International I Hate Sports Club

Indurrago wrote:There's also those gliders(sailplanes) which look amazing to fly or glide.

I've also been in one of those as the passenger one or two years ago. It was quite a lot of fun, and it was amazing to see the landscape in such a calm flight. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested.

dickfilthy wrote:Here's a "sport" that's always shit me -

Sports Fishing
Give the fish weapons too, and let's see a real contest!

BWAAA HA HA HA HA HAHA that's true.

abitagirl wrote:Hey Ray! Where have you been hiding all this time, or have I just been not seeing you?

hey! Well, I have been a little scarce. I've just been busy. And working nights again. That makes me like a zombie and not much of a conversationalist.

dickfilthy wrote:Here's a "sport" that's always shit me -

Sports Fishing
Give the fish weapons too, and let's see a real contest!

Is fishing even classed as a sport? I never thought so. I most certainly don't have it down as one; to me it always seemed more like an activity done by people who either lived at or by the sea or a lake or who just liked catching and preparing their own fish for tea. Even so, I don't mind it; at least it brings benefits in the form of food and can even prove to be a way of making a living for some people who set up shops by the sea. And I have to thank the people who fish as otherwise I would not be able to enjoy one of my favourite dishes on a regular basis - that most British of delicacies, fish and chips! Oh, and it's interesting to read in the paper when some bloke hauls in a fish that weighs more than he may do. Yes, that has been known to happen. It beats having to read about which morons in shorts managed to get a ball into a net over the weekend. Still, I like that description. I'd like to see that contest... as for being part of it, I'm not so sure!

Best regards,
i_like_1981

Fishing is kind of an iffy one. While they do hold tournaments where experienced fisherman can win big cash prizes for bringing in big fish, for a lot of people, they do it for a variety of different reasons. For fun, it's a way to kill time in the summer and meet other people who fish. You can catch fish for food as long as you know how to clean them, like my father does. And it can also be a family bonding thing, a way to get the whole family to spend time together.

Hunting is about the same, although not so much with tournaments. From what I've seen, any sort of hunting contest is usually shooting artificial targets, sometimes made to look like the real thing. My parents participate in a sporting clays league where they shoot at these clay discs called clay pigeons, look nothing like pigeons, and they're bright orange to spot them easy. For real hunting, it can also be a food thing or a family thing.

And in regards to 'wiping out the whole forest', there's a reason why there are regulations that limit when you can hunt, how many you can harvest, etc. Poachers face heavy fines and long jail times. That's speaking from my experience.

The Quiet One wrote:Fishing is kind of an iffy one. While they do hold tournaments where experienced fisherman can win big cash prizes for bringing in big fish, for a lot of people, they do it for a variety of different reasons. For fun, it's a way to kill time in the summer and meet other people who fish. You can catch fish for food as long as you know how to clean them, like my father does. And it can also be a family bonding thing, a way to get the whole family to spend time together.

Hunting is about the same, although not so much with tournaments. From what I've seen, any sort of hunting contest is usually shooting artificial targets, sometimes made to look like the real thing. My parents participate in a sporting clays league where they shoot at these clay discs called clay pigeons, look nothing like pigeons, and they're bright orange to spot them easy. For real hunting, it can also be a food thing or a family thing.

And in regards to 'wiping out the whole forest', there's a reason why there are regulations that limit when you can hunt, how many you can harvest, etc. Poachers face heavy fines and long jail times. That's speaking from my experience.

Oh! So you were a poacher! Eh? Get outta here!!!

OK, just kidding!

Actually, I do enjoy fishing myself. When I was a kid, I was the oldest of three in my family, my mother would take us out on camping trips. In fact, my mother and I, together we even build a home made camper trailer and named it Roadrunner. Yeah, we even christened it (I now christen thee, Roadrunner!) by breaking a bottle of beer over the trailer hitch! My mother was never happy unless she had a hammer and a saw in her hands. She loved doing carpenter work, and she taught me how to change spark-plugs and breaker-points in a car engine when I was just a kid, and she was also one Hell of a great cook, which is why I call my self Fat Man.

We went on many camping trips to places like Yellowstone Park, The Devils Tower, The Grand Canyon, etc. etc. just about everywhere, and I enjoyed sitting on my lazy ass under the shade of a tree with a rod and reel pulling in some fish. I'm rather partial to the open face reel because I can cast out much further with it.

My step father stayed home because he didn't like camping.

So, yeah! I like fishing. But I never cared to watch fishing programs on TV. I thought that was ho hum boring. It's more fun to do than to watch.

I also like bowling, but as much as I like bowling, I never cared to just sit there and watch a bowling tournament on TV like they use to show back when I was a kid. Again, it's one of those things that are more fun to do than to watch.

I never went hunting. I didn't like the idea of shooting animals with a gun, however, if I were ever lost in the forest, I would hunt to survive if I had to. Eating meat is preferable to eating roots and tree bark.

Now, I think I would enjoy skeet shooting, or what you call shooting clay pigeons. I have shot a rifle and a pistol a few times a targets such as beer bottles on a fence. It's fun to shoot a gun!

Of course, I don't own any firearms right now, but I have been out shooting with friends target practicing. I had a friend who had one of those cap-and-ball rifles that he built himself from a kit, and he also had a replica of a pistol, a five-shooter that was used by the New York police back in the 1830s which was also assembled from a kit.

And I believe that I could enjoy archery as a sport.

But those are the only "sports" that I care anything about. Also, they are more fun to do than to just watch.

But as for football, well, that's like getting down and dirty and sucking mud with the pigs! Of course they don't suck mud anymore since they now play on Astro-turf instead. I hate football with the purplest of passions!

Hockey also sucks out loud, and basketball is the game of gutter-thugs!

Heheh, not bad Fat Man. Actually no, I wasn't a poacher. If I was a poacher, I'd probably be in jail, not online, don't ya think?

As for shooting, there's skeet shooting, trap shooting, and sporting clays. Sporting clays is the toughest of the three, because the clay pigeons come from multiple stations and get thrown at all sorts of angles, speeds, and directions. Skeet shooting has the clays coming from fewer stations, and in more controlled speeds and directions. And trap shooting, which my parents do, only has the pigeons coming from one station, but they shoot from five different positions.

As for the rest of the sports that you mentioned a dislike for, I won't get into those, yet. They can wait for another time.

Fishing/hunting for food is one thing. But doing it just for "sport" is different -

PETA.org wrote: http://www.peta.org/campaigns/ar-releasefishing.asp

'Catch-and-Release' Fishing

Studies show that fish who are caught and then returned to the water suffer such severe physiological stress that they often die of shock. Fish often swallow hooks, and anglers try to retrieve the hook by shoving their fingers or pliers down the fish's throat, ripping out not just the hook but some of the fish's throat and guts as well. When fish are handled, the protective coating on their bodies is disturbed. These and other injuries make fish easy targets for predators once they are returned to the water.

Fish, like all animals, have nerves and therefore feel pain. Hooked fish struggle out of fear and physical pain, desperate to breathe. Once fish are hauled out of their environment and into ours, they begin to suffocate, and their gills often collapse. In commercial fishing, fish's swim bladders can rupture because of the sudden change in pressure.

Angling hurts other animals too. Every year, anglers leave behind a trail of tackle victims that includes millions of birds, turtles, and other animals who suffer debilitating injuries after they swallow fishhooks or become entangled in fishing line. Wildlife rehabilitators say that discarded fishing tackle is one of the greatest threats to aquatic animals.

Fishing is far from a harmless pastime.