Nice to see some fellow ice hockey players on here. I fit that stereotype pretty well until I started college. The only physical activity I did was marching band, and that's not enough, even with our physical routine, to stop one (me) from getting fat and lazy. I stopped doing Tae Kwon Do about halfway through high school, at the rank of 2nd degree black belt, because I got put in an adult class before I was ready (they put my there 2 years early because I'm so much larger and taller than most kids my age).
However, when college started and I was really getting into ice hockey (the Penguins had recently won the cup and were riding high) I joined an intramural street hockey team and played goalie. My pads were made of packing foam, covered by a bit of plastic, roped to my legs. My catching glove was a baseball mit, my helmet was an old style goalie mask latched to my face, and my blocker was an intermediate size. No chest protector, no goal pants, no neck guard, nothing. I came home from practice and games with welts like I'd never seen before (worse than paintball) but I kept going, and I had a blast.
I decided I wanted to play more after the intramural season ended, and I started playing roller hockey. The catch was that I couldn't skate, so I could only play in leagues where goalies weren't required to wear skates. I found one, and I happen to get on a good team. My team went 8-1-0 and won the playoffs. I was using loaner pads at the time that were about 15 years old. Here's a video of a dramatic shootout win in overtime with me in goal:
http://youtu.be/PqqESTxstQ0 -- I'm on Who Cares? and am the second goalie. The first was my opponent. Watching the video now, I realize how slow and pathetic that was compared to the league I play in now.
Now, I've got a set of leather black-white-silver Bauer Supreme Competitive 155 leg pads w/ matching glove and blocker, a real goalie helmet, full chest and arms protector, goal pants, inline goalie skates (took a 4-week ice skating class last January), a carbon-composite stick, etc. I'm also starting to play ice hockey, but since I can't afford skates, I'm stuck using rentals. I've progressed to a higher level of inline hockey, and most recently played in a draft league where I'm still at no. 5 or 6 all-time regular season goalie stat leaders in just 2 seasons. In a total of five seasons (45 games), I have 3 assists and 1 fight (with one win), and a pretty decent save percentage for inline hockey.
I also play airsoft. I was a designated sniper with the 501st Elite Airsoft Division outside of Pittsburgh, but they disbanded a while back. Now I just freelance or play for fun. Paintball is fun, but it's a b**** to wash out of my ghillie suit, and I don't have a good gun, so I prefer airsoft.
I've also taken up archery. I shoot recurve bare-bow for target competitions. I also consider hunting a sport. Before I get crap for it, I only hunt groundhogs, and only because my pap needs me to, because if the groundhog digs a hole in his cow or horse pastures, and a cow or horse steps in it, she'll break her leg and might have to be put down. I've gone deer hunting but I've never got anything.
While I'm in Vienna, I've been going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week to work out. I've realized I need to slim down considerably to get into the Air Force in a year and a half. So far, I've lost about 45 pounds/20 kilos. Sorry for the long post.
Topic: What sports do you play? (Read 7368 times)