If you are in the Bozeman area and would like to purchase a hoop, contact me and I will put you in touch with the Montana-Hermosa Hooper!

This weekend was the MOSTE retreat, where 58 girls spent 2 days at camp learning about community and exploring nature. I chaperoned and facilitated some of the activities at camp and learned so much about these girls in the process. It opened my eyes to see how a large number of these girls overcome challenges everyday to work towards becoming smart, well-rounded women.  I could write a small book on the great things I saw this weekend, but as this is a hooping blog, I’ll bring it back to point.

I brought a handful of hoops with me this weekend and let the girls experience the joy that is hooping with a proper sized hoop. Seeing them try the hoops reinforced my belief that it is impossible to be sad or angry while hooping. Every single one of those girls had a smile on her face as she hooped away! The abilities ranged from keeping a hoop up for the first time ever, to mastering the beginning level tricks within an hour.

One of the mentors pointed out that the hoops brought girls together across schools. MOSTE works with 5 middle schools in Los Angeles as well as a variety of High Schools. A big mission of the weekend was to get the girls to intermingle and meet girls outside their schools. Since there were a limited number of hoops, the girls had to share and take turns hooping. This ended up forcing girls from different schools to hoop together and share an experience.

I would have loved to give every girl there a Hermosa Hoop. I hope to get together enough supplies next year to do a hoop workshop where girls can decorate and keep their own hoops. Not only is it great exercise, it is a fantastic way for these girls to get outside and away from those addictive electronics!

In honor of the MOSTE weekend, I’d like to offer everyone out there the opportunity to sponsor a MOSTE Hooper. For a $20 donation, I will make and deliver a hula hoop to a MOSTE Mentee.  The girls will be able to choose a hoop and I will get them started with the tricks that make hooping so fun.

Please contact me if you are interested in sponsoring a MOSTE Hooper and thanks for reading!

Thanks!

HH

Now you know, if you’d like a Rastafarian colored hoop, Hermosa Hoops can hook you up!

Rasta Hoop

There were also a couple other new hoopers there and they asked me to show them how to do chest hooping. The best way I’ve heard chest hooping described is a square peg in a round hole. It is not an easy skill to master and can be SO frustrating, but once you get it, you’ll never want to stop. The lovely ladies on the beach were on their way towards chest hoopery, but ultimately it takes patience and perseverance to master this trick. Did I say patience? I should also mention patience. It took me about 3 months to really get the move down, and even now I have my moments where I can not keep the hoop from slipping up to my neck.

So to other beginner hoopers out there, Patience! You’ll get it eventually.

Chest hooping is a very impressive trick, and can be achieved with due diligence. I thought the hoop video of April should be a tutorial, since this seems to be the trick request I get from most people.

Watch the lovely SaFire give her hoop tips, then get out there and start trying yourself!

Enjoy,

HH

Very exciting news! I have ordered a bunch new colors and styles of tapes! They should be arriving early next week, and I’ll be able to turn out some very pretty new designs. I’ll post more soon on the different colors, so you can start designing your own Hermosa Hoop.

Best,

HH

I managed to get extra tickets to the Thursday night Phish show at the Greek Theater in Berkley, CA and I am looking to trade them for either Friday night or Saturday night tickets. If you have extra tickets, or can’t go on one of those nights, I’d love to do a trade!

Let me know if you can help me out.

Rikki

Since I am handmaking all of my hoops, I am able to create custom sized hoops for people when they ask. The standard hoops I make are 42 inches in diameter, but I’ve made them smaller or larger depending on the person ordering.

Today I found this great description on Sharna Rose’s website, of how to choose your hoop size. I hope she does not mind me using it in my post as a guide to my readers.

If you are interested in buying a hoop then please consider the following points carefully: 1) Measurement The basic measurement should be in inches from floor to navel. 2) Body Size. If of average waisted size this measurement is generally suitable, however if you consider yourself larger than average – add a couple of extra inches, if smaller than average then you could subtract some inches from your hoop. 3) Tubing requirements: My hoops are made from 25mm and 20mm (outer diameter) black polyethylene water pipe or 20 mm PEX -A tubing.

I would recommend a larger heavier hoop for a beginner and a smaller faster hoop for someone who has dedicated time to their practice and whom incorporates more off body hooping Larger heavier hoops have more space and are easier to learn tricks and dance style but take up more space when hooping. I am 5ft 2 inches and I started hooping with a 40 inch hoop. When I made my own I hooped with a 38 inch hoop. I now use a 32 inch hoop but my progression to this size has been very gradual.
Hoops for sale by Sharna Rose

I use a similar, American version, of the tubing she uses in the UK. I am 5’3″ and use a 40-42 inch hoop which has been great for me. I feel that I am stronger now, and can probably move up (down?) to a 38 inch hoop, but I would not recommend that for a beginner hooper.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment below and I will try to help you figure out the best hoop for your style!

HH

We made three hoops using the Pink Prism, Blue Gaffer, and White Electrical tapes. Personally, I think they turned out great! She left one on the porch of a friend of mine in town and hopefully she was pleasantly surprised when she came home from work that evening. I didn’t mention anything to her about the hoop when I saw her earlier that week, so I wonder if she even knows where it came from.  Surprise! Hula Hoop! 

I’m happy that people in Bozeman will now be hooping away with some Hermosa Hoops. It is such a happy, healthy hobby and I can’t wait to hear how they like them! Now if the snow would just melt…

Here is my hooping video of the month for March.  I almost missed this month, but I am sneaking in under the wire!

The video this month doesn’t feature just one hooper, instead it is a news clip about finding health and happiness within the hoop. I thought it would be appropriate to put up since most of the visitors to my blog/website are new to hooping and might need a bit of encouragement to pick up that hoop and step inside.

**UPDATE** Ok, fine. I can’t get the embedded link to work, so I’m going to give you the link to ABC11′s website. The video is only a couple minutes long, so if you’d like to watch it, you should click on the link below.

Hooping Video
Best wishes,

HH

I have pictures that I’ve taken of my new, fancy hoops, but they are sitting on the memory card in my camera. I keep forgetting to put them up here, which is very unfortunate, because I’d love to share them with the world. 

Hopefully this weekend I will find the time to upload some pictures, and then everyone will get to share in the joy that is sparkly Hermosa Hoops!

Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday dear hermosa hooper,

Happy birthday to me!

(Yesterday)   

If you’d like to purchase a hoop, please contact me and I’ll get you a hoop likely the next day if you are in the South Bay.

I’ll be posting pictures of pre-made hoops later this week, but in the meantime check out the Purchase Hoops page for colors and designs.

Have a lovely week!

HH

I wanted to let you know that I have just received some fantastic new sparkly/glitter tapes and can soon start incorporating them into the hoop designs. I’ll be putting up pictures of completed hoops ASAP, but in the meantime look at all the pretty colors and designs I have now!

Holographic Gold Tape

Prismatic Pink Tape

Purple Sequin Tape

Sky Blue Glitter Tape

Happy Hooping!

Hermosa Hooper

This is my hoop video of the month for our brand-shiny new year, 2010!

What really struck me about this video was how much this girl is able to do in such a small space. She shows off some great hoop skills without ever leaving the confines of her room. Plus, Poker Face and Right Round are two of my favorite songs to listen to while hooping. Right Round is generally the first song I put on when I head out to the beach. It’s my Pavlovian cue that I’m about to do some fun hooping.

The hooping starts about 33 seconds into the video.

My goal for 2010 is to spend more time in my hoop and less time focusing on worries about the future. I want to take more time to appreciate just how fortunate I really am and being inside my sacred space helps me focus those thoughts.

Happy Hooping!

HH

I’m always so happy when people come over and try out my extra hoops. I particularly enjoy it when they are pleasantly surprised that they too can now hula hoop! The adult hoops are so much easier to keep up then the old plastic kids hoops, even though most people think they’d be more challenging.

Anyway, I wanted to express my happiness at hooping at the Free To Be Me Drum Circle again. I think it’s a great charity and they are so nice to allow me to play alongside them.

I’m going to be heading to the Phish Festival 8 in Indio California this weekend and am hoping to run into some other hoopers. If you see a short blonde girl hooping away in the campgrounds, come over and say hi. It might be me!

I’m going to bring a couple extra hoops with me so I can share if you want to join in.

Have a lovely weekend,

HH

I found this video today, and it has become my favorite hoop video of October. I like it because it contains a couple things you don’t generally find in YouTube videos of hoopers.

First of all, the woman drops the hoop and misses a couple of her tricks. I like this because too many of the videos I find are of women doing amazing routines flawlessly. It is great to see a hooper that is obviously talented, but still learning and working on her tricks. Plus as she skips off to go grab the hoop, you can tell that her dropping her hoop didn’t bother her in the slightest. It is really easy to get frustrated and annoyed at yourself when you’re practicing a new skill, but I try and remind myself that I’m having fun, and hooping isn’t about flawlessly executing tricks.

Second of all, the woman in the video is older than the typical YouTube hooper. I love that she looks so elegant and beautiful as she dances and isn’t 28 years old. I’m constantly explaining to my coworkers, aunts and friends, that they too can pick up a hoop and learn how to hoop dance. I couldn’t ever hoop as a little girl; it would spin around me twice and fall to the ground. Three times if I was lucky. But as soon as I got an adult sized hoop, I found I could easily spin the hoop around my waist for 30+ minutes, no problem. It’s a skill anyone, at any age, can learn. Just have fun with it!

So now I share with you my favorite hooping video of October. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!