Subj : Hobbies...
To   : All
From : Vk3jed
Date : Wed Jun 12 2019 16:12:00

Well, in response to Nightfox and general chatter here, here's my hobby list.

Firstly, there's Amateur Radio.  Been licensed for 30 years, held the same
callsign since day 1 (check my handle ;) ), though I picked up an additional
callsign, VK3IRL, at the request of another ham on his death bed in 2008.  Over
the years, I've dabbled in photography and video editing, and done a bit of
announcing/DJ on community radio.  I also chased storms for several years. 
Time/money constraints precluded too many long chases, though I did go on a
week long stormchasing trip to Darwin in late 2007.  Drone flying has caught my
interest, as a tool for photography and video, but also the act of flying
itself.

And of course, BBSing was a big hobby for me in the 1990s, and it's now back,
as you can see by my activity on here over the last few years. ;)

But these days, what has dominated my free time has been sport.  My sporting
career didn't start too well, because I have some very significant coordination
issues.  As a kid, I was guaranteed to come last in the 100 metres.  That
changed when I was 13 and played (well, attempted to play ;) ) AFL style
football.  I'm still crap at football, and most ball sports, but the hard
training brought out my natural speed.  A few years later I found myself doing
gymnastics, because of my younger syster, which really helped with the
coordination stuff.

Since my mid 30s (2003), I got back into sport after 10+ years of doing nothing
more than walking, starting with orienteering and distance running, and working
my way up to a parathon in 2008, but when I moved out of the big city in 2010,
my focus shifted to sprint based sports, which I'm more naturally suited to. 
And 4 years ago, in a quest for more speed for my other sports, I took up track
and field, where I've been able to become a fairly decent sprinter.  So far,
I've managed to win medals at state Masters meets, and made the finals of the
Australian Masters 60 and 200m events earlier this year.  Now I'm working on
levelling up.  For me, speed is addictive. :)

The other sport I alluded to is fire brigade competitions, which are a unique
sport that requires skill, speed, strength and power.  At 51, I'm the oldest in
the team, but also one of the fastest.  I tend to catch any new guys off guard
in pre season training - guys half my age are surprised when they can't keep up
in a sprint. :)

Anyway, that's my lot.


.... Brewed from only the finest aged ASCII characters.
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