"No smoking!" - "Пиджаки не вешать!" (joke)
We indeed do not use such words with such kind of phrase.
Native Russian speaker will not understand "Нет курения", because a lot of questions arise in his/her brain: WHERE there is no smoking, WHO has not got smoking, TO WHERE smoking went, and so on.
Though of course we have nouns-processes, only their use is limited.
Ok:
"Это болтание на орбите мне порядком надоело."
"Метание бисера перед свиньями даёт +1 к карме."
not Ok:
"Прыганье-с-парашютом", "Езда-на-доске-по-волнам", "Одевание на бал".
Sometimes we borrow names of some activities coming from abroad: сёрфинг, параглайдинг, карвинг, ...