What are your hobbies? Genuinely trying to find something new for myself.
Right now my free time mostly goes into watching series and checking trades, and I want to add something that actually feels productive or fulfilling instead of just passing time.
Curious what you’re into, and honestly, why you got into it in the first place. Doesn’t need to be impressive or unique, just real.
My free time is divided between audio books, video games, some TV, mostly YouTube, and learning bass guitar.
I try to skateboard once or twice a week in the summer, and snowboard at least twice a month in the winter.
I have a few motorcycles but those are more cheap transportation these days than a hobby.
The skating, snowboarding, and motorcycles are my “Screaming at the gods”. Dangerous activities that require total focus so everything else in life can be forgotten for a while.
Books and the bass are to keep my mind active and learn new things.
Fellow bass player here. Who are the bass players you’re listening to?
I have the world’s most expensive PlayStation controller. For the past five years I’ve pretty much only played Rocksmith 2014, and have a few hundred songs downloaded. I’m about to hit 1000 hours played.
On my fourth bass, a brand new Ibenez fretless, and finally have a setup without all the buzzing and crap of a cheap bass.
I like blues, classic rock, but my brain just seems hardwired for 90s grunge as that was my youth.
Greenday, Offspring, Primus (on easy) are my go to. Really enjoy Me and Bobby Mcgee by Joplin and Moonage daydream by Bowie when I’ve been drinking.
Been thinking about taking lessons at a local store, I really want to learn to read tabs and get things setup to play along with YouTube.
I’d love to be able to play some Pink Floyd, Phish, and Grateful Dead. Other than three Dead songs there’s none of that available.
I live in an apartment so it’s all headphones.
Birding. Gets you outside and is healthy for mind and body. To get started, download the Merlin app (*or whoBIRD on FDroid) and walk outside. If you start getting into it, maybe buy or borrow some cheap binoculars. Meet up with a local Audubon group for a social outing with some generally chill people. And your observations can help gather data for science using eBird from the Cornell lab of ornithology.
Hiking - got into it because I was in the scouts as a kid. I found it boring and exhausting and onerous as a kid, until I went on my first backpacking trip. For me at least, feeling committed to a multiday journey from A to B kind of removed the distractions and what-ifs, and allowed me to really sink into the experience of being outside like nothing else had. Going backpacking is my number one trick for becoming a happier human - exercise, in nature, good circadian rhythm, disconnected from the internet.
Climbing. Got into it because I was looking for friends to go backpacking with in college, and they were into climbing, too. While backpacking can feel very relaxing, climbing feels very in-the-moment. A difficult route will challenge you in any number of ways - physically, as your lungs burn and your forearms start giving out; mentally, as you try to figure out a sequence of moves to make it up while managing the risk of falling; and emotionally, as you work through your fear of falling off and balance your mind between focusing on the task at hand and being open to all possibilities. You develop great friendships, since you tend to get comfortable with someone you are trusting your life with pretty quick. There is always something new to learn, as there are many disciplines from gym to outdoor, rock to ice to aid to mountain, and boulder to sport to trad. And it takes you to amazing places - sure, you can plan a trip to Chamonix or Thailand to go skiing or hang out on the beach. But when you make plans with a climbing partner, you actually buy the plane tickets. You fly in and immediately depart from the normal tourist circuit, getting a much better feel for life for the people in the areas you are travelling in. Then you show up in your destination, and you don’t just look at the beautiful scenary - you are part of it. You don’t just look at the mountain - you are perched on a tiny ledge on the side of it, watching the birds hover next to you while your partner cruxes out on the next pitch above.
Canyoneering. Similar to climbing, but easier to do with lots of friends of various skill levels. While climbing is often a fairly serious endeavor with defined goals, a canyon just has a single general goal that the whole group works on together: get out of the canyon. Thus, canyons tend to be a lot more fun and social, and often involve silly shenanigans like throwing a bag over a wall to have a rope to climb, or standing on a friend’s shoulders while another lets you grab their foot to lower yourself over an edge.
DIY. I dunno, I just intrinsically like the idea of being able to build and fix all my own shit. Sometimes this feels less like a hobby and more like a job, but it is hard to beat the satisfaction of finishing a project that then makes your life better every time you use it.
Canyoneering is on of the best things ever. If anyone reading this is remotely tempted, find a way to try it out safely. It’s a complete blast!
I really wanna do canyoneering but got nobody to do it with
I would try looking for canyoneering groups in your area. I know there are a few active fb groups - the ones in your area might host trips, or you could post asking for friends who want to bring a newbie along.
And no surprise, climbing and hiking share a lot of overlap - so going to hiking meetups or climbing gyms might get you the connections you are looking for.
Often, people are hesitant to bring along a stranger who might not do well in a canyon. But previous experience in climbing, hiking, or caving will improve your odds of getting invited out, since it implies that you already have some of the skills needed to canyoneer successfully, like techical rope skills, endurance and athleticism, a willingness to get a bit dirty and try hard, the movement vocabulary needed to move efficiently, and a comfort with moderate exposure. You could even organize trips with friends to do Class 1 and 2 canyons!
If those arent panning out, there are several annual canyoneering festivals you could check out. Easy to find a crew there!
And if you just wanna jump right in, you could always try to rally some friends to pitch in and hire a canyoneering guide.
Unfortunately, I don’t wanna subject myself to facebook
I mean, unfortunately I don’t wanna subject myself to the Walmart experience either, but I do it anyway because they have cheap groceries.
I get your metaphor but there isn’t really a shortage of cheap groceries where I’m at either
My passion is horses and horseback riding, but it’s dangerous and expensive so I don’t recommend it to folks unless they have money and are into taking risks lol.
I love cross stitching and writing as well.
so the boat isn’t even getting an honorable mention…?
I don’t kayak anymore :(
The only person who would go with my has a back injury that makes it too painful to paddle
Reading. It’s always nice to stumble into a new book while browsing around the store. I generally go for science fiction or fantasy but really just go for what interests you.
Mechanical design and 3D printing. I’m mechanical engineer so it goes well with the hobby. I often end up making simple tools for things needed around the house. Making glow in the dark tooth brush stands that fit neatly in a sink nook, coat hangers, and replacement parts for knobs that break can help save you a little money (if you ignore the obvious cost of the 3D printer and filament).
Building Gundam model kits is also quite entertaining. I’m getting close to finishing all the models I want though so it might be a waning interest.
Archery is one of my latest interests. It can be rather cheap in the long run because every piece of equipment is reusable with proper care. It also overlaps neatly with my 3D printing hobby as I make quivers and vambraces to save a little more cash.
Lastly is video gaming. I go on just about any platform and even pirate but lately I’ve been buying DS/3DS cartridges because there’s something fun about the ritual of inserting a cartridge to original hardware to start a game. It makes it like you’re invested in the title you have unlike scrolling around a library list and launching it from there.
Gardening (veges!), musical instruments (currently guitar), vidja games, cooking, bread baking, self-hosting, paddle boarding, wood working, and a life-long hobby of trying new hobbies.
There are thousands of hobbies out there. You never know which ones will click with you. Try as many of them as you can! If something looks interesting, go for it! Look for the least expensive entry point. If it requires equipment, rent, borrow, or go super cheap. Unless its safety equipment… Then don’t go cheap.
A fine example is guitar: don’t spend more than $100 on a used acoustic. If you stick with guitar long enough, you’ll eventually be able to make that shitty guitar sing while also understanding exactly how it’s holding you back so you’ll know what to look for when upgrading to something intermediate.
Also, “earning the right” to get better equipment is a badass feeling.
Apply that to any hobby that requires investment. If you invest a small amount of money and realize the hobby is not right for you, you didn’t lose much but gained a lot of insight about yourself.
Earning the right to better equipment is so satisfying. Like leveling up and getting to equip new gear
Exactly!
There is also the benefit of being able to move on from a hobby that doesn’t click, without having to feel any amount of guilt.
I garden poorly and do canning! I got into gardening because last year (technically two years ago) my mother for purim gave me a bag of things and one was some san marzano like seeds. So last year’s growing season I planted those and it worked! I can because we use to can growing up. I’ve been canning before the garden but they’re a natural fit.
I have a ton of abandoned or occasional hobbies but the main one I have atm is leatherwork.
Honestly I don’t fully understand what lead me to it but I saw some videos and it was like, not only do I want to do this but I want to do it properly.
So I didn’t do my normal thing of buying a ton of equipment, getting in way over my head and abandoning to the pile of failed hobbies. I booked a beginner course at a place near me and the rest is history. Been slowly building up my skills and techniques and getting really good feedback from people. Some of my recent items even have people saying that if I was to open a shop then they would be interested in buying or commissioning…
If you want to see my stuff then just have look at my post history, I should really just make a site or something at this point… Most of my stuff is small goods, accessories etc. but be warned I’ve just created a new community to have somewhere for the darker side of crafts (mildly NSFW) - but if anyone is interested in the spicier side of crafting then come join me there!
I’ve been trying many things over time but the ones that really became hobbies are the ones that just happened to me. And those are hiking, cooking and photography.
I think one problem these days is that we try too hard from the start. We hear about this interesting thing and then watch videos about it by some influencer and then we feel we need to learn this or buy that first but in the end none of that is necessary. If hiking is for you then you will enjoy it even in sandals and jeans. If not then it might not be a hobby for you. Eventually you will learn what you personally need to enjoy it even more and go to the next level. And then invest into it knowing exactly what you want.
Same with photography. You can take some serious photos with modern phones already and develop your skills with that. I took some back then with an iPhone 4 that I still love (although they look bad when zoomed in). The limitation is what makes you creative and you always have it with you.
Of course some things do have a steep learning curve and do need some initial investment. I just personally never got into any of those and I’m pretty satisfied.
Dude I have too many. You asked for it:
- Balisong flipping
- Begleri
- Yoyos
- Airsoft
- Watching hockey (go Ducks) and do a little ice skating
- Archery
- Rock climbing
- Hiking/backpacking
- Scuba diving
- Geocaching
- Kite flying
- Rubiks cubing
- CS:GO
- Linux and FOSS stuff
- Other tech related things
- 3D printing
- Good quality pens and pencils
- Lockpicking
- Disc golf
- knives and metallurgy
board games, not only its nice way to get to social gatherings, but theres bunch of games with solo mode. So instead of spending tons of hours on your computer you can play some board game
Modding ipods and game boys, Collecting vinyls, firefighting in my community, biking in the mountains, I’m trying to learn how to properly swim a croll this year, roller skating is fun, boxing, and running outdoors are my current options. Hope something inspires you!
Baking. It can be as simple and inexpensive, or as elaborate and costly as you want. It’s very beginner friendly. And even most of your failures end up delicious.
Photography. I bought a second hand camera body, a couple of adapters and have been building up a roster of cheap old 70s-80s lenses. I can bring my camera whenever I go out, or go on more specific photography walks. It makes me look at things more closely, and therefore enjoy them more.
Whenever I’ve brought my camera to events and gatherings, the response has been very positive and people really enjoy the photos being “artistic” and “dream-like” (on account of the imperfect vintage lenses and my often poor manual focusing).
It’s been a fun journey of discovering what lenses I most enjoy using. For me it’s been either 40-45mm for walking around snapshots or 180-200mm for portraiture.
Maybe I’ll get some more modern gear some day, but then I’ll know exactly what I want, and have the skill to use it to the fullest.
Archery.
