Hula Hoop

Hula Hoop

Last Friday, I finally remembered I wanted a hula hoop. I haven't hula hooped since 4th or 5th grade and here I am as a grown adult wanting to try to do so again. At first I was thinking I wanted a weighted hula hoop. However, the problem with weighted is that it can't be played with for long periods of time constantly. I checked out some reviews on Amazon for some weighted ones and some people tend to get bruised from using it. I bruise really easy so it was not the best way to go.

I kind of wanted to give up looking and go for a kids hula hoop since I'm short anyways. After some research on google, it wasn't a good idea for adults to use those for several reasons. I had a feeling it might not work since they tend to be super light and really easy to have a bend in them. I remembered my old hula hoops all went bent after some use. So, it might just end up being a waste of money.

Well at this point, I decided to look at what would make a good material for hula hoops. I kept running into the term "poly pro" very often so I decided to look into it. What I gathered was that poly pro was light, great for tricks and very responsive. Then I went into price and couldn't justify putting money into it. After all, I was hoping to go for a cheap hula hoop. Maybe after I use my hula hoop enough I'll put my money into it.

So, back to drawing board. I figured if most hoops will cost me over 10 bucks, I can just try to make my own...maybe. I found that it seems a lot easier to make it than to find one that will work for me. I went to home depot and tried to find some HDPE pipe or something similar. Well, I found PEX 10ft 3/4" pipe instead so that was fine. Finding a connector to this wasn't that easy. The PEX straight coupling I found was small and it didn't actually work when I tried it later. So back to home depot I went. We only found a 1/2" straight coupling that was longer and the 3/4" did not fit the pipe. Sadly there was no 5/8" coupling there. So I just got the 1/2" coupling and just hope I can get it to stay.

Materials

3/4" 10ft PEX pipe

Hacksaw

1/2" coupling

Masking tape

Sand paper/brick

PEX pipe

A 10ft PEX pipe would make a hoop with a diameter of approximately 38". I needed a diameter of 34" which is the distance from the floor to my belly button. I could have eyeballed it and had it cut that way but I like being precise.

The Math:

Diameter = D = 34"

Circumference = C = πD

PEX pipe original Length = L = 10ft * 12 = 120"

C = πD = π * 34 = 106.8"

Length I need = L - C = 120 - 106.8 = 13.2"

This will give me a inner diameter of the hula hoop. The outer diameter will be larger.

So, I needed to cut off approximately 13". Marked it, took the hacksaw and cut off 13". I sanded the end that was cut off with my sand brick. Now the 1/2" coupling had a sticker on it that said 1/2". I inserted that end and it stayed quite well without popping out. The other side I tried it bare and at first it worked. It undid itself after going high speeds. So, I got some masking tape and taped that end and shoved it into the pipe. I must say this holds quite well as of now. I have yet to have it break. 

Coupling with masking tape.

The hula hoop completed!

So, I realized that this pipe was a lot sturdier than any other hula hoops I have ever used. It was PEX at 160 psi. As I tried to hula hoop, it hurts. I found out afterwards that the X in PEX was how the cross-links were built with the PE. Well, I can hula hoop with it, just not for excessive amounts of time. No bruises yet but my sides feel a bit tender. For now, I will be using it as my practice hoop. I plan to decorate it with some gaffer tape eventually. The total cost of the hula hoop was about $6 - $7. Less than $10 just as I hoped. I'm not sure how much the gaffer tape will cost but I can probably still stay under $10.