[Closed] sports (activities) I just don't understand

Cycling on a turbo

Why take something that was designed to take you places then use it to go nowhere?

I knew a guy who worked for Cognation who was into Paddleboarding - for him it was to surfing what turboing is to cycling, something to do when the weather didn't suit. It's probably not the same for everyone.

Fishing, but then I have the attention span of an 8 year old.

Pretty much anything with a ball

Walking football. If you can't run, take up bowls you old git.

Paddleboarding - for him it was to surfing what turboing is to cycling, something to do when the weather didn't suit.

Don't you paddleboard in the sea, same as surfing?

Running. All sorts of wrong.

wwpaddler - Member

Cycling on a turbo

Why take something that was designed to take you places then use it to go nowhere?

I don't try and understand people's motivations for other sports in general, but seeing 4x4 off-roaders in the Peak just provokes a visceral response. The absolute state of these trumpets inching their way down Roych clough in a land rover convoy.
[Think they've subsequently being banned from driving there now].

Cycling on a turbo

Why take something that was designed to take you places then use it to go nowhere?

Race walking for me. Quite amusing to watch though.
And most equestrian sports. Nothing against them, I just don't get them.

Race walking for me. Quite amusing to watch though.

They circle around the common by my place on the odd Sunday; an amusing sight indeed. A few weeks ago there was a 'race' going on and I spotted one bloke suddenly peg it down a bit that was largely out of sight 😀

Don't you paddleboard in the sea, same as surfing?

The turbo will take you places all right - the mountains of pain, the valleys of suffering, and at the end of it all - the palace of enlightenment.

Only if you have packed your suitcase of courage.

Pretty much anything with a ball

So you won't be a fan of FootGolf*, then?

[img] [/img]

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*I thought it was a piss-take, but apparently not...

time trialling on a Dual carriagway...all sorts of stupid

Snooker, I mean, really?

Agree, paddleboarding isn't for everyone. But that's dependant on what you want to do with a)your time b)your inclination to get wet in the sea c)do other stuff.

I am biased, I surf paddleboards so for me..

A = the sum of awe..

[img] [/img]

B = the sum of bore..

[img] [/img]

Enjoy whatever sport takes your fancy, your free time is your own.

wwpaddler - Member
Cycling on a turbo

Why take something that was designed to take you places then use it to go nowhere?

Totally agree that race walking is the pits . If you want to get somewhere fast you run , if not you walk . As somebody once said race walking is like having a contest to see who can whisper the loudest .

Race walking for me. Quite amusing to watch though

If you want to get somewhere fast you run

[url= https://www.vavel.com/en/more-sport/754024-british-athletics-indoor-team-trials-day-2-review.html ]British 5000m race walking record of 18:39[/url]

Think about that during your next Parkrun 🙂

"What's up with paddle boarding?" Love what you did there!

Whats up? SUP? Get it? Ha Ha Ha!!!!!

There are lots of 'sports' that are just fun things to play at for a while. Then there are others that become part of your lifestyle and perhaps define it to an extent. Cycling and climbing are in the latter category.

I used to think the same about paddle boarding as when I googled it there was pictures of flat calm seas and people doing yoga on them. So looked fairly dull. Bike buoys pictures look like great fun and I quite fancy trying it now.

Watching someone else doing it.

Whether it's on TV/video or live, I just don't get the idea of watching other people taking part in competitive sports.

Baseball - horrendous.

American football - even worserer.

I used to think the same about paddle boarding as when I googled it there was pictures of flat calm seas and people doing yoga on them. So looked fairly dull. Bike buoys pictures look like great fun and I quite fancy trying it now.

Why not just canoe, or kayak, or windsurf? These sports already exist in their own right.

Sure, additional ways of doing an activity might develop due to some incidental condition (so, for example, snowboarders might develop an amusing way of getting over 'dead' bits of a downhill run), but does it have to become a sport unto itself?

crossfit.

Golf

Baseball - horrendous.

American football - even worserer.

Add ice hockey for the holy trinity of god awful sports. So glad I was not born american.

Paddle boarding.....hmm. Jury is out. Prefer to do it sitting down. Bloody good exercise though that uses loads of muscle groups done right.

I don't understand running ...

Why are they running?

What for?

Those bike races that aren't bike races but the people in them pretend they are racing... What's all that about then?

Surfing has been around since the Polynesians cared to dabble a toe in the water, paddlebaording is just an extension of surfing.

I'm not a fan of the cruising side of the sport, nor the exploration side, nor the fishing come to that. What I absolutely adore about it is the surfing.
Anyone who has tried surfing will tell you there is an extraordinarily long time spend sitting around in the cold sea whilst covered head to toe in 5mm rubber, bobbing then prone paddling like a looney to catch a small wave, forget Kelly Slater, most surfing is done on beach breaks in horrid suck.

SUP Surfing takes away all the pain, all the drudgery of the wait, the cold, the bob, the rubber. We go out, catch the smallest of waves, catch 100 times more than proners, stay fit, stay healthy, rip a shred, have huge fun.

Instead of knocking the sport from your sofa, try it. Or rather, just keep riding your bike.

You're right. SUP's are hard to beat in small, shit waves. 😉

See, you make it make sense, bikebuoy.

Anything involving horses.

Apart from that, I would quite happily watch anything from Bowls to Grasstrack.

As for playing, I'm not one of nature's cricketers.
Too much pressure.

Anything Americans like

In a blatant attempt to raise the positivity level a notch, Frisbee golf is great fun.

I do have to add, surfing prone is a very technical and exhilarating sport to do, done well it's quite a beautiful thing to do. It's a social bob, invariably proners gather in a shoal and each tends to take a turn to catch a wave. Hardened surfers are technique experts, you can tell them a mile off. Watch, admire and learn the skills, the effortless struggle to surf a wave of a million faces. Truly an art.

Sadly for us SUP surfers we are suffering the brunt of being newbies in a world of seasoned proners. We're annoying, we get in the way, we have sticks and we fall off a lot. Standing on boards is incredibly tricky even in the lightest of sea states, add in a rip or a wave and we're all over the place. We've/I've been doing this a good few years, even as good as I am I still get shouted at by proners, I expect to be shouted at for a good few years yet. Our aspiration isn't to catch the biggest, the knarliest, the pealers, the act of simply ripping head high is good enough, to carve an arc, a spliced cutback, the peaky roundhouse cutback, the longboard'esque rides, the slashy turns.. then go do that for another 50-100 times before we come in for coffee. Thankfully a lot of us put some effort into teaching newbies to "rules" the technique and the flair, we're all seasoned, we have all been there at some point, we've tried surfing and most hated the cold, we're older, wiser, learn techniques quicker and have the ability to self manage. We've moved on.

I'll never try to get you to try it, that's for you to decide, but given the grins I've seen from new folks learning means to me they enjoy it, t'is all I care for, people enjoying themselves.

Don't worry. goatboaters are still the lowest of the low. 🙂

Paddleboarding seems one of those things done by the same people who enjoy slacklining and playing guitars anywhere somebody might notice.

American Football is a sport ruined by too much pissing about - no offensive/defensive teams, no stopped clock or timeouts or whatever and it'd be great.

no offensive/defensive teams, no stopped clock or timeouts or whatever and it'd be [s]great[/s] Rugby League.

True.

Add ice hockey for the holy trinity of god awful sports. So glad I was not born [s]american[/s] Canadian.

You can't even skate to start with though can you?

Thanks esselgruntfuttock. You saved me from responding.

Without Ice Hockey there would be no film "Slap Shot" and that would be very sad.

Bikebouy I surf standing up, it's just the paddling I do prone.

Oh, that's how you do it.

Gonna have a shot of paddle boarding this year, prob standing.

When people do that walking for exercise thing. Why not just break into a slow jog and get it done so much quicker?

And the proper race walking thing at the Olympics? Like who can whisper the loudest. Don't really get it even though I can see that it must take a lot of effort.

You can't even skate to start with though can you?

I can skate.

AS for golf, .... "a nice walk in the countryside, ruined" famous quote I know, but who was it? Churchill, Mark Twain, George Bernar Shaw? Someone like that.

Why not just canoe, or kayak, or windsurf? These sports already exist in their own right.

Why go for a bike ride when you could run, walk or ride a horse?

Cruising makes sense relative to canoeing becaue you get a view of a bit more than just the river bank from 6ft up rather than 2.

Although the guys and girls that do the Sheppey race are a special type of nutcase!

Add ice hockey for the holy trinity of god awful sports. So glad I was not born [s]american[/s] Canadian.

Apologies - It's only the 5th most popular sport in the states. Completely forgot basket ball, which is also gash. But then it wouldn't be a trinity, it'd be a quaternity and that's not so catchy.

As you were.

I can btw.

I can skate.

Now you're in for it. Ice Arena Wales anytime soon?

Agree with most of the sentiment so far; almost everything other than mountain biking is crap.

But before any body has a pop at [url= https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiLsrWqko7SAhVkJ8AKHb6LAiYQFggaMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbdga.org.uk%2F&usg=AFQjCNEn6pShpztBMKoqyOhr6B-n5ubttA&sig2=WeKtAGFvogXbxDIykus63w&bvm=bv.146786187,d.ZGg ]disc golf[/url] . . . don't knock it until you've tried it.

That said, I enjoy [i]watching[/i] rugby.

Now you're in for it. Ice Arena Wales anytime soon?

Sure 🙂

But isn't going round and round in circles a bit silly?

In fairness though, mtbing is crap on the telly, road racing is much better.

Sportives ,golf ,sumo ,horse dancing

football - ruined by diving and players " being clever" ie cheating to draw fouls

American Football - a bad version of Rugby League
Rugby League - a bad version of Union
Baseball - teadious
Aussie Rules - seriously

tjagain - Member
football - ruined by diving and players " being clever" ie cheating to draw fouls

Baseball - horrendous.

American football - even worserer.

Great to play though

I have enjoyed pretty much every sport I had to play at school in PE except Netball.
Netball is just basketball with the fun bits taken out of it. You can’t run with the ball, you have boxes that you're not allowed out of, and only two people on the team are allowed to shoot and they can’t slam-dunk it or score amazing long range 3 pointers! Worse still, you have to stand a metre away from the person on the ball or something stupid, so the only attempt you can make to stop them scoring when they shoot is to pathetically hold your hand in the air above them while they shoot.It’s like some sadistic game of piggy in the middle, except not nearly as fun because nobody’s getting bullied.

Orienteering. All the excitement of maps with the adrenaline of hole punches.

In fairness though, mtbing is crap on the telly

And this from someone who will basically watch any sport at all.

Cyclocross.

Using unsuitable equipment is just wrong.

Not only that, some of the courses are so muddy they have to have a spare bike to complete the race.

Oh, and often its not possible to ride the bike, so they carry it.

Daft, just daft.

Dafter than DH where the bikes aren't even ridden to the top of the hill? Or where every millisecond counts but you're not allowed to wear less draggy clothing?

Using unsuitable equipment is just wrong.

the group that hired the astro after us yesterday were there to play frisbee!
I wouldn't usually mind or care but no one usually books after us so we get to play for an extra half hour...

Walking football. If you can't run, take up bowls you old git.

Oi!

I'd have been in your camp until new year, but a mate plays and his sessions were in danger of folding because of numbers, so i agreed to go along just to make up the numbers.

It's great fun. A different game to 5-a-side, granted, but it means I can compete equally against guys drawing their pension. We play no contact (often ignored) 3 touch, no keepers (cones set 2 foot inside the post either side and you have to score in the corners) and it's a better game to watch than the youngsters on the other pitch who are all for dribbling and smashing shots at each other from anywhere, and as a result the ball spends more time over the fence or in our court than it does on theirs. We're all triangles, and passing to feet, and 'pace' is irrelevant. And the pisstaking is a level above, given there's half of us were actually quite decent in our time, so when we do get it right it's like watching Brazil 70 - note how Pele doesn't need to run in the greatest WC goal of all time here:

PS - I'm 47, so technically 'underage' 😉

Why not just canoe, or kayak, or windsurf? These sports already exist in their own right.

On the South Coast I have quite a few mates that do paddle boarding as well as kite boarding or surfing when the conditions are right.

The thing with paddle boarding is you can use it to get somewhere, even the 'boring' pic bikebouy put up earlier can be fun. You can paddle up river on incoming tides, you can go from town to town on the coast and surf a few waves at the same time.

It can't be that boring, I have quite a few mates that do it and I think they'd have quit by now if it was interminably dull.

Re turbo trainers...

Just a training tool for a sport, not a sport in its own right.

Zwift competitors might beg to differ

note how Pele doesn't need to run in the greatest WC goal of all time here:

But Alberto does.

Dressage - who actually needs horse-dancing?

Pole vault - how was this actually invented as a sport in the first place?

Cani-cross, where people run with a harness with their dog attached. Canine power-assisted running.

Scooters - they just look rubbish compared to skate boarding or BMX at the skate park.

+ 1 for cross- fit, isn't it just going to the gym or what was called Circuit-Training, where the only added difference is the need to wear as little as possible and constantly post on social media?

upshift - Member

Orienteering. All the excitement of maps with the adrenaline of hole punches.

Ah, the good old days of stationery on the moors. It's all electronic dibbers in MTB orienteering these days, don't know if the runners still keep things real.

If you catch the latest episode of The Grand Tour you can discover the tedium of "winching", which blends off road driving/mud plugging with orienteering. The idea is to get stuck in a bog, then winch your 4x4 to the control point to punch your card. And it's a doubles sport too, so one person's job is to wade through the mud to find a winch point. Sounds horrendous.

I've watched that on the IoM. Quite interesting and amusing. Those little Suzukis were putting in a good show, outshining landies etc.

There's this guy, Chris, whose paddleboarding across the Atlantic. Currently he's 3/4's of the way there, been doing it a few months and I think he's a bit mad. I know why he's doing it, I understand the massive undertaking, I even admire him.. but why? Just why ? Sadly if the only answer is "to be the first to do it" then I think he's mucho maddo, but he's doing it for a little more than that..

Webbie and live tracker if you guys are interested..

[url= http://www.thesupcrossing.com/live/ ]Chris Burtish SUP crossing the Atlantic [/url]