been the best.

Aikido is near the top, especially since I started teaching at my dojo. There's a sense of accomplishment from getting to shodan and beginning to have a deeper understanding of just how techniques work because you have to break them down for other people. I'm often at the dojo six days out of the week.

When I was a tourney Magic player, I was completely enthralled. The constant competition, the intense mental effort it often took, hanging out with people that were on the same wavelength; all those things made me love it then and still really miss it now.

Like San, I was into acting for a while, too; mostly Shakespeare, which I still love. There's an esprit de corps that comes with putting a show together and pulling it off that I haven't found anywhere else (although some political work has been close.)

I really enjoy the gaming I do now, but my group is so fragmented and inconsistent that it's lost a lot of its shine. I think back to playing Magic tourneys or when I had a committed RPG group or when we were playing Warhammer 3 or 4 days a week and all of those times seem to outshine the regular boardgaming that we do now.

MattLoter wrote: I guess I'm into classic scooters. For about 7 years I didn't own a car and just rode one of the Vespas around. Rain, snow, whatever. Kinda sucked when it was really bad out in the winter. Dunno if it's really a hobby though?

I've always loved the sleek look of the vintage Vespa's, a buddy of mine is a die hard Lambretta fanboy. His wedding cake was designed after his Two tone TS1 230cc Streetracer.

I love boardgames, but I think the hobby that has delivered the most fun for me over the years is RPGs. I play more boardgames than RPGs because I don't have to GM, and you can pack more variety of experience into a 4-5 hour game night, but nothing compares to the improvised, dice-abetted pleasures of a good RPG campaign with the right folks. Right now I'm running a Pathfinder campaign for the first time, with players who are mostly newbies, and we are having a blast. And last week I broke out Fiasco with my regular game group, which was great fun.

Besides boardgaming, disc golf. I was introduced to it by an old gaming group a few years ago. I actually got a box full of discs when one of the members was moving.

There's a great park about a 5 minute drive away that has a pretty good course.