The Kootenays are too hot to hoop in during the day. Shambhala is too crowded to hoop in at night: there is space in the downtown area, but that’s just a mush of music from the adjacent stages; areas around the edges of the stages have too much traffic (and too much of the traffic is either inconsiderate, inebriated or both). As a result, I did very little hooping.

Apparently I’m a wimp, because I saw plenty of other hoopers: hooping is the most popular flow art amongst Shambhala attendees. Perhaps because poi and staff spinners prefer events (like Burning Man) where fire is allowed?

Some of the other flow toys I saw:

• contact juggling balls
• folding fans
• s-staffs
• double glow staffs
• contact juggling various lengths of light sabers*

One of my favourite sights of the weekend was a girl with a green flow wand strapped diagonally to her back like a scabbard or quiver – I think this is the coolest way to carry a flow wand (if only they looked a little more masculine to use).

There were a lot of glow hoops (at one point I saw a girl using three) and a surprising number of the $300 fibre optic hoops, which were on sale at the festival. The fibre optic hoops look wonderful, but when I tried one I found it rather clunky.

I saw a few hoopers who were significantly better than everyone in Victoria, but most people were intermediate. There were a couple of other men hooping. There were only more than 3 or 4 hoopers together for an organized lesson on Saturday, so don’t go expecting a big flow jam or a lot of opportunity to learn new tricks.

* Memo to people in Star Wars costumes: if you can’t juggle your saber, the force is weak in you.