Here’s a hula hoop tip from a former “East Coast Hula Hoop Champion” (no kidding!). You can help make the cheap hula hoops that are sold in the toy stores stay up longer if you wrap bicycle handlebar tape around the hoop. In the old days, Whamo-O made hula hoops with ridges inside the hoop, which made them easier to twirl.
It’s that crazy hula hooping hippie from Oklahoma (gulp! Will I ever graduate and move?) I went over to Online sports and found that they, like all other hula hoop importers, discriminate against tall (er) people. HHHippie is not a tall adult. So how do the over 4 footers hoop? With black PVC hose. This stuff is used for inground sprinkler systems and is available at most D-I-Y type stores. A roll of 100 feet costs about $10-15 here. I get 10 hoops out of a roll, factoring in goof-ups. I use the 1 inch diameter hose, although huskier folks have been known to use 1 and 1/2 inch. Get connectors, too. the internal types are all that will work. The kind with “fish gill” threading rather than regular pipe threading are harder to assemble, but stay together better. ACE hardware sells a pvc cutter which makes nice clean cuts very easily. It’s an $8 tool. Purple primer, PVC cement and gaffers or duct tape round out your supplies. Cut the pipe to your preferred length, prime and cement the hose insert the connectors and PUSH! Seal the gap with tape. I hold the hose in a circle and stand it on its end. A hoop that comes to my chin is almost perfect. It is a bit on the heavy side, and therefore spins at a slower rate than the lightweight toys, but you can walk and even dance while hooping. Robyn, the Hula Hooping Hippie
I can remember my yellow hula hoop when I was growing up in Amityville Long Island in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s. My 3 year old, 6 year old and 17 year old nieces were playing “skip it” when I went back to LI this past June. I can still remember my first bike, too. How I wish my little boys had a childhood like mine.
Love the site! Thought you’d like to know….The hula hoop is not gone, only redirected. Fans of a Colorado band named String Cheese Incident make their own heavy duty hoops with sprinkler system tubing. In the concert, some fans will stake out a “hoop pit” and throw down. I have hooped for an entire 2 hour set with only one drop. (oh, Wendy, I am 31. Get out there and hoop) It all comes back around. Robyn
I never even tried a Hula Hoop until last summer – that’s right – summer 1998. Which of course I couldn’t do – but my kids had gotten a hula hoop as a gift and periodically – I mean each day periodically I would try to do it and finally I was able to do it to some degree. My friend, with a great body, had this idea that she should go to the beach and use a hula hoop and try to sell them as a great exercise method. She never did it, but my stomach muscles did hurt after I finished with my daily attempts. Before my family moved to Manhattan, we lived in an apartment building in Brooklyn, and after we had to come inside my brother would continue to use that pogo stick no matter how much our downstairs neighbors would bang.