Whats your most expensive hobby?

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A friend of mine got his GT3 RS about two months ago, and a GT2 RS about 2 weeks ago. Suffice it to say if you rode in one of them you might understand the fascination. And while I agree the 911s through the mid 1990s has the most 'soul', a well set-up 997 or 991 can tear up the track in a way the earlier cars cannot dream of doing. On the street though those models do little to elicit the feelings the older versions drum up with ease.

I rode in them, and understand them, but don't get the fascination for these specifically given the competition across the board.
 
... nothing like riding on tubulars....
Can't argue with the ride quality of sew-ups. And back in the day, they were the only option for speed and distance.

But I got tired of stitching them up after flats 30+ years ago. As Sgt. Hulka said, "I'm getting too old for this ****."

That, and the last time I was putting any significant miles on them I flatted 15 miles into a cold, wet, rainy century. I'm no Froome, nobody's going to hand me a spare wheel ready to roll. There's nothing like standing in the rain wrestling with rock hard rim glue and then riding 85 miles wondering just how easy it is roll a tire off of re-used glue to make you appreciate clinchers. (Wasn't a flat ride, either. There were some great bombing descents but I think I kept it under 45mph and took turns really easy.)
 
Hi-fi

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And pocket knives

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Very nice.

I used to race sailboats but gave it up when it was getting too expensive. I think the final straw was when I had to tell one of the guys who was being careless with one of my winch handles that he better hit the water before the handle did.


Back to golf which is far less money but also far less satisfying.
 
It’s hard to live on the northwest coast of North America and not spend time on the water. With preventative maintenance and a sound boat the costs are not too bad ... but much more than my knife addiction. What I need to do is to start trading boat trips for knives ... now there’s an idea!
 
I’m in Toronto. The boat costs were mainly racing equipment. Sails in particular. The serious guys replaced them at least every year and some times more often. Buy a lot of golf balls for the price of a big jib or chute.
 
Moorage and basic maintenance on my boat runs about 20k a year. If something big breaks or I feel the need to add more electronics costs skyrocket from there. I added a new autopilot and auto routing equipment a couple of years ago so I can basically select any position from here to Alaska and the boat will drive itself there ... weather permitting. Add AIS and MARPA enabled radar and even the ever present fog on the west coast doesn’t bother too much. Now ... what knives would I trade for a trip to Desolation Sound. My mind reels with the possibilities.
 
I have too many hobbies that I enjoy, and I tend to cycle through them as there's just not enough funds to go around. To my credit, a few of those hobbies have stabilized in terms of GAS.

I used to work in high-end audio, and I have a pretty decent system that's been largely untouched for 10 years: DeVore Fidelity speakers, Conrad Johnson tube linestage, White Audio Labs solid state amp, Roksan table, Benz cart, and I'm forgetting my phono pre, which would be the first thing to be upgraded, should I turn my attention to it.

After a couple rounds of upgrades, my coffee habit has settled down, too - I've been using my Quickmill Anita and Mazzer Mini for a decade or so, too, so it's just $15-20 worth of beans per week.

Cycling keeps me sane, but it's been limited primarily to consumables (tires, chains, cassettes, etc) and apparel for the last couple years.

Last year I moved from my ol' Canon 5D to a Sony A7ii, primarily because I like Zeiss manual focus lenses. There was a flurry of acquisitions (35/1.4, 21/2.8, 50/1.4 all in Nikon F mount) to go along with my C/Y lenses (28/2.8, 35-70/3.4, 80-200/4), but now that's settled down, too.

Bought a couple knifes this summer; still itching for a few more, but no rush.

As fall and winter approach, I've been eyeing some PC upgrades (I game during the long, cold winter). I'll certainly get a new GPU (most likely a 5700 XT variant) and monitor (the new 27" 1440p LG IPS looks interesting). Maybe upgrade the CPU, but that's back-burner.
 
Tennis is mine. I buy balls in bulk, but it still sets me back around $1 a ball, which adds up. I’ve also started buying natural gut strings to save my elbows, and each set is like $40. Did I mention I have to buy three or four of these **every year**...
 
I used to skydive.

The saying goes: “How much does it cost?” - “How much have you got?”

Really didn’t have any money to spare for anything else. Ate cheaply, bought cheap clothes, even drank cheap beer (THE HORROR!). Probably the happiest I’ve been though. Awesome friends, never any built up stress and more memories in those years than I’ll likely make in whatever years I have left to live. Started BASE after a while. Even more awesome and jump tickets were only paid in sweat.

Now I have a family and the risk/reward ratio no longer makes sense. Don’t think I could ever step off of something again, knowing there’s a very real risk of it being the last thing I do. The longing is still there, but so is waking up everyday to being a father and a husband to three wonderful loved ones.
 
Oh boy, I have a lot and have had many more over the years...

Water sports is probably the most expensive (I have six figures into the boat, never mind all the gas, winter storage, etc etc etc.)

Followed by shooting. It doesn't have to be, but I am a bit of a collector, and I have nice taste, so I have a lot of high dollar setups (primarily long range and NFA.) These are more of an investment than an expense though.

Golf is also expensive, between the annual dues at my Country Club, monthly assessment, and assorted additional costs.

I'd say "watch collecting" would be on the list but I never really got bit by that bug, it was more of a one and done deal (Rolex Submariner,) so I'll file that under "investment."

Sports cars were up there for a while, but I swore those off after moving to the lake, getting into watersports, and also being a Country Club member.

Alpine skiing is reasonable compared to the above, though many would consider it expensive. Same with snomobiling.

Kitchen knives recently have been my biggest expense, believe it or not...
 
Kristoffer ... I want to compliment and congratulate you on the maturity of your decisions. I too and most guys have enjoyed the ragged edge of experience in younger years. In my case it was scuba diving and motorcycles. Most of us reluctantly and somewhat sadly step away from these activities when our world is expanded by a family. The loss associated with stepping away from these adrenaline inducing but dangerous activities never leaves us ... BUT ... pales into insignificance to the pain we would visit on our families we the possible to happen. Good for you K ... you’re a good man.
 
Kristoffer ... I want to compliment and congratulate you on the maturity of your decisions. I too and most guys have enjoyed the ragged edge of experience in younger years. In my case it was scuba diving and motorcycles. Most of us reluctantly and somewhat sadly step away from these activities when our world is expanded by a family. The loss associated with stepping away from these adrenaline inducing but dangerous activities never leaves us ... BUT ... pales into insignificance to the pain we would visit on our families we the possible to happen. Good for you K ... you’re a good man.

Thanks Brian, really appreciate that. Knowing and treating those hobbies like addictions helps a bit, hearing the loved ones laugh helps tremendously. Makes it all worth it, every morning.

For me, having gotten in to BASE jumping (which is far more of an adrenaline rush than regular skydiving) actually made the choice to quit easier. In skydiving one can relativise the risk. In BASE, every jump is always a “is it worth the risk today?”-choice, even without family etc.

On a somewhat philosophical note, I feel that all those things we were able to fill our days with when we were young(er) make for memories and experiences that, should the very worst happen, will make it easier to tell ourselves “yup, at least I made the most of the time I had”. That, and a touch of faith makes life pretty nice and easy to live I think.

That said, I do wish the baby would figure out that sleeping is far more relaxing than crying through the evenings sometime soon o_O
 
Sit tight son. My daughter is 42. It was about 6 weeks ago that she was crying instead of sleeping. ... at least that is what it seems. Time moves so fast that ones only regret is not savouring each moment as it went by. That’s the beauty of risk inducing hobbies. Milliseconds are captured in real time and yet replayed and savoured in exquisite detail in slow motion for a lifetime. The vision of my child first looking at me from across the delivery room was me looking at myself. No experience can exceed that. The rest is just imitation.

It will come to you.

B.
 
You guys took a very interesting turn with this thread.. I'm 25 and I already feel time is flying by.


Sorry for de-railing the thread. Back on track!

I collected mechanical watches for a while. Nothing too fancy, but still expensive enough to get me a River jump or two.

Overall I think travelling has probably been the most expensive “hobby” though. It’s fantastic the things you have time to see when you have Swedish 5-6 weeks of vacation a year :D Interestingly enough, Japan was at the top of the “go back to” list, even before the rabbit hole. Nature, food, people, history, culture, they really have something of everything.
 
Sorry for de-railing the thread. Back on track!

I collected mechanical watches for a while. Nothing too fancy, but still expensive enough to get me a River jump or two.

Overall I think travelling has probably been the most expensive “hobby” though. It’s fantastic the things you have time to see when you have Swedish 5-6 weeks of vacation a year :D Interestingly enough, Japan was at the top of the “go back to” list, even before the rabbit hole. Nature, food, people, history, culture, they really have something of everything.
Haha no it's okay I only said that because now I'm feeling it too. I collect mechanical watches as well, nothing expensive but still,headphones are my other hobby, not that uni leaves me with enough cash for either
 
Knife Making, for sure.
My other hobbies already had their investment and don't cost much to keep up anymore. But since I don't have (or have room for) a shop building on my property, I rent a two-bay garage space from a neighbor for my workshop. That ongoing expense is what does it. Sure, there are tools and consumables, but even my modest production/sales rate covers those costs pretty well.
 
Long term - Adjusting electric guitars (especially fenders) for sure. Swapping out electronics to adjust tone costs a few bucks for every adjustment just because I usually break a string or two when I take the thing apart. Don't even get me started on all the pickups and capacitors I've soldered over the years.
 
I used to skydive.
Now I have a family and the risk/reward ratio no longer makes sense. Don’t think I could ever step off of something again, knowing there’s a very real risk of it being the last thing I do. The longing is still there, but so is waking up everyday to being a father and a husband to three wonderful loved ones.

I miss racing motorcycles, but trying to start a family hasn't been cheap or easy. Reading this already helps confirm what I assumed though and makes it a little easier to miss them, ha.
 
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