What do Octaners do for kicks? [Archive]

cian

08-09-2007, 11:15 PM

Not counting cars!!

For me it's music and photography. I've been dabbling at it for years but never seriously. Bought an Olympus OM10 about 15 years ago and just as I was starting to understand the whole F stop and aperture thing it broke and wasn't worth repairing. I didn't replace it as I was more into music and kept buying LP's with the camera money. Then 3 years ago I bought a 35mm Canon EOS 1000F. Two months later I got a present of a digital camera and that ruined my appetite for the 35mm. Pity really but I'm going to buy a Canon 350/400d soon and make a real go of it this time. Every time I see a great picture here I think, 'I could do that if I put my mind to it'.

What's you other outlet bar cars?

Funky

08-09-2007, 11:19 PM

I'm addicted to loads of car forums not just octane. I also love taking photos but i really should sit down and start reading up on things. i don't think i ever read a full book on it and i have bought tons ;) That and i looove jet biking but with the weather in ireland i just haven't got a chance. I like extreme sports and when i went travelling i loooved bungee jumping and wish they had some nice locations to do it in ireland :] Canyon swinging (http://www.canyonswing.co.nz/jumpstyles.php) was the best thing i have ever done though .....

http://file023b.bebo.com/0/large/2006/11/14/17/18221570a2550355107b337947694l.jpg

Up-The-Dubs

08-09-2007, 11:32 PM

mountainbiking.

Hurling down a mountain within an inch of life (and sometimed less so as my old helmet would prove) get me going something. Even the 2 hour slog up gives a huge sense of achievement.

Only annoying thing is that the bike strapped to the roof is more expensive than the car it's strapped to!

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y280/up-the-dubs/side2small.jpg

Frequency Modulated

08-09-2007, 11:35 PM

At the moment, golf is my main hobby. Getting at least one round in every week along with some practice at the range. Good for chilling out.

Have a growing interest in photography and a sadly fading interest in DJing. Still do something at least once a month though for fun.

Thats it for now. I do want to add more cycling and start swimming again soon.

WKD RWD

08-09-2007, 11:49 PM

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f381/WKDRWD/thFuturamaJuggs.gif

Alfaguy

09-09-2007, 12:07 AM

Animals (mainly my dogs) are my main interest outside cars. Its great to go off rambling with the dogs in the evening.

I used to be a bit of a keep fit fanatic but have stopped in the last few years - might try and get back into it again soon. :]

eob

09-09-2007, 12:12 AM

Trying to learn to surf but not very good at it just yet. I like extreme things. Anything with a bit of danger, but with surfing, I think I've even bitten off more than I can chew. I got caught in a rip-current once and had some issues making it back to shore so it's taking serious nerves to get back up on that horse. I even bought a surfboard that matches the paintscheme on the GTi perfectly and an ex girlfriend bought me a lovely wetsuit.

Also love canoes but haven't had much fun in one for awhile. Waiting for the winter swells to get going in earnest, then I'll seriously play :)

sjbrophy

09-09-2007, 02:22 AM

I'm a soccer goalkeeper :hat: I also need some 5-a-side in dublin if anyone plays?

I like to travel, and I go to the occasional play or gig.

K10

09-09-2007, 04:35 AM

Was always mad for running and then took up triathlons - fond that all the training is too hard on your own though and training with others for something like that rarely works.

Going to get a few windsurfing lessons and try that out - really close to the water where I work and live, pissed off with surfing because of requirement for beaches (far away) and waves (never there when I am), so will try windsurfing.

Anyone any tips - living in cork, near harbour, so lots of places to go.

STAPLES [[[

09-09-2007, 10:47 AM

a bit like everyone else, i like my sports with a wee edge to them. began water skiing bout 4 years ago and then took up wakeboarding- much better craic. with weather the way it was did little of it this summer but hopefully get a chance later on today. also love soccer and karting

http://www.ripnsix.com/data/WebsitepagesImages/wakeboarding-into-the-sunset.jpg

STAPLES [[[

09-09-2007, 10:47 AM

http://www.ripnsix.com/data/WebsitepagesImages/wakeboarding-into-the-sunset.jpg

Funky

09-09-2007, 05:15 PM

Did you get out today 99? I got out on the bike today for only the second time this year. Due to weather and being away quite a bit this summer :( Probably the last time too as i'll be away again alot now! Now i really regret not being out more! Just occured to me how the bike i use is probably the most extreme, small and agile one apart from stand up jet ski's. It virtually imposible to get 2 people on this one! I never just fly over and back like most jet skis i am always with in the air or fallen off into the water! That's the part i love ;) I love it way more then the bigger ones with big engines .... funny i'm the exact same with the lotus :'D This is te one i use, unfortunatly it's not painted like this one which is just the coolest after spray job ever!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/52/256184425_5c05d4c7ea.jpg?v=0

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/89/256188895_417e431a42.jpg?v=0

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/115/256184427_f08bb1a8f0.jpg?v=0

bloke

09-09-2007, 05:57 PM

Basically, evenings and weekends I like to dress up in tight fitting leather 'n lycra and go as fast as possible. Lately I'm leaning toward the self propelled 2 wheel action, which means I can actually fit into the lycra for a change :'D

Funky

09-09-2007, 06:08 PM

bloke

09-09-2007, 06:13 PM

Deadly, i always wanted to try motorbiking but i would probably get obsessed and i'm trying to stay away considering quite how dangerous it is ;) One of my old college lecturers had crashed a crazy number of times and the last crash really fecked him up badly. I think he's stopped now he's lucky he got away still walking from the sound of things :(

It's good craic alright, a hell of a lot more dangerous on the road of course. And when you think about it, cycling is probably more dangerous again:shocked: . Still at least if you fall off my bikes you can't drown :D

I haven't actually done any track days this year. I was trying to sneak a california superbike school day in on my honeymoon, but herself was having none of it. :|

STAPLES [[[

09-09-2007, 08:02 PM

no it was 2 late this evening, usually go with a few friends 2-3 times a week in nice weather. jet skis are class alright. was working beside a a jet ski retal place in the states 2 summers ago. 2 of the collided and yer man lost his leg. stupid yanks.

3ps

09-09-2007, 08:29 PM

camper van, although I haven't been out enough in it
working in the garden, I'm assigned the "move 60 tonnes of topsoil by wheelbarrow" type jobs rather than actual planting etc
kids

eob

09-09-2007, 08:32 PM

Funky

09-09-2007, 09:15 PM

In my opinion you'd want to be pretty stupid to crash on a jet ski. And eob i really really think that was one of those urban legends stories! I landed backwards with the bike on top of me today, it is only water afterall! :P

Hag

09-09-2007, 09:59 PM

I do Scuba Diving

I love it, it's not a sport you can do on your own, but when you're down ther, 60-70 feet, and you're in a current, you can conserve air and stay down for ages, and not exert yourself, it's actually really peaceful, floating there. Would love to sort out an Octane day's Diving, must look into it...

bp_me

09-09-2007, 11:08 PM

I take photos...but havent been happy with anything I have taken for about 6 months so rapidly getting pissed off at that.

I drive....also loosing its appeal beacuse of the type of driving I mainly do these days :(

When both of those totally loose their appeal Im really fcuked.

10-09-2007, 08:26 AM

I should say Guitar & Photography but I've hardly done either in the last 12 months :(

Most of my free time is spent doing DIY (inc. building a garage)

My main interest is Karate which I do with a club in Fairview in Dublin (see sig.)

vdubbin

10-09-2007, 08:47 AM

I've a few RC cars I tinker about with, a Land rover Rock crawler, a couple of E30 M3 drifters, and a few VW themed projects. I'm also spending an inordinate amount of time playing Forza Motorsports 2 on the xbox.

Bren

10-09-2007, 12:06 PM

I started flying Gliders when I was 14, used to spend my weekends and summers on the airfield. Unfortunately it's a sport which you need to dedicate alot of time to which is why I haven't flown in a few years. As soon as I can find the time to return, I'll be back!

http://www.aerokurier.rotor.com/akBilder/AKSFLUGZ/discus2.JPG

Should anyone feel like giving it a go, www.dublinglidingclub.ie

I also surf, badly, on occasion. Again, creating the time to head west for a weekend is the main problem.

atomicdeathmonkey

10-09-2007, 12:10 PM

i do a bit of shooting - clays mainly - although i'm crap in comparison to most of the muckers - haven'tbeen out all summer -opther than that a few mates and i go rafting the odd time - every 3-6 months outside zagreb in croatia - been four times now and its still fun - we all smoke are all overweight and no-one has died yet so happy days - its seriously cheap too - we normally get flights for 10-150 return, accomodation (camping) food and equipment and guide for 3 nights for 800 euros between six of us and whatever for drink after - in reality your sleeping on the shores of the rivers so no pubs about - its a bit of craic for 300-400 euros a head which is grand - better than a fecking city break anyways!

apart form that its work and or cars

CharlieIRL

10-09-2007, 12:35 PM

motorbikes (both road & off road) / rallying / photography / my kids!!

Up-The-Dubs

12-09-2007, 01:06 AM

I was put off jet-skis by the fact that I was told by a guy that if you land backwards off one the force of the water can rip your wetsuit, shoot up your backside, and explode your colon.

In my opinion you'd want to be pretty stupid to crash on a jet ski. And eob i really really think that was one of those urban legends stories! I landed backwards with the bike on top of me today, it is only water afterall! :P

Don't mean to be a killjoy, but a very good friend was airambulanced back to Ireland after a fall off a jetski in the carribean (sp?). In his late 50's, spent 8 weeks in hospital with spinal injuries. ok now but has to swim at least 4 times a week to keep his back mobile.

Water is harder than concrete if you hit it the wrong way, and there's a few very experienced sailors in the family to vouch for it. Have fun by all means, but please, be safe in the water.

Quick

12-09-2007, 10:33 AM

Mountain biking, DH or XC :D

saobh_ie

12-09-2007, 03:07 PM

Things I'm obsessed with doing:
Motorbikes, mostly on and a little off road.
Kayaking, whitewater, surf and sea.
Running, around the block, try to do as many 10k races as I can get too.

Things that need more work:
Surfing, I'm rubbish, must try harder.
Cycling, need to get a bike. Never going to do a triathalon next year if I don't.
Swimming, I'm afraid of jelly fish so need for the water to get colder.
Hillwalking, just need to get out more.
Wilderness First Aid, I've done a Rec 2 Emergency Level course and an OFA but need practise.
Motorcycle Maintenance, and car I guess. I've done a course but I need to stop being afraid of breaking stuff.

Things I need to do:
Climbing, incl abseliing, useful skills to have in support of kayaking and hillwalking.

Things I'd like to do:
Paragliding. Just looks hella cool.
Diving. Just the once. It's like seriously dangerous.
Skydiving. You just have to.
Rafting. Don't know why.
Archery. I think its a pretty cool way to shoot stuff.
Stamp collecting. Not really.

Speedy

12-09-2007, 08:10 PM

My life is boring compared to the rest of you, It revolves around cars, motorsport mainly. Only hobbies I have are going to motorsport events, collecting model cars and photographing cars.

Would love to try out canoeing or windsurfing but there's too many motorsport events in my diary to fit anything else in

ds20prefecture

12-09-2007, 10:08 PM

http://www.aerokurier.rotor.com/akBilder/AKSFLUGZ/discus2.JPG

Man I'd love to do that. My mrs & I were going to go in Maine a couple of years ago but I was too fat...:(

Hag

12-09-2007, 10:27 PM

Things I'd like to do:
Diving. Just the once. It's like seriously dangerous.

Diving isn't as dangerous as it's cracked up to be. If you go for a dive just once, you'll be disappointed, because you wont go deeper than 10-15 feet. You can (assuming you know how and you'd be trained to anyway) ascend from 20 metres on a single breath if anything went wrong, and on a first dive you'd probably not get that deep. Worst thing you can do when diving is panic. Nothing should go wrong(famous last words!), you should watch your gauges, air, depth, time, every minute or two, once you get into the routine of doing that you'll be fine, because you'll notice something going wrong very quickly, and if something goes catastrophically wrong, you can make it to the surface. The best dive I've had has been in Italy, off the coast of Sorrento this year, a bit of a drift and a cave-dive. Not your cramped dangerous have to take off your gear to get through cave-dive, a nice wide open cave, plenty of light and the sea life! I had never until that dive seen a fish upside-down, or lobsters upside-down, I actually spent most of that dive on my back, neutrally buoyant and blissed out, watching fish get all territorial and aggressive towards me as I floated slowly beneath them, I actually laughed out loud at them.

Wreck diving is good too if you know where to find decent wrecks. I've missed out on some good ones, the most recent was the Kowloon Bridge last weekend, couldn't stay out of the Elise:rolleyes::'D

natnif

12-09-2007, 10:31 PM

Diving isn't as dangerous as it's cracked up to be. If you go for a dive just once, you'll be disappointed, because you wont go deeper than 10-15 feet. You can (assuming you know how and you'd be trained to anyway) ascend from 20 metres on a single breath if anything went wrong, and on a first dive you'd probably not get that deep. Worst thing you can do when diving is panic. Nothing should go wrong(famous last words!), you should watch your gauges, air, depth, time, every minute or two, once you get into the routine of doing that you'll be fine, because you'll notice something going wrong very quickly, and if something goes catastrophically wrong, you can make it to the surface. The best dive I've had has been in Italy, off the coast of Sorrento this year, a bit of a drift and a cave-dive. Not your cramped dangerous have to take off your gear to get through cave-dive, a nice wide open cave, plenty of light and the sea life! I had never until that dive seen a fish upside-down, or lobsters upside-down, I actually spent most of that dive on my back, neutrally buoyant and blissed out, watching fish get all territorial and aggressive towards me as I floated slowly beneath them, I actually laughed out loud at them.

Wreck diving is good too if you know where to find decent wrecks. I've missed out on some good ones, the most recent was the Kowloon Bridge last weekend, couldn't stay out of the Elise:rolleyes::'D

I've been diving a few times and it was great! I would love to get into it a bit more but it's so expensive, I'm hoping in about a year to go back to thailand and do some courses over there. did my first dive over there and did two on the great barrier reef in Oz....which was pretty damn cool!

Hag

12-09-2007, 11:00 PM

I've been diving a few times and it was great! I would love to get into it a bit more but it's so expensive, I'm hoping in about a year to go back to thailand and do some courses over there. did my first dive over there and did two on the great barrier reef in Oz....which was pretty damn cool!

I'd love to go dive there, it's expensive here, I did the open water PADI in malta on hols and the Advanced Open Water (PADI again) in Italy this year, I'm also a member of a BSAC club here and am up to ocean diver(first level in their rankings). It's the coolest thing.

There is some great diving in Ireland too;)

Funky

12-09-2007, 11:25 PM

Don't mean to be a killjoy, but a very good friend was airambulanced back to Ireland after a fall off a jetski in the carribean (sp?). In his late 50's, spent 8 weeks in hospital with spinal injuries. ok now but has to swim at least 4 times a week to keep his back mobile.

Water is harder than concrete if you hit it the wrong way, and there's a few very experienced sailors in the family to vouch for it. Have fun by all means, but please, be safe in the water.

I apologise up-the-dubs. The thing about it is renting out jet skis/boats (even mopeds) to people in sunny climates just makes things worwse. I hate doing things like that on holiday because its more dangerous as you have other inexperianced people in the water/roads with you. Then things get really bad unfortunatly. I head off to a spot of water with whoever im out with and throw myself every which way on the bike. Its also important to be relaxed on something. Like if you fall off a bike and your not relaxed theres way more chance of something bad happening. Like anything it is dangerous enough but i guess you fail to see it when you've been at something for 15 years. Sorry to hear about your mate. I apologise if my comments came across as insensitive :(

vdubbin

13-09-2007, 08:53 AM

I had a very close shave in Killaloe on a jetski. I walked away, thank God, but it cost me about £3,000 to repair, and delayed me buying my first car for a year!

Bren

13-09-2007, 10:43 AM

Man I'd love to do that. My mrs & I were going to go in Maine a couple of years ago but I was too fat...:(

Too fat! I doubt it, we've flown 18st guys. The problem is the maximum all up weight (AUW), i.e. the combined weight of the pilot and the passenger. Maybe they didn't have a light enough instructor on the day!?! The Dublin Gliding club aircraft have a max AUW of 28st for the older 2 seaters and probably higher (can't remember off the top of my head) for the newer aircraft. I'm not sure how active the club is at the moment, there are ongoing issues with the landlord, but if you feel like giving it a go the contact details are on the website. Or even if you're out for a Sunday drive sometime call in, talk to folk. The airfield is Gowran Grange, beside Punchestown racecourse, 5km for Naas.

Up-The-Dubs

13-09-2007, 08:18 PM

I apologise up-the-dubs. The thing about it is renting out jet skis/boats (even mopeds) to people in sunny climates just makes things worwse. I hate doing things like that on holiday because its more dangerous as you have other inexperianced people in the water/roads with you. Then things get really bad unfortunatly. I head off to a spot of water with whoever im out with and throw myself every which way on the bike. Its also important to be relaxed on something. Like if you fall off a bike and your not relaxed theres way more chance of something bad happening. Like anything it is dangerous enough but i guess you fail to see it when you've been at something for 15 years. Sorry to hear about your mate. I apologise if my comments came across as insensitive :(

Don't be silly, your comments weren't insensitive at all. Don't know the exact situation but he was probably inexperienced and probably going too fast.

JohnBoy

15-09-2007, 08:16 AM

diy and if i could farming.

I love doing stuff with my hands, making things, and cooking too, although i dont do nearly enough of that

Ireland

16-09-2007, 11:38 AM

This is the first time I've read through this thread properly and it's made me realise how many things I've pushed to one side over the last few years, mainly due to business commitments.

Now I'm off thinking about them again.

Handball ..... haven't played for the best part of 10 years

Racquetball ..... haven't played for about 5 years

Karate ..... haven't been there for about three years

Cycling ..... that's gone from loads 15 years ago to none now (but I do still have a couple of wrecked bikes)

Swimming ..... since they demoilshed the local pool about 5 years ago I haven't been at all

DIY ..... I've done loads of that this year, but on a grand scale

http://i14.tinypic.com/4tozmon.jpg

http://i18.tinypic.com/66xfvb5.jpg

Travelling ..... not much (yet) this year, but over the last few years I've seen quiet a bit of Europe by road.

Other things ..... I've forgotten most of the rest.

It's amazing how life gets in the way of us having a good time, isn't it ????? :shocked:

T.J.

13-11-2007, 11:09 PM

Mountain biking for the last 15+yrs. Was 4th & 5th in IRL as a junior XC rider, then went to college and kinda fizzled out. Started climbing mountains for my 20s, then started back on the bikes in my late 20s again but only for some fun & fitness - no racing.

Still have my old race bike though - a purple Allsop Softride that I restored with a brand new DX groupo, beam & Frankenstem a couple of years ago, but then the frame cracked. I've a Diamond Back Apex rigid mtb that I have slicks on for when I venture onto road, and currently off-road a hardtail Cannondale F600 Team Sobe replica in dayglo yellow/green.

The great thing about mtbing is it's relatively cheap and you get great thrills being on the edge of grip/braking/cornering. It's a good dynamic buzz.

I read a fair bit. I like my tunes, and lament the passing of Henrys & Radio Friendly on a regular basis.

And I'm mad into cars.