Anyone on the spectrum seek thrills or adventure?

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Similar for me, bikes, boarding and sailing have been the main three interests.

I think the adrenaline can be even more stimulating for someone with AS where emotional states often seem muted, confusing and hard to identify.

I know small boat sailing (hobie cats, sunfish & ~30 footers) and I'd love to scale it up to large catamarans! Too bad I never got enough speed for much thrill yet. I think adrenaline's a whole third or fourth state of being for me. I always refer to my cycling as meditation, but it's a class all its' own, for example taking reps on a training BMX pump track is very much like skipping between particle & wave states. Self-imposed speed is the only thing that fastens down my subconscious, other than rigorous closed eye meditations.

We've got a pump track near to us but I have not owned a BMX for 20+ years. I've got a 4x frame that is okay there when it's built up in a DJ style but I like it more as a mini-downhill hardtail. I'm also getting a bit old and don't bounce like I used to.

I've a little bit of experience on small boats but I like ex-working boats myself. Boats with a bowsprit longer than 30 foot. Not massively fast but very tactical racing, changing down jibs on the end of the bowsprit when the wind gets up is a pretty good rush. Large jibs and running sails in the region of 1000 to 1300 square feet, you had better be pretty sure all the lines are led right and there are no snags going or down. Will put a good bend in the topmast about the size of a telegraph pole. I've seen a few come down, they usually break about 12 foot from the top.

Anyways not much of either for me this year, busy working like a dog re-building my partners house.

Last edited by neilson_wheels on 09 Aug 2013, 4:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've made a similar statement to my therapist. I've associated my meltdowns with excess mental fatigue and have found that the fatigue increases with some of my more mundane interests like working complex calculations, playing piano, painting, etc. After doing these for a while, I can barely even carry on a conversation and have low tolerance for social interaction. However, meditation and high adrenaline activities (and sometimes trail running) are the only pastimes I've found that can stop the background mental chatter and actually let me feel mentally refreshed and a quite bit more tolerant during situations that would normally be difficult.

I took a summer meditation course and was actually quite surprised to find that it had the same positive effect on my mental state as snowboarding or other high adrenaline/quick-reflex activities that require exceptional concentration without any daydreaming.

I've never tried sailing, but it sounds like it could be fun and beneficial as well.

Definitely worth a go, and windsurfing too. You don't have to spend too much money either.

Be careful with oversize forks on hardtails, raking the steertube angle too much compromises traction and control quite a lot. Too much weight in the fork makes landing in a manual very tricky, unless it's a well-executed nose manual. The only frame I built up with a fork that was too long/heavy is now about to be relegated to rigid, street and pump track riding duties. It's completely torn down to supply parts for a friend and my older of 2 Trek 26" hardtail park bikes. I've wished for years that hardtail downhills were still a common race division, so often XC riders in their zone get really close to a DH pace! Just be careful to set it down light on landings and you won't need to go ragdoll so often. And never run double crown forks on hardtails unless they were somehow (i.e. impossibly) built for it, you need more range of motion than ~40 degrees for correcting frame pitch in midair, even so on many full suspension freeride bikes.

I appreciate your wise words. A good steel hardtail is always my first weapon of choice and they are probably a lot more popular over here than on your side? I go fully rigid and single speed over the winter as the mud around here, mostly sand and clay, clogs easy and wears parts pretty fast. Drivetrain, forks and shocks get hammered in the winter, you could easily run up an expensive new parts list in a few months.

Living in London all the riding spots around here see a lot of use and get pounded hard, enough that when I do ride in the summer I try to go mid-week. All the land belongs to someone, so cutting new trails is obviously frowned on by the land owners and the riders that do cover their tracks well. Any downhilly runs are very short due to lack of vertical gain, but sweet and ideal for a few reps. My first choice spot to ride was transformed last winter, from a massive multitude of rider cut and maintained tracks, built over the last 20+ years, to a pair of graded loops. This was directly due to a rapid rise in the number of muppet ambulance chasers recently.

The mini-dowhill description was probably a bit of a stretch compared to the bikes you see on the trails. I find Frankenbikes amusing at best and I'm definitely not interested in putting together a bike that goes too far past the frames intended use. In my opinion anything with more than 6" travel is overkill for where I ride, not that I don't see plenty of them. In Europe downhill specific hardtails are being produced and not that rare, but I totally agree with you that any double crowns would be out of balance with a rigid rear end and asking for trouble.

I will probably break the 4x back down to rigid single speed again for the pump track. I go there to remind my muscles what they used to do and try to keep the skills sharp. As long as I can nail a jump straight with a clean landing I'm happy. At 43 this dog is too old to learn new tricks.

Next year I'm planning to move to the south coast where the options to ride will be different and I'll be able to get a sailing boat project on the go. The future is brighter, enjoy the ride.

Last edited by neilson_wheels on 10 Aug 2013, 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

I do some of that stuff, but it's not "thrill seeking" per se.

I love skiing and snowboarding and have since I was like 6 years old. I've bungee jumped once, but it was terrifying and sucked and wasn't my idea. When I was younger I did a lot of whitewater rafting, I was knowledgeable enough that I could probably have been a guide back when I was like 20, but nothing on ridiculous class 5 rapids or anything.

Doing stuff like that is relaxing to me. I have no desire to do it on death-cheating levels though.

why does it double post?

I do some of that stuff, but it's not "thrill seeking" per se.

I love skiing and snowboarding and have since I was like 6 years old. I've bungee jumped once, but it was terrifying and sucked and wasn't my idea. When I was younger I did a lot of whitewater rafting, I was knowledgeable enough that I could probably have been a guide back when I was like 20, but nothing on ridiculous class 5 rapids or anything.

Doing stuff like that is relaxing to me. I have no desire to do it on death-cheating levels though.

Did you press the button that said "HELL YES, YES, YES."?

As a family we used to go on kayak trips back in the day, camping out and getting back into your wet gear in the morning is a strong childhood memory.

Maybe!

Jesus I dunno what the deal is, my bad.

GOD DAMN IT

But in relation to the discussion I was inspired and I just made arrangements to make a rafting run on the Deschutes when I'm back in the PNW in a couple weeks.

It's been a while and it needs to happen.

Nice. Pacific North West?

Yeah. North-central Oregon.

Sound good, enjoy. I've spent some time in Canada, mostly BC, but never made it south of the border.