Men of Reddit. What hobbies do you meet people with?

10 comments

1. Airsoft, Paintball, Martial Arts

2. Signed up for rec leagues so I do everything from softball to kick ball, even if women aren’t at the games someone always have a single friend.

3. Kidnapping

4. I sharpen knives and shoot competitively, things I don’t usually lead with when meeting women.

   “Yeah, I love just sitting at home and turning dull knives into absolute razors,” isn’t really first date material.

   Oddly enough, by the third or fourth date, most women show up with a box full of kitchen knives for me to deal with for them.

5. Depending on where you live, there are probably board game meetups. Avoid the ones in the stores, go to the ones in the bars. (The people at the bar games will be more forgiving with the social anxiety.)

   Also, sports rec leagues (especially for silly games like kickball, bowling, or bocce) can have great coed experiences where you have plenty of time to get to know teammates.

   Also, give yourself time. As someone who has survived an abusive relationship, you may need to be patient with yourself.

6. Tabletop gaming groups are fantastic for meeting people, as well as Meetup groups for hiking (as mentioned in other comments). I’ve also made lifelong friends in the homebrewing community around my area — it certainly helps that the homebrewing, tabletop gaming, and hiking communities have significant overlap.

   For what it’s worth, my own experience with explicitly “singles” Meetup groups was that the ones in my area skewed quite a bit older than me — a lot of recent divorcees who were 10-20 years my senior.

7. It depends on what kind of person you are. Like you will make tons of friends if you are stereotypically the nerdy sort, as you don’t intimidate other people away if you are not. So many people you meet will be insecure and/or depressed, and that makes things difficult. It’s pretty much the same with non-nerdy stuff, a lot of people seem to want to stick to stereotypes and to hang with people who are like them or their friends. Sure you are not going to make friends right away, it’s just better to work with what is more likely to work out well in your favor in the end. Finding other people who are open to new people who might be outside their comfort zone is so rare these days.

   Like I wouldn’t have anyone to talk about fitness, motorcycles, etc If it were not for my gf and her friends as those communities are pretty prickly for most people.

8. For me it’s sailing. It used to be running, too.

9. I sometimes go on photography shoots with friends.

10. Motorcycles, cars, snowboarding, jet skiing, lake days