VMX and other sports.

[DJRacing]

So how many of you played other sports or has it always been motocross and then vmx?

I started off playing soccer for one year because I was to small to play rugby, but the following year and the next 16 years it was the kiwi game. Not only did I play but refereed the game as well. I also rode Horses at events and did ok at that. I got serious about road cycling and track cycling but I was probably to old when I started to go any further than representing my city.
Hobby/sports I have been involved with or still do are, Skiing(I wish I learnt how to when I was young); Photography, mountain biking, tennis, table tennis, BMX as a teenager, Hunting, fishing and there are still lots I want to do.
So have any other people out there played other sports?

[TM BILL]

Always keen to go on a Beaver hunt 

[Mick]

Im stuffed just reading what you do lol, i do 20 to 30k's on my pushy a week, other than that if it has not got a key i dont move 

[Nathan S]

At a kid, teenager and young adult, I was a mad-keen pushy rider - first BMX/Freestyle, then MTBs. Was actually kinda OK at MTBing, back in the days before it got too serious (a couple of mates would regularly run in the top 10 in their/our age group at the Nationals, and I could kick their arses - but of course, I never actually got around to competing at the Nationals, so now I'm just a washed-up coulda-been sitting at a keyboard...  I have no delusions that even my best-ever-before-I-discovered-beer form would be worth pissing on in the current scene).

Still do the Mont 24hour as a part of a team, but have been taking it less and less seriously each time.

Rally cars took over from the bikes about 10 years ago. Started off crap, and worked my way all the way up to mediocre... Put the money, time, money, time, effort and money into it in 2004 and won the ACT Clubman Championship (think of it as a C-grade championship), plus did OK at the Rally of Canberra.
Since then, I've been working my way backwards down the ladder of seriousness, and enjoying it more and more.
Its an awesome, highly addictive sport, but there's so much crap and its so expensive and so time consuming. Nobody ever stops rallying because they're not enjoying themselves - its always due to a lack of money and/or time....

04:
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05:
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07: See avatar...

Never got into the main-stream sports (footy, cricket etc). Played weekend soccer for a couple of years as a young kid, and in high school sport, but the first dirt bike came along when I was 8, and so that's what I spent my weekends doing.
 
I've owned a vintage dirt bike for more than half of my life, but my first race was in 2006...

[mx250]

Woof Woof

[E74]

My First ever race was at Katoomba MX track March 1980, 14 year old Jnr, First open MX was the Superbowl of Motocross Sydney Showground 1980, then raced until I was 19, rooted and smoked dope until I was 25, and then raced my ass of until I was 34. now I'm 42 and its VMX,.. Off road racing is the only sport I have ever been invioved in, It's been unreal and I love it!

I was talking to my friend bruce about "the life" he said his brother reckons that sitting at watsons bay "Doyles" eating lobster and drinking chardonney is "the life", I said that compared to riding all day saturday, drinking beer until you can't stand up on sat night, then ride all day sunday at an event like the Rockley Enduro, Thats my kind of "The Life"

[cyclegod]

Being formerly from NZ, my sporting interests varied as much as the weather and the terrain

Dirt bike riding/racing all year round, skiing in winter (folks had a holiday cottage in Arrowtown 19km from Queenstown) ,squash, badminton (B-Grade), fishing (NZ has awesome trout), Deer stalking/shooting, possum shooting ($5 bounty on each pelt  paid for a lot of things), Road racing, ballroom dancing (the best bloke to chick pick-up ratio EVER!!!)

[holeshot buddy]

mainly raced motocross
then enduro
then a bit of road racing
for the last 30 years
only other sport was A grade basketball for about 15 years
now just vintage motocross  
and moderns in the vets

[pmc57]

E74,
I like the sound of your party habits both then and now, the rooting, a small bit of dope and getting pissed certainly brings back memories. Must be that age we / most of us went through.  Now, although I'd like to be able to afford to eat lobster and sip Doyles chardonnay or red, I still go along with you on the ride / party/ ride, or if you're into other things on the weekends, the Saturday night partying and talking shit in amongst it takes some beating.  

[crs-and-rms]

6 to 16 rugby leauge 10 to 19 trail riding 19 to 23 motocross broke neck nothing till 26  road bikes and  karate was very angry about neck 2nd in state 70kgs and touch footy till 34 then only touch foot and bushwalking 38 bushwalking and four wheel driving 42 then trail riding  44 some vmx hurt neck and shoulder 45 to 47 trail riding and restoring vmx bikes

[vandy010]

pretty much just been a trail rider with the odd splash of racing here and there.
 mostly in the mid 80's, a little bit of club trials, enduro's & mx, gave it all away and played guitar in bands for a while. married, kids etc and did the family thing and now just catching up on what i've missed out on with this VMX thing. have always had pushbikes and ride regular and usually go for a snow ski every year cause it's just awesome!
 but i really need a TY175 if that makes any sense.

[Doc]

  there was NEVER a time before bikes!!  ..well..not a lot..about 7 years in which time I dabbled in gymspastics (shutup ok!) an' then I played left right out on the footy team after suffering a nasty knee injury in my first 5 minutes of my very first game..not bad enough..it was my own team mate who cleaned me up!! that was enough of that contact shit! too freakin' dangerous!! so the BMX craze was alive and well at Nudgee from 1970 on. Highschool sport was another beauty! Ice skating! It was probably the least supervised and the 'sport' also attracted some nice young ladies The full on dirtbiking hit the scene late 1974 and continues to present day though I now ride less than ever I have more bikes than ever..rideable bikes I mean!! in retrospect, I was/am what you'd commonly call a dag. I got the RM80 in early '78 so a few mates (SL70, GT80 and MC1-A90 kwak) and myself would skip sport and head to the local quarry, the teachers knew, it was all above board and everyone was happy 

[Tom]

im still young and growing but i've had my share of sports i played soccer when i was young for close to 5 yrs got a gocart at age 10 got a 1973 yamaha gt80 at age 12 which started it all    play footy for my school up in the frontrow since yr9 now in yr11 got my cr125rb when i was roughly 15-16 spent close to a year restoring it and have been riding it since raced one race last year on my dads DT250 and didnt even make it to the first corner  i bodyboard with my mates every now and again and attend boxing training twice a week and since i learnt to ride a push bike i have it's always been my way of transport and fun bmx,cross country,downhill mountain biking,even a little bit of trials and i think its gunna last me plenty more years to come  Tom

[NR555]

Bikes since 4 years old.  I'm 29 now.  Dabbled in karts in 92/93/94.  Lot of ex-competitors race professionally now (Whincup, Owen, Macrow, etc.).  All of em were super fast.

For the past few years I've raced here & there on moderns, but I've never had the time & inclination to work on my fitness & speed!  After a big stack on my CRF450, I sold the big girl and got a 250F instead as a practice hack.  I just can't risk racing moderns these days, if you can't keep yourself fit or practice often enough, those big four-bangers will kill you.

I've found VMX to be perfect for me.  I don't have to train or even practice that much, and the racing is great without putting your neck on the line to clear some stupidly big jump or something.  The downsides?  The upkeep on the old bikes is quite hefty, they are definitely harder to keep in tip-top shape for racing.

My missus was top 5 in the world in BMX, so hopefully our little guy gets her talent and makes more out of motorcycling than I ever did!

[Wombat]

Hmmm, other sports:

Soccer as a boy from the age of nine - the result of living across the road from two poms my age.
First bike at 15, at 17 raced Motocross and continued every weekend for the next two years.

Took up surfing, preferred that to the bikes and surfed for the next five years.
Played competition squash during the surfing years before joining the Army and learning how to play Rugby Union.
Knee injury (f*ckin' Army) put an end to the Rugby.
Got passionate about snow skiing until injuring other knee (f*ckin' Army).
Snow skiing has similarities to both MX and surfing - I think you'll agree if you've tried all three.

Had a go (a full one minute) strapped into a mates hang glider (f*ckin' Army mate) and badly broke my arm.
The hang glider doesn't qualify as one of my sports, but Docs five minutes on the footy field and resulting disaster brought the incident to mind...
Got keen on scuba diving for about one year and then vegied for the next fifteen years; resulting in my current physical shape.
and here we are!