I’ll start. I have recently gotten into 3D printing, and, while incredibly frustrating sometimes, there’s nothing more rewarding than getting a perfect print.
I realized a while ago that my true hobby is learning. I love learning new things such as:
- Ukulele
- Tin whistle
- Juggling
- Kendama
- Unicycling
- Ham radio (and morse code and electronics)
- Esperanto
- Fencing
- Sailing
- Krav Maga
- Swing and Ballroom Dancing
I’ve learned bit of all of these, master of none though…
Mi ankaŭ lernas esperanton!
I’ve been at it for a bit over a year, casually chipping away at it on Duolingo. I have a feeling I’m probably in pretty much the same boat as you, there’s no particular reason I’m learning it, just kind of seemed like something different to do.
And I dabble in a bit of ham radio, but I don’t do much with it, and I’m curious if this has been your experience as well. I think the biggest problem with ham radio is other hams, because for a lot of them their biggest hobbies is ham radio so all they want to talk about is ham radio. Don’t get me wrong, I think antennas are cool too, but surely they must have something else going on in their life worth chatting about.
Yes, other hams are the number one problem with ham radio. I was really into it for a long time and met some really good people in the community but when I moved across country it really fell to the wayside.
I like buying LEGO minifigures and then designing/building biomes for them to inhabit. I use BrickLink Studio to design the builds and then upload my parts list to BrickLink to get used bricks to build them. I also post them on Rebrickable for free, but I’ve fallen behind and need to post more on there.
Here are a few that I’ve built.
Not sure if it’s niche: Bouldering. It’s such a great sport and comes really natural to us, like running or swimming. It provides a full body workout without feeling like a workout. It makes you quite strong without feeling like repetitive or dull. The community is very nice and positive.
Csound coding. Most musicians are thoroughly ensconced in their relatively-easy-to-use hardware and software. Me? I want to have sample level control over everything by writing reams of code and come up with algorithms that generate interesting textures, melodies, harmonies, and rhythms.
Ooh, can we hear some of your stuff?? That sounds awesome! I’ve never heard of such a thing.
I release almost everything I write through Distrokid as “Underwaterbob”. So, it’s all on whatever they release to, which is all the usual suspects like YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify. Here’s the YouTube channel. The most Csound heavy recent releases are “Abiotic” and “Voltaic Fauna Bodies” though on the latter I use hardware synthesizers driven with MIDI files I generated in Csound. Sometimes physical knobs are nice.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/channel/UCQ_MZ9yX0STsY1l2Ml2zBFw
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Blacksmithing. Something so primal and simple about it. And you get to play with fire. But what I find most satisfying is the ability, once you have a few simple tools, to make any other tools you need. It’s like the og 3d printing.
Gliding. There’s something remarkable about being able to fly hundreds of kilometres without an engine, just relying on the forces of nature.
The ability to identify practically any bird or reptile in North America. I get friends asking me what things are all the time… then trying to extend my knowledge to fungi and plants (which I’m getting better with, but not at the same level). It doesn’t feel too niche until I interact with my friends outside of biology.
Hi there! There are a bunch of active nature-centred communities on mander.xyz you might enjoy :)
I have an account for that instance too, hah. I might make that my main. Definitely my people!
I am a geologist that also has a lifelong interest in anomalous natural phenomena and paranormal claims. So I do a website called Spooky Geology. I think I can count the number of people who can do this on one hand. Like me and one other person I know of. So, that seems very niche. I also have a community here for weird news. !strangetimes@lemmy.world
I do nearly all my clothes shopping at second hand stores. I love finding just the right items to make up great outfits to go out in. It can sometimes take months to piece together an outfit, though I do also mix and match things. It doesn’t matter to me how long it takes; I enjoy shopping around, I enjoy a bargain, and I enjoy the challenge and reward of making my own great outfits at a tiny cost.
I’ve never really enjoyed playing online games. (I don’t like being harassed by strangers. I have enough problems with my self-esteem, thank you.) But now I’ve gotten into several niche games I’d prefer to play with people and I have no skills or energy to make that happen. The most niche one is the Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire. I love that game and I’d love to play with my friends, but my friends have very little trek fandom/rts enthusiast crossover.
Soapmaking. My interest has faded a little in the past few years, but I taught myself how to make soap from just lye and oils. Maybe its more popular now? When I started out there was hardly anyone to talk to about it outside of a soapmaking forum. Maybe it’s still kinda niche tho
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Home brewing. It is fun for me to talk about the process of making beer and why my beer is cloudy and has sediment at the bottom
Split boarding! It’s a snowboard that splits in half and lets you ski uphill, then snaps back together to ride down. Takes a lot of physical fitness and training for avalanche safety/rescue, but being able to make turns down an untouched wild mountain is an experience like no other. Maybe not super niche but outside of a mountain town probably moreso.
Also, film photography. So special taking pictures of my kid with a camera that’s been in three generations of the family. The camera, lenses, everything just so much more tangible and enjoyable. Then developing it on the bathroom with some science magic and holding a physical image at the end gives a sense of a accomplishment that can’t be found with a smartphone! Also not super niche, but maybe 1% of people use a proper digital camera instead of just their phone, and maybe less than 1% of those play with film as well.
Lockpicking is nice. You won’t believe how many friends ask for help after they know your hobby. Most of the time it’s just “my keys are still inside, so it’s not locked”. It’s the easiest, but you don’t need to pick the lock to open those.
