Last summer we made a few hoops but ended up losing a couple at a music festival out in Oregon and giving one to my cousins kids when we headed back home. The boys weren't all that into them last year anyways. So, summertime rolled around and it seemed due time to try again.
First off, instructions are here. We already have a bunch of 1" 100 psi black tubing lying around in the "back 40" from when we irrigated out of the pond with the stuff several years back, so that was the easy part that inspired this whole "project" in the first place.
This year I came across individual rolls of colored electrical tape for way cheaper ($1 a roll) than at the local plumbing/electric shop, which ended up working way better than the expensive pack of teensy rolls I bought last year at the the local hardware store, although the connectors (not pictured above) are cheaper at the local hardware store (69 cents). So much for one stop shopping.
This year I used a super thin japanese-style hand saw that cuts on the pull instead of a pruning saw and it cut the tubing like butter. A heat gun for peeling paint turned on low worked great for heating up the ends. It also didn't hurt that the tubing was pre-heated by the sun as we did this on a nearly 90 degree F day last week. A little duct tape around the join, then optional decorating with colored tapes, and "Voila!" you're hooping it up.
(The boys' hoops are 12 foot in diameter duh...circumference, that is, and the adults' ones are 12.5 feet, and I weighted mine with 3/4 cup of water.)
