Hooping… Architecture… Whatnot…
Waldemar tirelessly documents fire events from Firedrums to the Union Square Fire Expo to Burning Man. These are some of my favorite shots of me firehooping and I owe a big thanks to him. Check out the rest of his Firedrums 2009 gallery here.
These are Cosmic Fire Double Mini Firehoops available here.
I have yet to spin Cosmic Fire‘s new firehoop design, but I did get to feel these new wicks. They are significantly less floppy and lighter than the old wick designs. I’ve never had an issue with the small amount of flop that the old cable design had but I am interested to see how much weight this will shave. Shakti says this new design has started shipping. The old wicks are gone on all models. She also has some new developments in store that are quite revolutionary.
Visit Kaivalya Hoop Dance to check out the new designs: here
Amongst advanced fire hoopers, light and rigid is the name of the game for most of us. Last night I got a sneak peak of the new firehoops coming from Cosmic Fire. I haven’t seen the finished product but Shakti gave me a detailed run down. She has made significant new innovations. If it lives up to the potential (and I believe it will) these hoops are the next evolution of high performance firehoops. She’s not going to be building them larger than 36″ and reports they will weigh as little as 13 oz. She is also changing to a much thinner but stiffer cable for the wick on all hoop designs. Apparently it shaves 1.5 oz. off the design and is stiffer than the old cable. These are not beginner hoops but for advanced hoopers this could open new doors. I can’t wait to try them out.
I’ve never been a big fan of collapsible firehoops because they tend to be even heavier than most of the non-collapsible hoops on the market. Shakti has innovated a new collapsible design that could potentially change that. She hasn’t received the prototype pieces yet but it seems she will soon be selling a coiling collapsible firehoop with removable cable wicks. I’m guessing her new design will be just over a pound. In the Kindle Fire Arts Magazine firehoop review I’m completing now, no one submitted a collapsible design under 2 pounds.
If these new products live up to the hype, they will be groundbreaking. I wish they could have made it into the Kindle review but I guess that’s unavoidable when the state of the art designs progress every 6 months or so. Shakti says that the new firehoop design will be available early November and the new collapsible will be available early December. So if you are looking to get me a Christmas present… I’m just sayin…. :)
Thank you Ken for posting this. This is the only clip I’ve seen of me spinning the double mini’s at FireDrums this year. Unfortunately the camera is 90 degrees off of where I was performing to. These double mini firehoops are available through Cosmic Fire.
Thank you Shakti for such a thorough recount of the transpirings of HoopCon 2009. I’ve been fearful of starting to write about HoopCon because I have a feeling it might be as long as the novel she has written here.
Brecken. Wow. Brecken. Hands down Brecken takes the cake for repeatedly blowing my mind. Going back through notes of the weekend she appears on virtually every page. My aerial trainer/dance teacher once said; ‘there are no transitions in dance,’ and Brecken’s workshop and dance style both were testament to that statement. Breaking out of traditional horizontal vs. vertical plane structure, Brecken led us through a series of visualizations where the hoop was allowed to move ’sphere-like’ through space like a coin wobbles on the rim. Once the sphere passes through, say a vertical space, we worked to seize that opportunity to pass seamlessly into that movement plane and back. Rather than 2-D flowers and spirals I imagined my hoop carving 3 dimensional spheres in the etheric field. I am looking forward to more of the wealth of information and inspiration Brecken has to offer.
Entire post: here
Miss Rosie posted a list of her hoop collection yesterday on her blog. Her approach to her collection is fairly similar to my own. She writes:
I make all the hoops I use except for my fire hoops. For personal use I have 4 sizes. My primary hoop is approx. 35″ diameter, 1/2″ 125 psi tubing (I actually have 5 of these that I use for multiple-hoops hooping). My small twins hoops (for hands) are the same tubing, but approx. 28″ diameter. When I need to get the foundations of a move (like chest hooping in my second direction) I practice with a beginner size hoop, approx. 40″ diameter, 3/4″ 160 psi tubing. I also have an intermediate size that’s 36″ diameter, 3/4″ 100 psi tubing, which I use to learn second direction moves AFTER I’ve gotten the move with the beginner hoop, and before I downsize to my 35″ hoop.
Entire Article: here
My own hoop collection:
(1) 3/4″ 160 psi 120″ (circumference) sanded black Gazelle a la Bax style
(1) 5/8″ HDPE 36″ taped hoop
(2) 1/2″ 125 psi 35″ taped doubles
(2) 1/2″ 125 psi 28″ taped mini doubles
My primary hoop is my 5/8″ HDPE. It’s super light and fast. This is what I jam with 75% of the time. The 3/4″ 100 psi is what I pick up for practicing chest hooping, especially second current. Then I have a big set of doubles and a mini set of doubles.
.
Performance Hoops
(2) PSIhoops – 35.5″ O.D. Polypropelyne (custom sandblasted) with White LEDs
(1) Cosmic Fire – 35″ Magic Firehoop Pro 1″ Wicks with pro wick length
(2) Cosmic Fire – 22″ Mini Firehoops pro wick length
