What are your other passions????...... (Apart from your Duke....)

[Big T]

What are your other passions aside from your Ducati (which we spend far to much time and $ on....)

It is always interesting hearing about what other passions we pursue when we're not messing with our Duke's.

Some of these come as bit of a surprise some times from out DMF brothers and sisters.

So come tell and show all.... What are your other passions (and surfing for porn doesn't count Spider.....)

So here are my other passions..... 

PS: As Craigo would say "It didn't happen without pics.....

Mountain Biker:
I've been a rider all my life and still hit the trails most weekends when not on the Duke. Built my first MTB a very very long time ago. Took and old Malvern Star with skinny 28" wheels, cut of the drop bars off and welded a piece of water pipe onto the stem to form flat MTB bars... Now we have CF with forged alloy and titanium bling..... Love it...
Raced Triathlon / Duathlon (Roadie), Cross Country, MTB Orienteering, Adventure Racing (Trek, Kayak & MTB), Multi Day Staged and 24 hour solo..... Got to love the great outdoors...

Pic is riding a bike at 20,394 feet......



Photography:
Still have the Kodak Box Brownie that I took my first pic with. Love traveling to far away places and closer to home places while capturing pics that catch my eye. And now with digital the limit is only your imagination.

As for the Nikon / Canon debate. I have Nikon, Canon & Leica cameras so all good. Personal preference is Nikon..... 

Sun setting over Everest.


Camp 2 on Ama Dablam


As for other pics.... http://trevor.kloeden.com pretty much shows how I have indulge these other passions from time to time.....

So what are your other passions??

[Zee]

Hobbies... erm...

OK, here goes...

Skiing


Scuba diving






Just remember, it's not rape if you yell "surprise" first.

Photography (though nowhere near the talent of others on this board...)





Travel


And then there is the audio thing, but I'll leav eit there...Z...

[mattyvas]

Monsters/bikes aside which took me sometime to get into.

I had always rock climbed, first on plastic in gyms then my first outdoor climb was the Three Sisters.
I did it for 3-4 yrs then traveled and lost my climbing partners.

Push bikes have always had my attention, I was a cycle courier in London for 6-7 months and rode 10,000k's in my time.

Did car audio for a little while until it became far too silly, spent as much $$$ on it as I did on my 620 including bling!

Don't have much supporting material cause it was all in the good old days when I used to shoot film and get prints, remember
those days.

I'd say your doing pretty good with the photography Zee as others are too.
Might have to change my game so I don't get shown up.

I have always wanted to sail but never had the time nor people to do it with.

[heatherp]

Wow what a question - well I've just got so many but not many photos of them.
First - hiking, combining travel and dabbling in photography so we have
Inca trail trek finishing at Machu Picchu - absolutely magical place:

A rare sunny day at Cradle mountain on my first bike tour of Tassie

Leura cascades in Blue mountains whilst hiking again.


other passions are kayaking - own one and use it a lot less since I moved to Vic. Gave up dirt bike riding when I moved here too as I don't have anyone to ride with and sold the dirt bike when I moved  :'(

Love live, accoustic aussie music - think Audreys, Ash Grunwald, Tex Perkins type stuff.  Travel all over the place on my Duc to see live music. Have just started learning guitar too.

Now for the weird stuff:
Love yoga, natural health (Reiki Level II practitioner, aromatherapist), make my own soap, study nutritrion.  Love all animals especially native Oz ones.  Have cuddled a bilby - have you? Passionate about the natural environment - yes a tree hugger (but work for a mining company - have to pay for the Duc somehow   ) Can't scuba dive due to medical ear condition but do go snorkelling in warmer climes.
Could go on but don't want to bore ya.

Nice photos Zee, especially the bridge/stream one.

[916_tommy_s4]

My other passions, aside from riding? Hmm, good question.

Ladies.

Rally cars(Gotta go the a-w-d when off road for mine. I had an old Evo5 that i used to slide around any dirt track I coulf find back in the day.).

Music, both the consumption and performance of...(I play drums, recording sessions/gigs/overseas tours, etc. Mostly retired now but I still love getting behind the drivers seat of my custom set and pounding out a few compound time signatures.)

Drinks.... Mostly the bourbon/whiskey kind that's been aged in barrels longer than the cheap and nasty throw-up and/or hangover stuff. it is to be noted I have religiously managed to keep this indulgement and my biking exploits separate, as I don't have a death wish, and more than that, I don't want to hurt anyone else. Or damage the bike....

Good friends. Whether I know them well or not, hanging out with people who are enjoying life is always a good time and when you combine this passion with the drinking one, there good times aplenty to be had!

Last of all travelling. I grew up in Papua New Guinea and have lived all over Oz from Perth/Broomoe/Derby, to Alice Springs, Darwin and all up and down the East coast of Australia. Ive also lived in the States and Canada, been to India, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, China etc.... Love it all, all the cultures and peoples.

Ive got a few others but those are some of the ones that came off the top of my head to the page, and I'm sick of typing now.

[sydmonster]

wow... never realised some of us have so much in common...

ok, apart from the duke & other motorbikes

Music - listening, recording even playing ALL types, live, on CD or LP or Tape. Anything from Miles Davis to Hendrix to De La Soul to Tim Minchin to DJ Diplo
16 years, still doing the car audio, now I judge competitions....not the loud stuff, but the sound quality side of things. I have my own build aswell... but my love of old gear means its a mish mash... anyway.

Comedy - Tim Minchin, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, live stuff and on the telly etc..

Motorsport - have raced both Cars and bikes, tarmac mostly but a few open road events and some off road stuf. its ALL great, from the straight line stuff to the tight confines of Karting! LORV IT!! F1 and MotoGp get a work out on my telly

Photography - I make Matty look average, and by average I mean I'm not as good as he is or anywere near as good.


Extreme/alternative sports - rollerblades, skateboards and bmx... you know X-games wanabe. made it to 3 videos...

Engineering - lorve learnings how things and particular buildings work. Everything from replacing a failed load in a luminare fixture (ie chaning a blown bulb) to working the internal enthalpy of a mass volume over time/season for load shedding.

Family and friends - yeah WTF? how can they be a hobby??

[Jukie]

hhhhmmmm scubadiving



travelling



restoring



football

[Justo]

Have to say my lovely wife first and foremost. She also costs me the most amount of money.
Yes, just to keep her. Good ones don't come cheap !!!   

Soon to be child - which will cost me. Anyone blinged a pram before? 

Home renovations. Which DIY is meant to be the cheaper way around, until I have to get professionals to come in and fixup my Fnck-ups. 

Scuba, well it use to be, easily the most amount fo money i have ever spent on hobby. Coursed up to the max. Geared up to the max, tripped up to the max and almost 1000 dives under the belt. Sadly those days are gone now and so is the gear. 

Ahhh and golf, my first love, i mean hate, i mean faaarrrrrrrrrk!!!!! But yep keep going back.

No pics though, yeah yeah, I know, it didnt happen - whatever... 

[Two dogs]

 Have a look in my photobucket album  

sorry still haven't got my head around loading photo's

Surfing :   http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff57/ohana181/?action=view&current=big_surf_icon049_1.jpg

 mountain bike riding (an excuse to jump of things):  http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff57/ohana181/?action=view&current=P1100064.jpg

Snakes  : http://s239.photobucket.com/albums/ff57/ohana181/?action=view&current=P9220528.jpg
, sailing, my three kids , my dog

[vossy]

Well my first passion besides the monster or bikes in general is my wonderful wife (score 1 for brownie points) no kids.

Our 20 Acre property at Willunga, South Aust. which we have 6 horses of our own which we use for riding ourselves, competing in dressage and for also teaching people to ride. (my wife is a riding instructor) Working around the property and enjoying the view.

Besides teaching Technology Studies at a private School, my other side line job as a Animal Bowen Therapist. Mainly treating horses and dogs. I've been doing this for several years.

Getting out in my 4x4 to find some great fishing spots away from the masses.

Surfing (when the sharks are sleeping) my local beaches anywhere from 10mins to 45mins away. Love my 9foot mal  (that's not a man for those people who don't know surfing. It's my board)

 Spending time up until recently with my best mate "Riff" my Border Collie. We had 14years of great times, Dog obedience, Dog trials, stock work, and just travelling around with me everywhere whether it be fishing, working, or just going down the pub. Sadly he passed away 6 weeks ago.

Love my live music. I was in a band many years ago, but life style changes unfortunately canned that. But I still get out and help with my Bro inlaws band from time to time.

One passion I want to rekindle is travelling OS. It's been 3-4 years since I've been. Last time it was to Africa for 5 weeks. Maybe a 2010 resolution coming up!

That's me in a nut shell

[Yellow Meanie]

I do a lot of four wheel driving in my little Zook.
It doesn't as much "bling" as the Monster, but has been fairly well "modded". Mud tyres, suspension lift, air lockers front and rear, reduction T-case gears, roll-bar, custom front bar and winch...



I love to rock-climb too.
Did a lot last year at Cataract Gorge (Launceston). Awesome climbing, only 5 mins from home!
This pic is me on top of "Offal Buttress"



Hiking also!
I attempted the Overland Track last September. The night before we set off, it snowed down to 600m.
We made it up to Marion's, but the snow on the plateau was waist deep and getting deeper. We had to turn back :'(


Thorsbourne Trail (Hinchinbrook Island) was a much more "leisurely" walk.



I used to work on a dive boat out of Cairns.
Absolutely love dropping down to 50m or so and getting "narcked"
Scuba diving is great for the "bling addiction" too. I was able to get all "top of the line" equipment, for cost price.
Here's me swimming into a school of Big-Eye Trevally at "Lighthouse Bommie" (Great Barrier Reef).


Here's a video of the shark feed we did at North Horn, Osprey Reef. That's me opening the bin
Osprey Reef Shark Feed

My last dive was at Seal Rocks, King Island.
Bagged a few "beetles" and abs.

We were diving on hooka, the bloke on board forgot to change over cylinders and we ran out of air My buddy panicked and shot to the surface. By the time I got to him he was "climbing the ladder" totally incoherent, about to go under.
I am a qualified Divemaster, but have never actually led any dives, taught classes or worked as a "diver". I was always on the "boat" side of things. I suppose the training just kicked in, and I was able to get him back to the boat - alive.
He bought me a beer when we got back to shore  

[NFG]

I'm only new here but in anticipation of being here for a while, I'm jumping right on this bandwagon.

Since I was a kid, I've been playing video games.  From the first Atari 2600 dad brought home, to the MegaDrive, Super Nintendo and then into the import scene with weird Japanese systems...  I was managing a game store at age 20, and by 22 I owned my own very successful shop.  I sold that and moved to Japan with my (Japanese) wife, and for five years made my living selling cool Japanese crap to Americans with fat wallets.  When the money ran out, I decided Australia looked more fun than Canada, and moved here with 56 boxes of gaming crap, spent the last of my money on a decent TV, and set about working with my father selling point of sale software.

As the video game vein came to an end, the photography one kicked into high gear.  Since the first digital cameras came out (PV-DC1000: 320x240, 2MB RAM, serial port, no card slot) back in '97 or so, I've been getting bigger and better cameras every few years.  I came to Australia with a 4mpix Canon point n shoot, then moved to Nikon DSLRs and currently shoot with a super sexy D700.  (Here's my Flickr, and also NFGphoto.com.

On weekends I hang out with the local parkour crew, taking photos of every jam, and travelling with them around Australia when the occasion arises. 

I've mountained biked, and currently ride a far-more-serious-than-I-deserve Specialized Big Hit DH.  Australia lacks real mountains so I've kinda been using it for urban assault since I got here. 

In between all that I've written a book, written for Official Nintendo Mag (UK), and had photos appear in a half dozen magazines and newspapers (but almost never paid work, damn their cheap asses!)  I started and still maintain the oldest and biggest video game tech site on the net, and although I have a fear or heights and I distrust ropes, I love climbing Beerwah and Tibrogargan whenever I get the chance.

And now I ride a Monster.  =)

[feral]

When I was at school and out it was bodyboarding ,But being from the western surburbs didnt help but we were comited up early everychance we got night ride then train to Cronulla The point and the Island , We used to mix with the locals they nick named us The parra Connection .We surfed all the local reef and cronulla is full of them ,down the sth coast Redsands before all those houses were built , potholes before they paved the road and many more , I only use to surf when it was big , Nulla was different not like the rest of syd the surfers vs bodyboarders it mattered where you rode not what you rode ,and we were in . Then I was the 1st in my Crew to get a car a 1974 XB 4 door 6cyl It got us 4 to the surf , When we were out of school we all moved to Cronulla 2 still live there .

Then in 1998 I started skydiving and that lead me to my main reason for living BASE jumping . It has consumed all my waking time and it has killed 15 of my friends 3 of them killed here in Australia but its worth every second of it . Here in Australia we have to put up with our sport being misunderstood , Australia is one of the most deadly places to base jump in the world our object arnt that big and our landing areas are not the best so Australia produces very hard core basejumpers , we have had some of the world best jumpers but we live in the shadows , the media hates us with a passion , the average person thinks we are crazy we are not ,most people think what we do is against the Law its not . In the blue mtns to base jump all you need is a permit but the nat park wont give us one we have tryed in the past . Its funny the nat parks are worried that we will sue them if we hurt ourselves thats make the beast with two backsing bull shit no base jumper has ever sued anyone i have a mate in a wheelchair another that had to have his leg amputated never sued because we know the risks and we dont buck pass.they will never stop us we take every step to limit the chance of a problem . there are only about 50 base jumpers in Australia that jump in Australia ,and a lot more that jump overseas .I love it and chances are It will kill me if I keep doing it .





bsbd   feral

[bazz20]

lets see clay target shooting ,hunting ,cray diving ,fishing ,sail boarding fixing up and driving steam engines fixing any thing that has a motor older the better, photography, riding quads in the sand dunes with the kids , camping , o yer and i want to get a python                                                                                                                                                                             

[monstermick58]

Geez, your an hyper-active bunch, I was gunna write flatulance but I dont think its a hobby more like a curse, anyway, how do you have your wife as 'your other passion'. Struth, I'd get a clip for making her out as a hobby.

The 'other' thing that I'm passionate about is being part of the largest voluteer service in the world, the Rural Fire Service (RFS) of NSW. Now that can get the adrenalin pumping.