I have not made a hula hoop related post since November! What is that about?! I swear I still hoop all the time, I usually just don’t bother to post videos or pictures unless they’re taken somewhere pretty. Such as my very favorite beach spot! It has not been warm here lately. It’s been like 50-60 something (yes, to us spoiled Southern Californians that is SO cold!), so when suddenly it was 80 something this weekend, I knew a hoop at the beach day was in order!

I don’t really do doubles very often, but I’ve been trying to learn more moves with them. It is really not easy to have two of them on your body at once. Too much to think about! I don’t really know how people do it but I’m gonna figure it out!

Oh, and I think this is the first time I’ve shown both of my LED hoops here! I haven’t had them long. They’re great though! If you’re interested in buying one, they’re the Starfish & Fire Strobe styles from CitivaCreationz on Etsy. I love her hoops and recommend them to everyone! If you use my name “julieking” as the coupon code, you can get 10% off! :)

So I had this idea a while back to stud a hula hoop! I knew it wouldn’t be the most usable hoop though since the studs kinda hurt or get in the way for certain tricks, so I never made it. Until recently when my friend’s boyfriend mentioned how much he wanted a studded hoop! I was so stoked that I finally had a reason to make this hoop! So here’s what I did:

First of all, you’re going to need a hoop that’s already taped (or tape one especially for this! You can see my taping tutorial at the bottom of this post.). I had this old heavy hoop that I never use anymore so I just peeled off the old gaffer tape and it was good to go since the sparkle tapes were still in good shape!

You’re going to need 1/2″ gaffer tape, Studs (I used 1/2″ ones), Ribbon (I used 3/4″), and pliers.

Start off by putting two studs on the ribbon, about an inch apart. Hold the ribbon along the outer edge of the hoop and wrap your gaffer tape around, in between every other stud to hold the ribbon in place. I worked my way around the hoop adding two studs at a time. When you make it all the way around, you’ll have to go around again with the gaffer tape between every other stud. Make sure the ribbon edges are secured and taped over.

It’s a little time consuming but unique and bad ass! :D

I found the most perfect spot to have day time hoop practice, right on the ocean! It’s so beautiful and peaceful! I’ve been all about fire hooping for the past few months so my regular hooping has kinda suffered. It was so nice to have a day to get back to regular hooping, learning new tricks, practicing flow, and enjoying the view!

That’s my new(ish) LED hoop on the left! I need to post more pictures of it soon because I love it!! :D

I realized it’s been a year since I made a non-fire video so here are two! These get a little repetitive, but I hope you’ll like em anyway! I feel like I left out sooo many tricks because I’ve gotten used to doing only fire friendly stuff (there’s a lot of tricks that you can’t do with fire). I’m excited for more regular hooping practice and getting my tricks back!

For about two months now, I’ve been practicing with fire once a week. It makes me so happy to feel myself getting more brave with the flames each time! Every Thursday night, I come home smelling like fire, with usually at least one small burn mark on me and much less arm hair than I started out with but it’s all part of learning and I’m having SO much fun!

This past week, my friends and I had a bonfire at the beach and hooped it up! It was such a blast that I almost don’t even care about the $80 parking ticket I got while I was there. I think I’m overdue for a fire video, right? I had no idea that I was being recorded so it was a nice surprise when one of my friends posted this video of me! I’m so happy that the trick I nailed at 1:18 was captured because it’s been so hard to get!

I’m curious how many of you reading this are hoopers too? Say hi & let me know! :) If you’re not a hooper, I hope you’re at least entertained by all of my hoopiness!

I’ve been so lucky this past month to still be able to attend our regular hooping & fire practices despite my recent bad luck (my car broke). It’s been something I really look forward to every week! Practicing consistently and noticing myself getting better and braver with fire each week is a really good feeling! Although, I was super bummed at our last fire practice when my hoop unexpectedly made a loud SNAP and broke in half. So so so bummed! I feel lucky though to have bought my hoop from such an awesome company because within a few days of contacting them about it, they’ve already gotten a replacement in the mail to me! Thank you Synergy for having such a great warranty & customer service!

This past week we were lucky enough to have two photographers taking pictures at our fire practice! They got some really awesome shots of both our fire hoops and our LED hoops!  I’m loving this shot of me looking like a firey tornado! I’ll have more pictures to show you soon!