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Permalink Reply by Martika* of MartikasMysticDesign on January 4, 2011 at 1:59pm

My first twins were made of 160 psi, which was great for learning to multi-hoop on body but made it hard for learning the twin weave because they were heavy and it made me tried after a while. It was great for building much needed upper body strength. But a couple of months later I bought 125 psi and fell in love with it.IT really just depends on what you feel like you'll be using in the long run. I suggest going light for twins/multi-hooping, 160 psi can be unforgiving on the body.

 

As for size well that just depends on what feels comfortable to you. I use 30''-33'' but i'm only 5'1. I've seen some of your videos (very lovely by the way :)) and you seem to be taller than me, but I could be wrong of course. So 36'' could be great for you.

 

*I recently bought HDPE tubing and find it just as good as 125 psi, it's just a little stiffer.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah "Dwiizie" on January 4, 2011 at 2:20pm

My current "go to" size is also a 36" I like the 100PSI better than the 160, but I'm about to go lighter, not smaller, and see how I feel. I don't have a whole lot of experience with this, as I am just starting to dabble with twins, but is what I've found out about myself:I like being able to hoop on my core, but twins, for me, are mostly off the body. I wanted something that I could operate for core hooping, but that was a little smaller than my "usual" so that I had more freedom to move around and do things like hourglass weaves without running into myself. I also didn't want it to be the bigger 3/4" 100PSI tubing I use "regularly" because, as Marti said, it takes a lot of strength and, for me, puts more stress on my wrists than what I'd like to do. Taking all of that into account, I chose to go with 33" Not too small for me to go core hooping, not too big to go off the body, and the weight is great with either 1/2 black tubing or the polypro equivalent. I'm 5'5 so I'm about average height. 33" allows me to not have to worry about ground clearance as well. With my 36", some of the larger weaves leave me hitting the ground just barely, or having to tilt out to avoid hitting. the 33" gives me that extra room to go completely vertical at my sides if I want to. If you want to go for fancy tape, grab up a roll of the 1/2" 125psi black tubing. Not only is it cheaper than the bigger stuff, but you can also play around with sizing. Start at a 36" and shave an inch or two off at a time if you find yourself wanting smaller ones. 30's or 32's would be nice for a few of the moves, but for me, core hooping with a 30 would be a bit riddiculous at this point. But I can always trim hoops down :) Good luck, hopefully you'll find or make something that ends up perfect for you!

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Permalink Reply by Martika* of MartikasMysticDesign on January 4, 2011 at 2:33pm

I almost forgot that, it's very important to get a weight that doesn't cause pain to your wrists.A good way to find what hurts your wrist is to pick up the hoop and hold it shoulder length. If it hurts to hold it up for about 5 min.s then It's too heavy. I personally suffer from tendinitis so I'm always being careful of what I pick up.

 

* This is just what works for me when I was buying a new bat for softball. I would think the method could work the same for a hoop.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah "Dwiizie" on January 4, 2011 at 2:47pm

Usually I just do a left handed reverse weave to test my wrists lol. If it gets wonky, twists my wrist because I don't have the strength to catch a move gone wrong before it hurts me, or if I find myself trying to use my upper arm strength to compensate for lacking forarm strength, the hoop is too heavy for that kind of weaving. I also found this to be helpful with certain sustained spinning moves and things like one handed beam me ups and what not :)

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Permalink Reply by shimarella* on January 4, 2011 at 4:39pm

cool! I'm actually abt 5 ft tall myself so maybe 33 is the way to go. I like the feel of a 36 inch hoop for most things but you are right, even that makes some off-body moves challenging!

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Permalink Reply by MyProgressInSpirals on April 7, 2011 at 3:38pm

I'm glad I found this post! I'm also about to order my first set of twins and was wondering about weight/size. I'm going to test out some sizes tomorrow night (the person making it has a hoop practice studio so I can pick up different hoops and see how they feel). I know I want lighter tubing than what I've been using for my single and smaller but still big enough to do core. I know from downsizing three times on single hoops in the just over seven months I've been hooping that what works for learning tricks and core hooping can quickly become impossible for off body more complex combos and I can imagine that goes double for twins. :)

 

Thanks everyone for the advice!

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