Target Shooting – 10M Air Pistol

Used to play Badminton and 5-a side each week but family commitments mean I'm unable to do them all and as I was taking too long recovering from injuries playing football I thought it best finish that first. Shit at golf, hate running, hate going the gym so just riding for me now.

Aracer, do you sleep?

Shall we all list every sport we have ever done?

Well the question was "how many" – I've only listed the ones I've done reasonably seriously – most of those I've competed in at a reasonable level – otherwise I could have added football, rugby, cricket, rounders, waterskiing, wakeboarding etc.

Did BP also steal your SOH, Mat?

Kiteboarding is the sport when it's windy. Biking when it's not.


They compliment eachother very well 😀

slalom skier here aswell

Also do some outdoors stuff

Kiteboarding is the sport when it's windy. Biking when it's not.

Back in the day before kiteboarding was invented that was the case for windsurfing – weren't the founders of Pace quite serious windsurfers?

Kitesurfing's fairly near the top of my list of sports I haven't done but would like to try. Frustrated by the quantity of wind needed for windsurfing, but I suspect there's even more kit faffing with kitesurfing than windsurfing (which is my other main dislike about windsurfing).

No – the founders of Orange (was called Tushingham) were serious windsurfers.

Aracer – you claim to have competed at (or done seriously) a reasonable level in almost 20 different sports? It's possible to compete at roller skiing?!

You are either very old (to have done that much "seriously") or unemployed which is unlikely as many of those sports cost a fair bit of cash to support.

BA – where do you ski? Don't compete but been skiing for years – my wife used to be an instructor. Got a little boat you can ski off which is fun. Great pic BTW!

Seeing as there are a few photos:

Surfing:

Trail Running competitively (red shorts)

An off road triathlon (doing more this year) – so no need for another biking pic…

Night all!

Mat, at Semmerwater mostly (been skiing there for 25 years), I have coaching at Whitworth nr Rochdale, the vid still (not me) is on hols at Loch Ken in 2008 http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoppy66/3403754093/in/photostream

Formation extreme yoghurt weaving

the founders of Orange (was called Tushingham) were serious windsurfers.

Thanks for the clarification, that makes more sense. Lester Noble was the windsurfing guy wasn't he?

you claim to have competed at (or done seriously) a reasonable level in almost 20 different sports?

I'm impressed at you taking sufficient interest to count. Though I did only say I'd competed in most – the downhill snow stuff I've only done for fun like most people who'd say they did them as a sport (I reckon happily going down any black run and trekking in to off piste counts as reasonably serious). I think I've competed in all the rest in some form or other – for some only as part of something bigger, though generally in that case there's been some monetary or serious value kit at stake and I've been near or on the podium. Hence I've taken them all seriously in the sense that I've put in significant training time in an attempt to improve my performance – probably more so than a lot of people do for their mountain biking. Happy to admit to being fairly mediocre in some of those sports, but then to be mediocre at XC skiing for instance takes a lot of time and effort.

It's possible to compete at roller skiing?!

Yep, took part in the British sprint championships last year. I was at one point almost as good as the chap who won, but he's got better (he does teach rollerskiing as a job) and I've got worse.

You are either very old (to have done that much "seriously") or unemployed which is unlikely as many of those sports cost a fair bit of cash to support.

I've been called worse than "old". Fairly average for an STWer I guess – yes I have been there done that. Not particularly rich either, I just like to spend my money supporting my sporting habits – I own a 11 year old car, and could easily more than double its value by putting a kayak or bike on the roof, or chucking a bag of skis in the boot. The thing is, to answer the OP's question, a lot of them do complement each other – obviously a certain level of skill you need to pick up for each sport, but learning a new sport is the fun bit. I did for instance spend a whole season a few years ago doing no running training at all due to injury, but still racing well enough to win things – did lots of roller skiing instead which did a very good job of maintaining the fitness.

An off road triathlon

Ah, now the reason for the antagonism becomes clear. I remember that photo, but had forgotten it was you who won that.

Golf, bmx, running, used to surf loads and used to play sunday league football.

the woman with the buggy is pointing at the man the "man in the red shorts" possibly suggesting he is far too serious in the wrong sports department

Rugby, running, triathlon (which does include running I know), surfing, skiing, touch footy (which used to be rugby but now is something completely different)

I'm not sure if any of these actually help with my biking other than general fitness and stamina and they don't seem to help each other – good at skiing / shit at surfing. If your other sports were motocross and cross country skiing you would be an MTB god!

Aracer – no antagonism, just interested and rather amazed!
BA – very stylish!

no antagonism, just interested and rather amazed

My apologies in that case. The short explanation is that I get bored easily and like learning new stuff. It's actually a lot easier than you might think to build up such a list.

It depends on the time of year and what I'm aiming to do but generally mountain bike for fun, road ride for fitness, running, weights and yoga. Would like to do kickboxing and climbing again, but i can't fit everything in.

PS cynical, running does help with cycling or at least it did with me until i switched the balance to more running than cycling and then it had the opposite effect. 🙂

Very few sports are anything like as sustained for as long as cycling. Most people who are fit in general totally bomb if you take them out on a bike for longer than about an hour 🙂

bit of bmx/snowboarding/weights.

Hill (hopefully later, Mountain) walking. Physio said I need to do some other form of excercise and swimming is so boring.

Another (vet) hockey player here.
The season's over so its all about the bike through until September. It keeps the levels up, but thats about it. I still have to work on split sprinting and what have you to be match fit.

The regular biking keeps the leg strength up for the winter, we dont go to the mountains as much as we used to, but we still get in at least one solid week and a couple of weekends during the season (despite the hockey)on the skis.

Trampolining. Kids got into it. Helped out as a volunteer passed level 1 coaching and now we do adult classes. We make more noise than the kids and its do as i say not as i do 😳

Most people who are fit in general totally bomb if you take them out on a bike for longer than about an hour

As do a lot of mountain bikers if you don't allow them a rest at the top of every climb "so the rest of the group can catch up".

… so I can adjust the flange grommets on the lop-hung doohickey I installed this morning…

Ooh, look at the view.

Are we nearly at the pub?

Etc…

I can't beleive no one has mention "forum whoreing"

Thats not a sport, more a way to live…

My apologies in that case. The short explanation is that I get bored easily and like learning new stuff. It's actually a lot easier than you might think to build up such a list.

I have done quite a few sports on that list, hence the interest. Some to an okayish level but there are still plenty on there I haven't done or even heard of!

Just been for another cracking surf which is good exercise.

Also did martial arts to quite a high level (4th middle weight in England kickboxing) a while back but can't find any good clubs down in Cornwall (was in Bristol) so just beat the hell out a 30kg kick bag a few times a week.

Won a prize for DH skiing aged 12 – TBH I think it was because I was the only Brit in the competition (all the others were French) rather than for posting a good time!

Also used to compete in Surf Life Saving stuff and got quite good at "flags" (2nd in the UK) – a beach sprint event.

Now it's just trail running (usually top 10% finish, once top 2%)and a few planned tris with open water swims, road cycles and trail runs – good results not expected. Got a very brutal 10k (actually nearly 11k) running race at the end of June too – 10th (out of 170) last year but I really did push it hard and was hobbling for two days afterwards.

Also used to compete in Surf Life Saving stuff

Paddle surf skis at all? That's my latest acquisition, which adds a whole new set of paddling skills – I was hoping that a combination of regularly paddling a very tippy boat on flatwater, having done some sea kayaking in reasonably fast boats and lots of whitewater paddling (including some easy stuff in something less stable than my ski) would make it fairly straightforward, but it seems that's not the case. Not like I can't paddle it, just that I'm still not feeling comfortable, hence probably not going as fast as I could.

Did think about listing all the different sorts of kayaking I've done, as there are lots of variations 😉

aracer – lots of rescue board paddling and a fair bit of surf ski stuff – in fact I did a couple of rescues using one (was a beach lifeguard)!

Also lots of rescue boards stuff, sea swims and beach runs.

The rescue boards are very floaty but narrow – does lead to some rather odd "handling" and although they'll catch any wave, they don't really steer very well. Fun on small days and good for distance paddling.

The surf skis just need to be "barged" through everything but I did have some bad wipeouts – I prefer rescue boards for saving, skis for long distances.

Saw a very good (most are cr4p) SUPer (stand up paddleboard) today – amazing skills in decent sized waves. Impressive.

The rescue boards are very floaty but narrow – does lead to some rather odd "handling" and although they'll catch any wave, they don't really steer very well. Fun on small days and good for distance paddling.

One of the lifeguard's was out on one, and the only person other than me catching waves one day – looked good fun.

BTW I'm talking about a sit on "kayak" not a board – a long thin thing designed for going fast over long distances on the sea rather than playing around on waves. Can catch some not so big waves way out and get long runs when nobody else can get on anything, but not a lot you can do when on the wave apart from enjoy going fast in a straight line.

Aracer – I posted all about rescue boards, realised you meant rescue skis, hastily edited but was too late!

Used both but a lot more experienced on a board. They are very quick on the move (the skis) but again I found them pretty unwiedly compared to a more "normal" sea kayak (got two Dagger Blackwater 10.5s for the Fal and Yealm estuaries).

The orange bikes owner is also a very keen sailor. for anyone who knows about sailing, he has a 49er on windermere and apparently sails it exceedingly well.

Does bmx count? If so, that. I was going to sell my bmx as I need the money but it won't sell so I might just keep it and get used to it!

The orange bikes owner is also a very keen sailor. for anyone who knows about sailing, he has a 49er on windermere and apparently sails it exceedingly well.

He was also a very good windsurfer (Lester Noble).

I remember seeing Tushingham MTBs on Hayling Island (my dad was a windsuring fanatic and knows lots of "players" in the industry still) and was utterly gobsmacked at how hi tech they look – even with fluro paints jobs! People were trying crazy stuff with bikes then -roller cam brakes anyone?!

For a little while, Windsurf mag had an MTB section – for some reason the sports were considered to go together very well.

I got into MTBing but never really took to windsurfing – too much kit for me – surfing needed much less clobber!

Surf – MTB – Run in that order!!
(Yes that is me in the photo)

I went windsurfing at Blithfield yesterday evening instead of riding on the Chase with Scruff, Snakebite & co.

9.6m sail was a bit of a handful.

I have a table tennis trophy! 😳

Running, swiming, motocross (and enduro), road (if that counts). You would have thought that spending a lot of time racing motocross and xc would be a dynamite combo for becoming an excellent Downhiller unfortunatly it only serves to stop you riding DH as your money depletes at twice the rate it used to and you decide that £30.00 for 20mins riding isn't quite as good as £30.00 for an hour at a practice track.

Iain

None now, racing road, mtb and cross means no time for anything else.
Two years ago I was running and in a football club.

skiing when it's cold
mtb when it's not

Surf – MTB – Run in that order!!
(Yes that is me in the photo)

How was that session?

Looks like Meatworks in S NZ but probably isn't!