What are your favorite sports to watch and play?
It’s probably pretty clear to you that Susan and I enjoy an active (preferably outdoor) lifestyle. Sports are a big part of that. And outdoor sports were central to our original decision to swap NYC for Essex back in 2006. So today’s Bloganuary prompt has pretty much written itself with one challenge: restricting my favorite sports to five. As usual, I’ve exercised, some creative license by aggregating several into meta-favorites…
In addition to my top 5 favorite sports listed below, there are / have been many others. I grew up swimming, jogging, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, bicycling, skating, sailing, snowshoeing, playing tennis, and organized team sports like ice hockey (joy!), baseball (yurgh!), soccer, and basketball.
By middle school I was a competitive swimmer — and this remained my overarching focus throughout most of my pre-adult years — though I also played ice hockey, lacrosse, and soccer. I even played golf for a few years as a teenager.
By high school, his hockey had fallen away, and by college swimming had become my principal competitive sport.
But it’s the non-competitive sports, the extracurricular sports, the exhilarating lifestyle sports that feature most prominently for me today.
As you’ll see, in a moment, my favorite sports for about 3/5 of my life have been the sorts of individual sports that some might classify as recreation rather than sport. You won’t find the standard football, baseball, basketball because I really don’t partake at this point. And I’ve never been much of a spectator, so I don’t follow pro sports, college sports, etc. I’d much rather get off my duff and go outside to do something myself. Fortunately, life has allowed me to prioritize the sports that I can actively participate in over those that I can passively observe. (That sounds judgy. It’s not. Just just my temperament, I suppose.)
I do enjoy watching an occasional lacrosse or hockey game, especially if I know someone playing (i.e. a son or daughter of friends). I find both sports tremendously engaging, but it’s been a while. And enjoying some top-tier tennis is pretty tempting as well. But by and large my sports affinities these days fall into the following list.
Swimming
I was tossed into the pool as a baby. No exaggeration. Not sure if those programs still exist, but as an itty-bitty infant, my mother and I swam together at a YMCA. Whether it was that early waterlogging or some genetic predisposition to the aquatic world, I’ve been swimming ever since. Competitively, for many years. And uncompetitively ever since. To this day, swimming remains my go-to for physical therapy (and psychological therapy, for that matter!) Whenever I manage to get myself kinked up doing one of these other sports below, swimming is there to salve my wounds.
Skiing
From cross-country skiing to alpine skiing to telemark skiing, gliding through snow with a pair of planks strapped to my feet is one of my happiest happy places. I love all three, but in recent years I’ve managed to telemark more than the other two. The challenge, the exercise, the mesmerizing rhythm, and the beauty of this relatively rare alternative to alpine skiing hooked me about 13 years ago. At this very moment, my legs are sore to the core from this morning’s tele session.
Windsports
It may come as no surprise that my next couple of favorite sports are directly related to the love of water. Sailing and windsurfing (and hopefully soon, kiteboarding!) combine the curiously exhilarating AND calming forces of wind and water. Physical challenge and mental challenge. Speed and logistics. A marriage better experienced than explained.
Watersports
And then there are the towboat watersports. My favorites are wakesurfing and waterskiing, but I’m ready to revisit wakeboarding after a few years hiatus. It’s on my to do list for this coming summer (motivated by the latent kiteboarding aspirations hinted at above.)
Bicycling
From road riding to mountain biking (and that carefree crossover, gravel biking) the peculiar satisfaction of bicycling pleases me to no end. It rhymes with a physical and emotional sensation, deeply rooted in my childhood. Freedom! And speed. Such a simple machine, but imbued with superpowers when we treat it with respect, strength, and endurance. I’ve ridden bikes, since I was a little boy. But road riding and gravel riding became big parts of my life about 10–15 years ago. And more recently, mountain biking. All three offer rewarding exercise combined with a whimsical sort of adventure and escapism.
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