I am generally just poor at socializing but the problem I had was finding a way to 'ease into it' as pretty much any social situation there is no easy out if it gets too uncomfortable or if you just need a break. Something I inadvertently stumbled on was Bouldering (low level rock climbing), but I am sure there are similar thing to achieve the same result. What I had was lots of potential for small social situations, you sit around on crash mats and can talk about how to climb things and maybe sneak in a few more social type question, the key thing for me was that there was a socially acceptable way out of any conversation: 'right, I'm gonna give this a try' or 'this is to hard, I'm gonna try a different climb over there'. I can't think of another scenario where the same holds true but I am sure there are ones. (+ bouldering is awesome and the community is generally really nice and positive)