Geek Outdoor Hobbies? 163
Embedded Geek asks: "My wife and I, in an effort to get more exercise, have recently begun geocaching, which is basically global scavenger hunt using GPS. We have also been active in the Society for Creative Anachronism and my friends are always trying to draft us into paintball. While we're having a blast with all these, I wanted to see if other slashdotters could suggest more geek style, outdoor hobbies that would appeal to a pair of pasty faced nerds like us."
eXtreme Croquet (Score:2, Informative)
A couple of options I enjoy... (Score:3, Informative)
My wife and I also took up kite flying together. Before you envision some sedate, lazy, K-Mart delta kite flying (though that can be fun as well), we're flying stunt kites, such as these [prismkites.com] or these [revkites.com]. Some of these are made of fairly exotic materials for extremely light weights, while others pull like trucks. It's even possible to go for a ride with them - three-wheel trikes and hard-pulling kites make for some fast trips across beaches and dry lakebeds [sbbb.net].
Hope this piques your interest!
Went for variety (Score:2, Informative)
SCUBA opens a whole new realm of toys (Score:2, Informative)
Hiking (or "taking the digital camera and GPS for a stroll" if you prefer) is another favorite. Four-wheeling and boating are other favorites that allow us to get before-during-after geekiness in (generating custom maps, GPS, digital camera). We also enjoy gardening (geek toys: self-installed programmable automatic watering system, digital camera again, and we're working on "bird feeder cams").
Of course, some of what we get out of all this is that there are perfectly interesting non-geeks to meet (I have the digital photos to prove there really are non-geeks in the world!).
don't forget Ultimate Frisbee (Score:2, Informative)
It does involve some running, but it's non-contact and fun as hell. In fact the most important rule in the game is for it to be well-spirited (and fun). Also, many tournaments involve some wicked partying =)
If you're interested in learning more, try:
What is Ultimate? [whatisultimate.com]
The Ultimate Handbook [ultimatehandbook.com]
or find a team near you. [rochester.edu]
Sailing! (Score:2, Informative)
Should you need exercise, sail on a Hobiecat. On a windy day, it feels like you're going fast, and trust me, when you're leaning out over the water hanging from your trapiese you're getting tons of exercise.
While Hobie's are cool, they're not designed for beginners. A sunfish is great fun learning. Should you want exercise, flip it intentionally. Sunfishes are near trivial to right, and pretty fun boats to sail. (For those who don't know, a sunfish is a tiny sailboat which can reasonably accomodate one or two people for an afternoon.)
Re:Bike Geeks! (Score:2, Informative)
Also have a look at the serious end of Human Powered Vehicles for extreme geekiness. Some of the latest speed machines don't have windows - you use a fibre optic camera to a flat-screen display on the handlebars as that improves the aerodynamics.
At the other end you have the Minnesota groups who race ice bikes on the frozen stuff up there every winter and keep it at the reclaimed scrap end of technology (but with just as much innovation when it comes to finding something that will grip on ice...)
Lots of stuff on the geeky end of bicycling at http://www.ihpva.org
A UK based magazine on the wider aspects of cycling around the world is Velovision
http://www.velovision.co.uk
There's even people who ride unicycles off-road (Muni - mountain unicycle - they call at) and a US company, Haluzak, who have been making off-road recumbents for years.
For interesting extras I've had on my bikes over the years the Air Zound (120 Db+ air horn - pumped up by a bike pump) and the Mountain Drive (extra low gears contained in the bottom bracket - really does let you haul heavy loads up mountains) are my favorites.