Tilly Whirls

I had a blast this weekend in my hoops.

On Friday we ended up going to Friday Night Live, where the weather was gorgeous. It was packed so I couldn’t hoop until about 9:30 p.m. when the crowd with young kids started clearing out. I brought out the glow hoop immediately and got a ton of oohs and ahhs and people cheering me on. It was great, and I handed out a couple business cards after to people who asked about it.

Saturday we went to the Northern Virginia Brewfest in Leesburg. Brought my hoops, of course. Spent a good amount of time trying beers, ate some lunch, then spent a lot of the afternoon/evening hooping. I impressed a couple crowds, got a free drink because of it (though I originally turned it down—I can’t drink and hoop very well and I was full from eating dinner/lunch).

I handed out a BUNCH of business cards, which felt great, and had a lot of people ask me about classes, hoops and how the heck I learned to do it. One woman even bought a hoop from me—I made it today so now I have to get it to her. The brunette lady who likes green. I can’t wait to get it to her. I hope she likes it. Here it is!

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Today we got a lot done. Laundry. Cleaning. Covered a fire for work (I’m a journalist). Went to Kohl’s and traded the Nu Wave Oven we got for Christmas in for a new toaster, a vacuum and a bathroom scale. Went to Home Depot to get info on tiling the patio. I bought 200 feet of pex tubing (in 1/2″ and 3/4″), couplers and a pop riveter. I made four hoops tonight (well, remade two). I also put together another four naked hoops that are ready for taping. Time to get ready for work tomorrow and go to sleeeeep. I love sleep.

Soooo… I decided on a whim to try bunny ears today. I tried it once before but it seemed so difficult at the time I stopped after just a few attempts. Today I spent a little bit of time doing it over and over, remembering Babz advice (bend over with a flat back!), and a lot of pointers to myself (stick your elbow up! not your arm, your elbow!). The result was a success!

I sort of can’t believe it. It’s a pretty hard trick. The first time I got it I was like, “Whoa. That just happened.” Then I was kicking myself for not having a camera on. I spent the next 15 minutes doing it over and over until it happened again, and got it three times. I wonder how long it’ll take me to do it again.

Practice, practice. Even when you get really frustrated with something you’re working on, there’s the potential for so much joy in hooping. It almost makes it better. When you’re thinking you’re stuck and you’ll never get it and suddenly that trick you’ve been slaving over happens. That moment of success, the feeling of triumph. The smile, laugh, shout, and joy radiates out of you.

I want to make more hoops. I want more hoop tape. I want more tubing. I want a pop riveter. Today I took photos of all my tapes (which isn’t a ton) and a bunch of color combinations to put on my Facebook page so people could see them and get better ideas for what they might want. Here’s some of my favorites:

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I need vinyl tapes in yellow and pink. I really like my twins taped in vinyl and I’m afraid I won’t like them as much if I use gaffer and that’s all I have. I may try it anyway. Right now my twins look awful because they’re the first hoops I taped so they’re a hot mess. I do like the colors. Purple/orange and red/orange.But I think I’d like to do them in yellow, white and pink. It’d be a great look for the summer and reminds me of lemonade. I could do a white hoop with yellow and pink gaff and a yellow hoop with white and pink swirls. Or maybe make them both the same…

Need moar hoop supplies!!! Rawr!

I sort of practiced today. I just rocked in my living room for a few songs, then I practiced one-legged hooping (I suck at it, but am determined) and breaks, which I’m finally starting to get now that I’m working in smaller hoops. And actually trying. I haven’t really tried breaks in quite a while and I was still using 39-40″ hoops. Breaks don’t work well with massive hoops.

Some random, thrown together footage of my practice from a couple days ago:

Tonight I went to Friday Night Live (www.herndonrocks.com) with Steve and some friends and brought along my hoops. Hooped most of the evening—it really all started when the rain came and everyone cleared out. Without the crowd I felt less self conscious and suddenly there was a lot of space to hoop in. Then I went a little nuts when they started to play “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by The Darkness. I was obsessed with that song in college.

Anyway, eventually the rain stopped I had an absolute blast hoopdancing barefoot in the wet grass. When it got dark enough, I got the courage up to bring out my LED hoop, attracting even more attention. People were so positive about it though. I’ve never hooped in front of that many people publicly and everyone was entranced, wanted to know more about it, cheered me on and thought it was so cool and unique. They loved it! Hoops make people smile.

There was one bad interaction, but it was just someone who was insisting their daughter be able to borrow my $150 LED hoop. Sorry, but only myself and those I trust get to use it. Eventually they dropped it, but the girl was using my regular hoops. Her grandma was saying she’d love to get her an LED hoop for her birthday so I directed her to MoodHoops since they’re priced so well, especially for something you might get a child.

Anyway, I loved getting to share my (regular) hoops with some cute little girls, and even some adult ladies tried them out. I love it that I can put a smile on people’s faces with something so simple. I hoop because I love it, I enjoy myself and it’s good for me. But it makes it even better when my hooping can make other people happy too.

More hooping tomorrow! Taste of Reston is taking place, and The Living Well Expo is part of it this year. There’s a hooper from the Manassas/Gainsville area, Tina B Hoopurr, who’s doing a hoop jam demo and I’m totally joining in. It’s just down the street and really, I just can’t help myself. If I can go out and hoop my booty off and meet other hoopers and teach others to hoop and share the love—I’ll be there.

This was taken when I first got my LED hoop. I wanted to get the pretty LED trails.

“The sound of the hoop hitting the ground is the sound of progress.”
– Caroleeena

My hoops were hitting the ground a lot yesterday.

I finally went to practice at the community center where I would have some room to really move without worrying about hitting the television or watching for cars (I sometimes hoop in the parking lot at my condo).

I decided it would be fun to work on multiples and challenge myself with three hoops. I’ve dubbed it seizure hooping. It’s not elegant and it’s far from perfect but it’s a work in progress. The entire time I was still having a blast.

Often people will see the final result of hours of practice when hoopers do their thing in public. People don’t really see the learning process or how difficult or frustrating it can be, so I made this video to show some of that.

I was working on:
Two hoops – chest/waist, chest/knees, waist/knees, knees/halo, waist/halo, chest/halo
Three hoops – knees/chest/halo, waist/chest/halo