I doubt if they’re disappointed. Our sport has bikinis. Theirs doesn’t. 
I didn’t get too far learning to play bass.
Somebody already mentioned fishing.
I have had several hobbies over the years that I have pursued with great passion and energy, obsession in some cases. I have also given several things a try that just never clicked for me. Music, art, chess, and a few others that don’t come to mind. Several others did click but the time just wasn’t right and I lost the passion before I was into it enough to be locked in.
One of my primary hobbies over the past 20 years has been building primitive bows and archery equipment and competing in flight shooting events at an international level. I sometimes give lessons on bow building either privately or to groups. One thing I have noticed about hobbies is that how you are first exposed to something has a lot to do with how you might take to it. Very much like falling in love. A quote I heard once. “When we fall in love we actually fall in love with how we are feeling about ourselves when in the presence of that other person” This can also apply to inanimate objects and situations. When I hold a bow building class now I make sure it is fun, plenty of time for bull shitting and connecting with out forefathers in the sport. I make it a social event. They mentally associate bow building with a very positive social experience where they felt good about themselves and they tend to keep coming back.
Beekeeping.
Sometimes people that love you can be a pain in the ass! You just gotta take the bad with the good sometimes
Does keeping a diary count? I tried that, and dropped the habit after maybe three weeks. Life is too short to waste hours on recounting events!
Yes, that’s why I made sure to use a smileyface.
As a teen I really wanted to get into building Models. I bought this expensive model kit that was all of the different Starship Enterprises and other Star Trek ships. I bought paints and all kind of other modeling stuff and then set out to try.
Well, I have fat fingers, no dexterity and I’m blind in one eye so my depth perception sucks. Plus my handwriting sucks and I can’t color or paint in lines. Yeah modeling isn’t for me. But I really really wanted it to be!
I tried the same thing. Total misunderstanding. I tried to keep a dairy.
And I’ll milk that joke 'til the cows come home.
Fishing. I’ve wanted to like it since I was a boy, but actually doing has always left me cold.
…Then I wised up and bought a bull. 
All Your Bass Are Belong To Us!
Subtitle: So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish!
Hey, I’m a diehard player, but I feel your pain. At one point I tried to expand my guitar playing into jazz. Couldn’t do it. I love listening to jazz, but I haven’t been able to find my way into jazz playing except for the occasional fancy chord in non-jazz songs.
Slide I was able to pick up over time. Moving from only pick to fingerstyle I’ve been able to pick up over time. Jazz? Nope.
I really wanted to get into archery. Something about it (perhaps the history) appealed to me, so I signed up to take archery in college.
Here’s what it was: Shoot arrows at a target about 30 feet away. When you get to where you can hit it consistently, move the target back ten feet. Lather, rinse, repeat until the target is so far away it’s hidden by the curvature of the earth.
I found myself wondering if archery buffs are more into the equipment—specifically, those expensive compound bows that look like fanciful steampunk contraptions—than the whole hitting-the-target thing.
Substitute bourbon (or any hard liquor when not mixed with soda pop) for scotch and I could have written the OP. Love beer though!
Oh,… and as much as I have smoked cigarettes, you’d think I could stand to smoke a cigar but I hate smoking or being around them being smoked. I’ve never tried to develop a taste for cigars but have tried to learn to love bourbon. Came to the conclusion that I simply won’t ever like drinking it unless mixed.
As for scotch being a hobby, it most certainly is. If you spend much time in Thailand and are a drinker, you will get to know scotch. The pursuit of all the different single malts is a joy. And the selection in Thailand isn’t even that good. Next-door Cambodia has a much better selection and lower liquor taxes. I still recall this wonderful little single-malt-bar-cum(heh)-brothel on the riverfront in Phnom Penh. (The wife being with me, it would have been gauche for me to sample more than the scotch though.)
I got into primitive archery more than 20 years ago, I have never gotten into shooting or practicing. I strictly am in it for the science of building and seeing how far I can shoot. I get bored stiff with target practice very quickly.
I won’t speak for anyone else, but this former competitive archer liked hitting the target more than the equipment. It was almost a zen-like thing.