A Look at Three of the World’s Toughest Hobbies

When most people want to relax, they spend time doing their favourite hobby.

Hobbies, whether playing an online casino game from a site like oddschecker or hiking out in nature in a national park, touch on our favourite interests to help us unwind. But just like any gamer or hiker will tell you, there’s quite a bit of skill involved the more invested a person becomes.

In fact, this type of focus and dedication has turned some hobbies into professions. Bungee jumping, for example, takes diligence, bravery, and more than a passing knowledge of harnesses and knotting. But dedicated bungee jumpers can eventually flip their favourite pastime into a career, taking others along for the adventure.

Obviously, bungee jumping is an extreme example. When it comes to highly skilled and even difficult hobbies, some of the toughest out there don’t have anything to do with heights or leaping from a ledge. In fact, three of the world’s toughest hobbies are way more casual than many think.

Roulette

Casino games are some of the easiest to find on the internet. Sites like the one mentioned above aggregate some of the top deals from casinos like 777 and others. These connect players to games like blackjack, slots, and roulette. The latter, in particular, is one of the toughest games in existence. 

Even the game’s origins are steeped in science and mathematics. The roulette wheel came from a French physicist’s failed attempts at creating a perpetual motion machine back in the 1600s. One hundred years later, gamers in Paris had evolved the rudimentary machine into a game of numbers and chance.

And speaking of chance, roulette involves dozens of approaches that focus on probability. Dedicated players tinker with probabilities to determine which move to make. American roulette includes a 1/38 chance of winning, while the European version includes a 1/36 chance. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to numbers-based strategies in roulette.

Guitar

Similar to casino games like roulette, the guitar probably seems a bit too common to be considered highly difficult. However, the six-stringed guitar is one of the most deceptively challenging instruments in the world. But why is that? It comes down to sound and dexterity. 

First, the guitarist has to have polyphonic capabilities that let them distinguish between notes, including minors and majors that change when played in certain ways. Even the representation of these notes can be abstract, so you’ll also need a creative mind to excel.

Throw in the added demand for dexterity and there are plenty of reasons why the guitar isn’t for the weak-minded, or weak-handed! Many players experience hand cramping and will develop blisters on their fingers as they learn. However, similar to any other hobby, the learning curve is pretty steep. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find improving is a lot easier over time.

Spelunking

Spelunking is the insider name for cave exploration. A spelunker delves into the world’s deepest and darkest caves. Most spelunkers are casual. They travel in groups with torches at the ready and stick to caves that are mostly flat and mapped out. However, a hobbyist spelunker probably wants a bit of a challenge. 

And those challenges become increasingly intense the further into a cave they wander. One element of spelunking is negotiating steep climbs and descents, which are called pitches. These might appear out of nowhere and might even be hard to gauge.

Then there are tight areas called squeezes. Squeezes require spelunkers to move in a compact shape – sometimes for up to ten to twenty feet. Obviously, there are physical challenges for spelunkers that make the hobby rewarding. However, one of the most rewarding parts of spelunking is choosing that next adventure. 

Unlike a roulette player or a guitar player, spelunkers aren’t sure what they’re facing when they head into a cave. And even then, hardcore spelunkers will only enter with a crew that they’ve known for a long time. In other words, this hobby is a team sport with high stakes.