And on a lighter note

Having been thoroughly chastised (not without some justification) for editorializing about Ocean Racing on the first forum thread that I had ever actually initiated. I'd like to move on and demonstrate that I am capable of less vehement banter and refrain from talking about something that is designed to get under people's skin. Just thought the forum had been a ghost town lately and knew a great many people would be checking in post-Molokai and thought a contentious post might liven things up a bit!

Namely a benign and open-ended question I have alluded to previously but that I'm genuinely curious to hear folks responses!

ASIDE FROM SURFSKI PADDLING, WHAT OTHER HOBBIES OR AVOCATIONS DO YOU FORUM MEMBERS PARTAKE IN? (aside from taking umbrage w/my outlandish forum posts! LOL)

This could be anything from photography to amateur porn! There is no right answer. What else do you all do with whatever free time not spent in the ski?

I'll go first just for shits and giggles!
When not paddling or doing yard work I generally find myself doing one of the following:

-Jazz Ukulele....playing in the vein of Django's swing guitar
-Kite Buggy racing (which is obviously wind dependent so this sometimes poses a conflict of interest vs. ski)
-Men's Roller Derby (seems to be fairly popular in Aus also at the moment)
-Generally being a bellicose and cantankerous bastard and using big words for no particular reason
-Drinking Beer

Seriously welcoming your responses, want to see what else makes you guys (and gals) tick.

Fully retired, fit and healthy at 69, and enjoying the very best life has to offer, i.e. a lovely wife for 38 years, four very successful daughters and sons-in-law and seven grandchildren, with a couple more down the road all living very close by. Half the time on Maui and the other half on Horsehead Bay, WA, USA. This is as good as it gets boys and girls. I hope you're all as fortunate as I am as you proceed through your lives.
Other than that my main addiction, challenge and interest is to learn to stay on a tippy surfski at home so I can stay on a less tippy one on Maui. Throw in a little skiing and snowboarding at Whistler and some kiteboarding and an hour in the gym every day when on Maui. Coffee every morning with my wife and a glass of wine with a piece of fish on the barbee to round out the day.

Reached the age of 53 one week ago. I sold my 2 year old V8 in performance layup in anticipation of a new V8 in Ultra construction. I have no intention of parting ways with my V12 in Ultra. I stay in the river and waterway with the V12. The new V8 will be for ocean and winter paddling.

I paddle 3 times a week year round regardless of conditions. The other days are spent mountain unicycling. Strange sport, but it is incredibly challenging and rewarding and requires a great deal of concentration. I manicure the yard in the summer months. I Hate yard work.

I cannot imagine a life without paddling and unicycling: too much fun.

Just getting into surfskis after years of not paddling at all. I had about 15 years of avid whitewater paddling all over the western US and thousands of kilometers of sea kayaking in remote locations. After a series of injuries I stopped paddling and starters sailing for my water fix.

A bit less than a year ago I decided to do all those things the doc told me to do years ago to deal with my rotates cuff issues. Low and behold, if you follow doctors orders and do all the physical therapy prescribed you can get better!..... Who knew?!?

So I picked up a Stellar SR and started paddling again. 4 months into my new found Surfski fun I hurt my back badly. So I shelved the Surfski for 4 months and am now pack to paddling. At the moment paddling the ski is the only thing the doesn't hurt my back. I'm trying to get in 5-6 days a week in my ski. So with a full year for me to train hard, I have plenty of time until next years Molokai and my moment of glory (look out Clint!).... Just as long as someone can help me carry my ski to the starting line.

As for other things I did or do.

I'm an ex marine carpenter/ commercial fisherman/ social worker/ rafting and kayaking guide.
I travel too and explore as much of Mexico as I can get away with, play an instrument called a Jarana (basically a baroque guitar) in a Son Jarocho band, a type of folk music from Veracruz Mexico. Sail and beach cruise in my Drascombe Longboat, Drinking good Oaxacan Mezcal,
I shave with a straight razor, I'm a damn good cook and spend an ridicules amount of time thinking about how i can spend the winters with a touring surfski ( Nordic kayak's Breeze looks appealing) on the Oaxacan coast. Should be some killer downwinders between villages.

Since I live on a houseboat I have to move my ski .5 meters to put it in the water. It's a rough life Speaking of paddling, I think I will go for one now.

Bill in Seattle.

ps: I gave up on playing Gypsy Jazz ... Just too damn hard for my level of practice dedication.
But a friend and want to do a Son Jarocho version of 'Minor Swing'.... If you can do it with a Ukulele, I can do it with a Jarana!.... And Requinto Jarocho and Leona ( for the ensemble).

I just paddle, surf ski mainly but also sea kayaks when I want to get out into conditions that might be life threatening to me in the ski or want to head of for more than a few hours or go exploring distant islands, pretty much paddling consumes me when I'm not working from home (even when I am working to be honest, always looking for interesting threads on Surfski.info to feed my passion).

Any days off the water I'm trying to improve myself for when I'm back on the water with some form of physical activity, cycling, running with the dog, other exercises.

Always been involved with sports of one form or another, always been the same and tend to focus on whatever sport I'm interested at the time to extreme levels, managed to win regional and national championships in some of them. Can't help myself, just my nature.

My other interest is rugby league as a fan, but I don't play.

3 hours on the ski in a fair sized and often windy Southern California lake weekly, or weakly? Winter mountaineering, rock climbing, backpacking, hiking, telemark skiing, and still not sure what I want to be when I grow up. Age 53 now! If it seems challenging and fun I might give it a try. If I like it I will probably get obssesive.

Exercise-wise.....Cyclist, principally. Road, cyclocross and mountain bike, though only the last two competitively. I also run. Quite a lot.

Other stuff....read, drink beer, engage in shenanigans, travel, drink beer, own dogs, drink beer and drink beer.

EDIT: I forgot to add I watch a lot of AFL. Drinking beer.

My submission on what makes the paddling community tick.
I have been paddling surfski for several years, coming from a Hobie 14 catamaran sailing and windsurfing background. Surfski is now my primary sport and in high season I paddle 4 to 6 times a week. This is done mostly in conjunction with the local surfski school and with a core training group. I cross train with spin cycling and gym work to compliment my paddling. I also ride a mountain bike on forest trails as much as possible.
I am fascinated with perfection so will spend hours on technique, trying different feather angles and paddle lengths. I have endurance, but not so much power and balance, so I spend lots of time working out how to attain boat speed.
I author how to sports books, the first of which was on surfski. I have now published three books with two more in the pipeline. I do most of the work from writing to layout, publishing and marketing.

I like to add things like tide race kayaking, golf for leisure, general working out, playing with my dog (Viszla) and happily chasing my good looking woman around the house. (she lets me catch her most of the time)

In my spare time I like to work on my penetration testing against website applications (with permission of course) and give presentations to schools on the safe use of the Internet. My kids are growing too quickly and remind me that I am soon to be 60 yrs old even though I feel 40.

I run, marathons and ultras, ride motorbikes (new Aprilia Tuono V4 arriving next week ), cook and collect and drink wine, play clarinet, attend opera and classical music and cuddle my husband. I started paddling as cross training and to rehabilitate my back, which means I can now ride proper motorcycles again. Running and paddling allow me to eat and drink more without getting fat. Playing clarinet improves my concentration and lung capacity. I sing opera arias and AFL team songs at the business end of long runs, when any distraction helps (it certainly bemuses the opposition). My being in reasonable shape and providing good food and wine and cuddles results in a happy husband, who has bought me the last 2 motorbikes and built the boat shed. I also go to work, which requires stamina which all that training produces, and also generates money, with which I can buy running shoes and skis and concert tickets and clarinet reeds and meal ingredients and wine and take my husband out to lunch, which, having just come back from a training run, I'm just about to do. Cheers!

Hard act to follow Marieski, but some similar pastimes. Rugby union background through Uni and beyond, then Enduros (cross-country motorbike racing) and in the late 70’s started paddling in Avon Descents (two-day downriver race over 135k’s) and the like here in Perth. Supplemented with windsurfing, and scuba diving until my mid forties then triathlon for about ten years until injuries got the better of me (did manage an Ironman in there). Been swimming and cycling predominantly since, and compete in open swimming races and the Rottnest Channel ocean swim (20k’s) in teams, duos and two solos. Currently cycle two or three times a week with a bunch of young mates (mmmm, lung vomit). Like you Marieski love roadbikes and currently ride a ZX9R Kawasaki Ninja. All sounds a bit manic but everything seems to dovetail pretty well and it balances a busy 45 -50 hr week professional life. Like others here I also have a brilliant partner, together 33 years – we’re both busy people but still do heaps together. (How do you get older kids to leave home btw??) Also love classical music, good food and am absolutely on bunchie37’s team – beer, dogs, shenanigans and beer beer beer. Lol, but true. Although I’ve always had some form of paddling watercraft, have been paddling skis for about three or four years now, paddle about twice a week through the year and love my year-old current Stellar SES Excel both on the flat and in the rough. Ahh warm fuzzies so much better than shit-stirring. Good one KC. Like some others here something of an old bastard at 62 but the number absolutely meaningless. Carpe diem. And see below, dare greatly.

Marieski, a very myopic response here, but as a Gen II Tuono owner, and someone who has sampled the V4R, enjoy. That is one awe-inspiring machine.

Yep, should be a heap of fun. And in the middle of the Tassie winter, on a naked bike, I do believe I could get even colder than on my ski. That, together with a seat that's about as hard as fibreglass, means lots of stops for hot chocolate. I plan to enjoy the bits between the stops though.

Used to race RD/RZ 250/350s in the day. Couple of "Nearer my God to Thee" experiences saw me ditch that. Then to sports bikes, then sport tourers and now Harleys (current ride 2010 Road King). Rode an R1 Fazer for a couple of days two weeks ago... eye opener and not much fun for the hips and knees!!!



Marieski... a naked bike in a Tassie Winter? Hope you have good thermals.

Watto... same background ref: Rugby Union. My watersport was surfing. For 40 years until the knees gave up. Took up kayaking and kayak fishing in SOTs, found I preferred paddling to waiting around to catch fish so gravitated to sea kayaks and now skis. Done the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic last year on a Stealth Pro-Fisha 575 fishing ski. Those South Africans design and make some
good stuff. Amazed a lot of people to see a fishing ski in a marathon flat water race. Kept up there with the kayaks, skis disappeared into the distance ergo... the purchase of a Fenn Blue Fin in the carbon lay up and loving it. Oh... 57 year old too. Never too old to paddle I say