well as you know i did my 1st burn on my birthday sat night..
after the insane amount of material i had read on safety and other peoples experiences and all the fire hoop videos i watched i was still unprepared for how warm and big the flames were when the wicks were lit..lol.. everything i had practiced went out of my head.. i was nervous.. ok i was scared.. but i remembered reading some where in my studies someone said " when the flames are freaking you out at the beginning, don't think just start spinning the hoop on your waist.." so that is what i did.. took a deep breath and started spinning.. as soon as i did everything was ok.
the sound was fantastic..like a roar.. i thought i would do leg hooping next but i could not get the hoop to go down...
probably because i would not slow my speed enough for it to drop..later in the burn i did ..when i got more comfortable and realized i was doing just fine..i even did a duck out..and a bit of neck hooping.. but i forgot to wet my hair so i didn't do too much...
so even though i was uncentered at the beginning..(i had to step out of the hoop after it was lit to remove a baggy shirt and it really messed with my flow.. my 1st vortex was awefull and the fear..)
my hoop was fabulous.. i was nervous that it would get too warm and lose it's shape..it did not.. that the spokes would get untouchable at the hoop.. they were not.
i know now what to expect.. i will be doing my second burn this week .. because i have the fever.. lol i'm burning up ..
and to be honest i will probably burn once or twice a week all summer.
after all that, nothing will beat the first time.. the nervous knot in the belly... the anticipation...
and my only advice..(besides research ) is don't think about how big the flames are just start spinning !!