from Wikipedia

The hula hoop is a toy hoop, usually made of plastic, that is twirled around the waist, limbs, or neck.

History

Although the exact origins of hula hoops are unknown, children around the world have played with hoops, twirling, rolling and throwing them throughout history. Traditional materials for hoops include grapevines and stiff grasses. Today, they are often made of plastic.

In Egypt around 3,000 years ago, hoops made out of grape vines were propelled around the ground with sticks. In the 14th century, "hooping" was popular in England and medics blamed it for heart attacks and back dislocations. The word "hula" was added in the early 18th century as sailors who visited Hawaii noticed the similarity between hula dancing and hooping.

In 1957 the hula (also frequently spelled "hoola" ) hoop was reinvented by Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Medlin, founders of the Wham-O toy company. (The two had founded the company in a Los Angeles garage in 1948 to market the "Wham-O" slingshot, which was originally invented to shoot pieces of meat into the air, as a training device for falcons). The idea came from an Australian who had visited California who told Knerr and Melin about children twirling bamboo hoops around the waist in gym class. The new Hula Hoops were made possible by Marlex, a recently invented durable plastic.

Knerr and Medlin were unable to patent their vastly profitable "re-invention", as it had been in use for thousands of years; making the device out of a new material did not meet patent requirements of originality. They were largely able, however, to protect their invention by trademarking "Hula hoop".

After the hoop was released in 1958, Wham-O sold over 100 million in two years. As the fad ran its course, Wham-O again struck lucky with the release of their Frisbee.

To relaunch the Hula Hoop in the late 1960s, Wham-O staged a national competition in the US in conjunction with the National Parks & Recreation Network. The National Hula Hoop Contest (subsequently re-named the World Hula Hoop Championships) grew in scope from 500 U. S. cities in 1968 to over 2,000 cities in 1980, with 2 million participants. Competitors were judged on their performance of compulsory maneuvers (Knee Knocker, Stork, Hula Hop, Wrap the Mummy, Alley Oop) as well as freestyle routines set to music, establishing the roots of the contemporary freestyle Hula Hoop movement.

Winners of the national competitions during 1968 - 1980 were as follows:

* 1968 - Marilou Jones;
* 1969 - Melody Howe;
* 1970 - Richard Low;
* 1971 - Sandra Gaylord;
* 1972 - David Williams;
* 1973 - Lori Ray;
* 1974 - DeAnn DeLuna;
* 1975 - Mat Plendl;
* 1976 - Joanne Barnes;
* 1977 - Carl Cooke;
* 1978 - Robert Lynn White;
* 1979 - Mark Sforzini;
* 1980 - Lori Hayes

In 1983 Wham-O re-launched the Hula Hoop in western Europe, 25 years after the original worldwide craze, with national competitions staged in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Circus

The hula hoop emerged in the world of circus in the 1960s. Russian and Chinese artists took the hula hoop to extremes. These influenced contemporary circus artists like Australian circus comedienne and hula hoop historian Judith Lanigan, who performs the Dying Swan ? "a tragedy with hula hoops" ? using 30 hula hoops. The Cirque du Soleil's "Alegria" features a hula hoop contortionist.

World Records

Duration

An early duration record for the hula hoop was set by 8-year-old Mary Jane Freeze, who won a hooping endurance contest on 19 August, 1976, by lasting 10 hours and 47 minutes. The current record is held by Roxann Rose of the USA, who went 90 hours between 2 April and 6 April, 1987.

Hoop running

Records for running while twirling a hula hoop around the waist are:

* 100 m: 13.84 seconds, by Roman Schedler (Austria), 16 July, 1994
* 1 mile: 7:47, by Paul "Dizzy Hips" Blair (USA), date unknown
* 10 km, men: 1:06:35, by Paul "Dizzy Hips" Blair (USA), date unknown
* 10 km, women: 1 hour 43 minutes, by Betty (Shurin) Hoops (USA), 23 February 1972

Other records

The record for the most hoops twirled simultaneously is 100, by Kareena Oates of Australia (4 June, 2005). The largest hoop successfully twirled was 13.88 meters (45.55 feet) in circumference, by Ashrita Furman of the USA (September, 2005). The record for simultaneous hula-hooping (minimum time: 2 minutes) is for 2,290 participants at Chung Cheng Stadium in Kaohsiung (Taiwan) on 28 October, 2000.

In 2000, Roman Schedler spun a 53-pound tractor tire for 71 seconds at the 5th Saxonia Record Festival in Bregenz, Austria.

In 2005, in Brazil, twelve year old Thatiana Rocha Oleinik danced to popular music with 22 hula hoops on television.

Today

The past few years have seen the re-emergence of hula hooping. Modern hula-hoopers can be found among fans of jambands like The String Cheese Incident and attendees of Burning Man. Many modern hoopers make their own hoops out of polyethylene tubing. They are much larger and heavier than hoops of the 1950s. These hoops may be covered in a fabric or plastic tape to ease the amount of work in keeping a hoop twirling around the dancer, and can be very colorful. Some use glow-in-the dark, patterned, or sparkling tape, and others are produced with clear tubing and filled with plastic balls, glitter, or even water to produce visual or audio effects when used. LED technology has also been introduced in the past few years allowing hoops to light up at the flick of a switch.

Within the past few years, some hoopers have taken up fire hooping, in which spokes are set into the outside of the hoop and tipped with kevlar wicks which are soaked in fuel and lit on fire.