What else do you do?

[gcbryan]

I thought that maybe it would be interesting to see what others do in addition to diving. I think this would be a subject permitted in this forum. I had a good weekend in a non diving environment so I'll give this a try!

I got in my first day of rock climbing (other than the climbing gym) for this calendar year on Sunday. It was predicted to be cloudy, rainy and cold in Seattle but better in Vantage. We drove over the pass on the snow covered road and under cloudy skies. Once we got to the other side of the mountains...nothing but sunshine...total sunshine!

It was predicted to be partly sunny, 52 degrees and very windy in Vantage. It was probably 52 degrees, sunny, and windy. However, when we got to the actual climbing site (Sunshine Wall), which faces south and is about 90 feet high, there was no wind due to the wall and the temp was around 70 degrees due to the sun heating the rocks. So we were able to enjoy climbing in shorts and t-shirts!

After leading a few 90 foot high sport routes I was beat although my buddies climbed a couple more as I enjoyed kicking back in the sunshine watching the little lizards out and about and the beautiful desert environment around and below me.

What did you do this weekend or what do you do for fun other than diving?

[Zen Diver]

Well, not exactly fun, but I'm currently in grad school, studying in the Master's of Science (Nursing) program, with a specialty in Education. Takes up mass quantities of time. Not to mention cutting into my dive time

-Valerie

[Seaslave]

Well, besides working a ton. During the winter I am an avid duck hunter. I also enjoy a little snowboarding mostly up at Mt. Baker. During the spring/summer i mostly dive, but I do get in a little salmon fishing and some crabbing. I have to come down to the Seattle/Bellevue area this weekend to pick up my newest trophys from this past hunting season.


Mathue

Northern Pintail Drake

Eurasian Widgeon Drake

[Joshua Smith]

Aside from being married to a beautiful, patient woman, owning a house, having a dog, and working construction 40-50 hours a week, as well as going to the gym trying to whip myself into shape......I dive as much as I can. That's pretty much it! I used to do other stuff, but messing around with dive gear and actually diving takes up what's left of my so called "free time." And I'm perfectly happy this way. I'll have a few weekends this summer doing camping trips that don't have anything to do with diving; and that's always fun. But I'll be thinking about the water the whole time I'm away from it.....

[Burntchef]

YEA BABY!!

[WylerBear]

Well, work takes up a bunch of time for most of the year-60-80 hours a week in not unusual for 9 months of the year. But when not working or diving or playing with the dogs, I like to go birdwatching with my wife. She doesn't dive so it's a great outdoor thing that we can do together. And it's fun.

[Aquanautchuck]

Skiing is my favorite 2nd sport. I have only gone a couple of times this year. Diving took up so much of my time that I sold my racing dirt bike and racing quad. They were one sweat scary rides.

This winter I got back into furniture making. Finished a King Mission Oak bed in January. (Not a screw or nail in it, See the DIY thread for pictures). Started tonight on a Oak Mission living room set with coffee table, end tables, sofa table and footstool.

Then my wife and I do a lot of hiking and biking.

[LCF]

That's what used to occupy my leisure time before I started diving. Now I struggle to find some kind of balance between the two, and get even a tiny bit of my chores done!

[BASSMAN]

No surprise here! Bass Guitar!

My classic rock band plays private parties and sometimes for Alaska Airline's employee events.

I also play my bass at church, on the worship team.

I used to enjoy going on annual snowmobilling trips, up near Leavenworth.

But since learning to dive, I have not done any, snowmobile trips.

A good trade off for me, because 1 weekend of renting a new, snowmobile and staying in a cabin was around $500.00 per person. I would organize the trip for about twelve people to get the cost down to that $500.00.

I have been diving nearly every week and some weekends and it is less than $500.00 per year.

So, If I do a trip, it is to go to Mexico with my lovely wife or a short trip to go dive somewhere like Sitka, Alaska and dive with Diver Dave.

With the rest of my life, I work full time as an aircraft maintenance inspector for Alaska Airlines!

My youngest of three beautiful daughters is 18 and "Should" graduate this year.

So, soon very soon, the wife and I will be free to do more travel, as money allows us to do.

[defied]

Well I used to play tournament paintball. yes... It exists, but I kept pushing my 32 yo body like i was a 16yo, and eventually parts begin to give way. Now I play a more relaxing woodsball, which allows me to get my exercise, but I don't have to move as fast until I'm in an engagement.

I decided to focus more on diving again, as it's a little more educational to my kids as opposed to "Mowing faced on the field."

I also enjoy running up the smoker, and smoking salmon, pork, and beef.

As much as I enjoy doing these other activities, it all revolves around my hectic work schedule, so I have to focus on one hobby, and right now it's diving.

D(B)

[Peter Guy]

I used to ski quite a bit, but no more -- something just had to go.

I'm involved with a couple of Dressage (horse) organizations (local and national) and they take up time -- and, like Lynne, I don't spend enough time with my horse:


As I am now retired, we also travel a fair amount but that may be construed as diving related.

[mz53480]

Used to do this:

MZ USMC.jpg

Now I do this:

MZ lab.jpg

[Norris]

I like to snowboard as often as possible, play my xbox360, and twice a week I practice this...



For work I am a lab engineer at Microsoft.

I am in a original music band that is only weeks away from going to the studio. We play shows about 2-3 times a month. We are currently working on getting our sub-pro recordings upgraded to something a little better.

I spend time with the wife doing house things and considering one weekend day is spent diving, my second weekend day has twice the honey-do list.

[Jenbowes]

What a brilliant idea this thread is, GCBryan! Thank you for starting it! I'm really enjoying reading about everyone else on the board! NEAT!!

For work, I'm a vocational counselor in Olympia. I'm not super fond of the work, but I love the company. We're a worker owned cooperative, which is such a different and fabulous way to work. I'm not just an owner and I'm not just an employee - it's this neat mix of the two! Go Cooperatives!

Physically, I love running, biking, and triathlon sprint events. I'm not fast, or first, but I get there - I haven't been LAST yet, either, but that would be okay, too! Matt keeps hoping that I'll love diving so much, that I'll give up on the running and biking (in other words, stop making him run and bike), but instead, I think we should spend ONE day of the weekend diving, and ONE day of the weekend biking or running. :smt038

I'm also an avid traveler and I try to take one international trip a year. My favorite part about traveling is arriving without a set plan, going where the wind takes me, and hanging out with the locals. I'm going to Honduras in May. My first week will be spent traveling by bus from Tegucigalpa to La Ceiba, although I'm not exactly sure what or where I'll go in between, but I'm going to practice my Spanish. I will then meet up with Matt in Roatan, where we'll dive for a week. It should be two polar opposite experiences! :roll:

And finally, I really love spending time with my friends. They make the bad times bearable (or is that bare-able?) and the good times exceptional!

(I now feel like I should add something like "and I love long walks on the beach and quiet nights at home around the fire" - Sheesh! Schmaltzy, Jenbowes!)

[spatman]

Aside from being married to a beautiful, patient woman, owning a house, having a dog, and working construction 40-50 hours a week, as well as going to the gym trying to whip myself into shape......I dive as much as I can. That's pretty much it! I used to do other stuff, but messing around with dive gear and actually diving takes up what's left of my so called "free time." And I'm perfectly happy this way. I'll have a few weekends this summer doing camping trips that don't have anything to do with diving; and that's always fun. But I'll be thinking about the water the whole time I'm away from it.....

ditto this, except i am married to a different beautiful patient woman, own a different house, care for a different dog, work as a web developer, and don't go camping.

i also enjoy cooking and occasionally try to teach myself new things. this spring i will attempt to make my own mozzarella.

[boydski]

what do you do for fun other than diving?

You mean that you can have fun without diving?


Let's see, if I'm not diving, I'm usually:

Researching and finding new wrecks to dive, and then writing about them:



or,

Driving the boat so that others can enjoy diving:



or,

Teaching USCG Captain's classes (Master Licensing):



I've also been known to take a few pictures (and publish them from time to time):



Of course that's all only possible when work doesn't get in the way. Too bad the fun doesn't pay the bills...

[camerone]

I just don't like being on the land (or the sea, for that matter.) I really prefer to be up in the air or under the water, so most of my non-diving hobby time is spent on aviation and flying related activities. I used to skydive an awful lot (USPA "D" rating...) but not so much any more. I definitely try to fly at least a couple times a month.

For the last couple of years, it's been exclusively in the Robinson helicopter, but I've been known to climb into an airplane now and again - I hold a commercial pilot's license in single engine land and sea, and multi-engine land in addition to having a helicopter rating. Some years back, I shared a plane, but I found it cheaper to just rent one when I needed it and the money went towards dive goodies!

Attached is a shot of me six or so years ago when I took my commercial mutli checkride...

[Dmitchell]

We'll lets see,

Diving is pretty much my life. If I'm not diving for fun, I'm running the shop or teaching.

Besides that, I work in Procurement for the State of Alaska.

Other hobbies:
- DSLR Photography - I suck at it but I'm learning.
- Boating with my family, our boat isn't huge but we can cram ourselves into it and camp on it and there are so many places to explore around here.
- Fishing with my 2 boys, they live to fish! My 12 y/o has developed more fishing ideas than most Charter boat captains.
- Snowshoeing - we don't get out often enough but we do enjoy it.
- Hiking - My wife loves to hike and my sons are getting that way.
- Hockey Dad - Apparently , my 7 y/o is trading cub scouts for hockey next year!

Pretty much, if I'm not diving, I'm with my family!

This resulted in a 100lb Halibut!


Little hike from the house:


Camping trip:


Fun with the camera:

[Marc]

Mainly Climb- this years goal is to climb Rainier, Hood, Baker and Shuksan in one season.

Hike with the wife.

Train my German Shepard.

Ride and tweak motorcycle

Every once and a while I get to play my Ibanez....

[Burntchef]

Mainly Climb- this years goal is to climb Rainier, Hood, Baker and Shuksan in one season.

you should ad adams to that list unless you allready did it. not very technical but fun and its a amazing ride down! my buddy amd i used to climb and board down adams and helens in the summer.

[Marc]

I want to do that one. I also want to climb Glacier peak again.

Which leads me to another hobby, I want to learn how to snow board.

Mainly Climb- this years goal is to climb Rainier, Hood, Baker and Shuksan in one season.

you should ad adams to that list unless you allready did it. not very technical but fun and its a amazing ride down! my buddy amd i used to climb and board down adams and helens in the summer.

[jackieg]

While I would prefer to dive daily, I discovered one needed income. Hm.. so I work half time for a local school district as an ELL instructional coach (trainor) and spend lots of hours (and most of the income I earn) working on the boat that I live on. I also run a consulting business for ELL programs and instruction. Which means I really am having to "fit" dive time into my schedule....but shouldn't that be the other way around! Fitting work into dive time??

[Pez7378]

Before I started diving, I did a few things.

Winter time I snowboarded and snowshoed. We used to do annual trips to Big White in Kelowna BC. Those were fun trips. I went to Big Sky Montana a couple times and Bridger Bowl. I've been riding since '84 and now that everyone else is doing it, I kinda lost interest. Stevens was my gig, and I grew tired of it.

Spring through Fall, I hiked and did some geocaching. I always wanted to get into climbing but never did.

One year we did a hike along the PCT from Manning Provincial Park in BC to the Suiattle river up near Darrington. It took us about ten days start to finish. I've been meaning to go back and complete the PCT through Washington to Oregon. We met a lot of folks on the trail that were through hiking from Mex to Can.

One day we were about 3 days south of rainy pass, and we encountered a guy named Robert. Robert was a homeless guy who was moving from Spokane to Seattle. He was carrying with him, a very large backpack, two huge samsonite suitcases, a big green seabag stuffed to the max and a very large footlocker. He hitched a ride from Spokane to Rainy pass and hit the trail about three months before we did. Interesting character.

Now that I'm diving, I don't do that stuff so much anymore..........

[airsix]

I used to rotate through hobbies in a cycle. I'd do one thing until it got boring then hang it up and do the next for a while. Then I went diving in Puget Sound. I'd been diving freshwater prior to that, and it was always "just one of the hobbies." but after a dip in Puget Sound and the San Juans it became "THE" hobby.

Trade: Certified Financial Planner, Investment manager.
Active Hobby: PNW Diving

Semi-active Hobbies:
building custom pocketknives from scratch. I finish 2-3 per year.

Dormant Hobbies:
falconry, aviation, target shooting, fly fishing, skiing, time-trial/autocross (auto racing)

[dwashbur]

Wow, lots of musicians. Include me in that lot; my primary instrument is keyboard, though I don't bring one with me on these travels. I do have my guitar with me though, a Washburn (of course!) electric. I do some lead as well as rhythm, and in my younger days I wanted to be Eric Clapton (minus the drug addiction and kid falling out a 42nd story window and all that). These days I play for fun and to keep my fingers in shape.

While we were stuck on land in Maryland I really got into the Xbox 360; my favorites are the Rainbow Six Vegas games and most anything Halo. Beyond that I like walking, especially with my black lab at my side. I read a lot as well, and enjoy crossword and similar word-based puzzles. Aside from those things, my life is

Dive
Eat
Sleep
Dive
Eat
Sleep

Not necessarily in that order.