Dan Washburn’s Sporting Life

This column appeared as part of an in-depth four-day series of stories in The Times entitled “The Cost of Smoking.”
April 2, 2001 — Smokers, I salute you.
It takes [...]

January 23, 2001 — The sharp steel sank inside the soft stump and my soul screamed.
The mountain man inside of me awoke.
I began to second-guess all [...]

Times staff writer Dan Washburn recently spent 24 hours with the crew of Hall County Fire Services Station 7, getting a unique insight into the inner workings of the lives [...]

December 5, 2000 — There was a moment during my nighttime mountain bike ride with members of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association when I felt totally free.
I was in midair, flying headfirst [...]

November 28, 2000 — My first glimpse of football royalty came through the foggy rear window of a red station wagon. I pressed my face to the wet glass and peered in. [...]

September 19, 2000 — I learned how to fly an airplane last week. Landed the thing three times. But — odd as it may seem — the most awkward moments of my lesson occurred while I was on the ground.
Who knew taxiing an airplane [...]

August 8, 2000 — Good golfers generally aren’t good miniature golfers, somebody told me recently.
That person was wrong. And so was I, for assuming that the opposite also holds true: That awful [...]

July 18, 2000 — To be honest, when Tim Gago first telephoned me I thought it was a prank call.
He spoke in a thick, high-pitched New England accent. Not exactly something you expect [...]

May 2, 2000 — I just finished playing my first game of croquet, and my head hurts. No, I was not struck with a mallet or plunked with a ball. It’s just that [...]

January 18, 2000 — I couldn’t move my head.
I wanted to turn it to the right. I wanted to see if there was more room over there.
But I couldn’t. My helmet [...]

November 2, 1999 — When Lane Eaton told me that he had forgotten his putter, I knew I had severely underestimated the seriousness of disc golf.
Putter? I thought this sport [...]

September 14, 1999 — It sounds violent because it is: U.S. Army Rangers are highly trained killing machines.
From the Revolutionary War to [...]

September 7, 1999 — Glassy-eyed, I sat at my computer trying to type. I wanted to capture some of the images of the previous 17 hours while they were still fresh [...]

August 31, 1999 — I love the smell of paintballs in the morning.
Good thing, too, because they were being shot in my direction at a furious pace.
I was crouched behind a dirt [...]

April 27, 1999 — It sounded easy enough.
Paddle kayak over to little yellow ball. Pick up ball. Throw ball in goal.
Yes, it sounded easy enough. But there was one small catch — for me, at least.
“Usually, polo requires that you know how to paddle already,” smiled my kayak polo instructor, Brad Carr, after I informed [...]

April 13, 1999 — “Did he sign a release?” yelled Freda Elliot as I began to mount her son’s riding lawn mower this past Sunday.
Yes. I signed a release. Everybody at the lawn mower racing track on Funny Farm Road in Cleveland must sign a release.
“I don’t mean to be an old stinker,” said the [...]

February 23, 1999 — Most ice in Georgia is found floating in glasses of sweet tea.
Most ice.
“When you go back to Gainesville and it’s close to 70 degrees and you tell somebody that [...]

January 19, 1999 — It was 3:30 last Monday morning when Cindy Cook decided she was going to ride a bull. And when Cindy Cook decides she is going to do something, Cindy Cook does it.
“I was [...]

December 8, 1998 — I think I know how Chris Chandler must feel in the morning.
Only my soreness on Monday didn’t come from some Colts from Indianapolis. It came from two bulls from Barrow County.
“How did you [...]

December 1, 1998 — When I moved to Gainesville, Ga. from Pennsylvania this fall, I expected the Deep South — not the Wild West.
Boy, was I wrong.
“You have one of the [...]