Hobbies
While I do see Hacking as a hobby, this site is dedicated to non-technical hobbies: Things I like doing when I’m not in front of a computer screen. In short: I love being outside and doing sports.
Scuba Diving
What can I say? I just love the ocean. I don’t know why, but somehow just being at the ocean makes me happy. I think I’ve always been fascinated by diving.
I remember that when I learn swimming in pre-school, diving for rings and picking them up from the bottom of the pool was way less challenging then swimming the 25 meter we had to swim to earn our first swimming badge. It still took until I was 19 until I finally learned to scuba dive.
During my studies at the university I wanted to go on diving vacations, but didn’t really have the money to do so (scuba diving is kind of expensive). Therefore I thought about ways to go diving anyways and at some point decided to just get in contact with scuba diving school. Even though I wasn’t very experienced, I asked if I could help out somehow and in return be able to dive with them. I still can’t believe how lucky I was, but it didn’t take many emails and I had a job in a scuba diving school on Menorca. I spend about six weeks there and made my first experiences guiding other divers. At the same time I took courses myself. In the following years, I used quite a lot of my breaks at the university to work for different scuba diving schools on Tenerife, Fuerteventura, and Mallorca. While working I always tried to take courses and learn more and in 2010 I became a scuba diving instructor with the VDST.
After my studies, by working as an engineer, I have been lucky to earn enough money to go on diving vacations which I have done in the last ten or so years. But I wanted a little more and in 2021 I took a timeout from my office job and worked as a scuba diving instructor on Gozo, Malta, for six month. This was such a great experience and I think I will take the time to do so again sometime in the future.
Biking
After moving to Austria in 2011, I thought it’s time to do something I had considered for a long time but always thought it’s not worth it in Berlin. So I first bought a street bike and shortly after a mountain bike as well. While I used a normal bike in Berlin a lot to get around, I never thought Berlin was such a great place to get into real biking. That changed in Austria.
While I’m not biking to take part in races of any kind, I just enjoy taking a ride on either of my bikes. The best think is to go on a ride with a couple of friends, enjoy the nature together and finish the ride with a nice meal somewhere :-).
Hiking
I don’t have to say a lot about hiking. I just enjoy to go on a hike in the mountains with some like-minded friends. Being outside is great and if you are able to reach the peak of a mountain, it just makes it even better. But even without reaching a summit, hiking is such a calming way to spend you free time. Try it yourself.
Skiing
I learned skiing when I was eight, but the vacation in which I learned skiing was the only ski-vacation I had been on as a child. I took until I was 18 until I stood on skis again. Since than I have been on quite a few ski-vacations, but not on a regular basis. I’m not a great skier, but I would say I’m at least a decent skier. Up until a few years ago, skiing was something I did maybe once or twice a year on vacation, but then I started to go on ski-tours. What a great way to go hiking during the winter.
Underwater Rugby
If you have never heard of Underwater Rugby (UWR), don’t worry you’re not alone. Outside of the UWR-community not a lot of people know the sport and most of the people who do know it do so, because a friend or relative plays UWR.
What is UWR?
UWR is one of the coolest sports, well actually the coolest sport there is 😀. In UWR two teams try to score against the other team by placing a ball into the opponent’s goal. The goal is a basket at the bottom of a swimming pool that is three to five meters deep. Each team consists of six players in the water and up to six substitute players on an exchange bench. Players my change with there substitute pretty much at any time during the game. As a player, besides your swim suite, you wear fins, a cap, a diving mask, and a snorkel. The ball is filled with saltwater, therefore it sinks in fresh water. For more details you might want to look at wikipedia.
I started playing in 2002 in Berlin. There I played for the team of the BerlinerUnterwasserRugby e.V. In my first season I also started for the youth team of the DUC Berlin. In 2011 I moved to Graz, Austria. Luckily there was a team in Graz. “Luckily”, because back than there were only four clubs in Austria that had teams. By now (2020) there are only three left.
In 2019 the world championships in UWR took place in Graz. And I’m kind of proud that I was nominated for the Austrian team and played at that championship. The Austrian men’s team placed sevens, while the women even ended up on the sixth place. Both results were considered really good, and I’m really happy and grateful that I was able to take part in such a great tournament.
But I have to say, that even before the world championships my motivation to play UWR had already kind of dropped and reached a low point a few month after the tournament. UWR had been a huge part of my life and I absolutely don’t want to miss any part of it. And while I still think that UWR is a really cool sport, at the end of 2019 I decided to take a break from playing. Who knows, maybe at some point in time, it might hit me and I start again. Until than, to everyone who is playing: have fun. Everyone who has never tried it, you should give it a shot.
Take care,
Andreas