Amazing Hoop Race Grand Finale

The time has come everybody and we are racing to the final finish line of The Amazing Hoop Race, Hooping.org’s revolutionary new contest that sent teams of two on a virtual hula hoop race around the world! Before we tell you about the cinematically inspired final leg of the race in Los Angeles, California, USA, here’s what has happened so far for those who are just tuning in.

We started off with meeting our 14 amazing teams who hooped to the starting line from places all over the world. The race was explained and our teams were off to the airport (where they got people hooping) on their way to Porto Alegre, Brazil, where they participated in a Samba Hoop Dance Challenge. The following day three teams were eliminated and the rest were spinning their way to Johannesburg, South Africa. There they hit a Detour, and while some teams were hooping with wild animals on safari, others were cooking up pampoenkoekies before our Kwaito Hoop Bliss Challenge. In Johannesburg three more teams were eliminated and the rest were off to spend Halloween hooping in Paris, France. Once there, on a Roadblock, one member of each team descended beneath the city streets to hoop in the Catacombs – one of the scariest places on earth! Once they returned to the rand of the living, our teams presented Parisian Gothic Hoop Dance Music Videos on Halloween itself. There was, of course, another elimination before sending the remaining six teams on a hooping journey to Tokyo, Japan. Once there our Tokyo Matsuri Flow Challenge was inspired both by Shichi-go-san and the beauty and grace of the cherry blossom itself. In the tightest race elimination ever, three more teams were sent to the sidelines, leaving Team London, Team Seattle and Team Wisconsin hoop racing their way into the finale with a shot at winning The Amazing Hoop Race Grand Finale Prize Package. What exactly is in that prize package? Allow us to tell you all about it.

THE GRAND FINALE PRIZE PACKAGE:

We start off with not one, but TWO incredible fire hoops from Trick Concepts, and we are talking the lightest fire hoops available that also have the additional bonus of removable spines. Aside from just being convenient and super easy for travel, the removable spines also allow you to move them to a new hoop should yours get damaged, or should you decide to switch to a different size. With Trick Concepts, our first place team will be setting the night on fire! Amazing!! We want one for ourselves. Thanks so much Trick Concepts!

But wait, there’s more! Our winning team will not only be burning it up, they’ll also be lighting it up with brand new amazing LED Hoops! One fantastic LED hoop will be coming their way from the good folks at Troo Hoops – with your choice of colors and size! How amazing is that? We are so jealous right now! But wait, did we forget to mention that our winning team gets TWO LED hoops, one for each of them? Well they do – and the other is coming their way from the good folks at Mood Hoops – with their choice of style, color and size as well! Amazing!! We think we’re going to have to add these to our holiday shopping list for ourselves. Thanks so much Mood Hoops and Troo Hoops! You guys totally rock!

But wait, there’s more! Our first place finishers will also be getting two pairs of polypro twins from our good friends at Superhooper.org! PolyPro is high-performance tubing that reacts more rapidly to your movements than standard hoop tubing. It’s helpful to think of Polypro as responsive, rather than fast and light. And because Superhooper’s polypro hoops are friction-fit, you can cut down the size at any time should you feel like it. They open and coil down in seconds too – with no rivets, pins or buttons – just seamless perfection! Amazing!! We love it! Thanks Superhooper.org!

And the winners of The Amazing Hoop Race will also receive a couple of six-month passes to Hooping University, where they can learn from the pros. Hooping University has a whole faculty of great instructors to inspire our teams to even greater hooping heights! Thanks Hooping University!

And as if that isn’t enough, there’s more! Yes Virginia, each of our first place team members will also score themselves a $50 gift certificate to Hoop Supplies.com, the place that has everything you need to make hoops, even kits to help you out if you don’t know how! Each kit contains the supplies needed to make and decorate so all you have to do is pick out your size & colors! They have amazing polychromatic tubing, an amazing seleciton of hoop tape, it’s another amazing prize! Thanks so much HoopSupplies.com!

And then finally, with old man Winter on the way, what could be better than a $50 Xmittens gift certificate! Xmittens are recycled fleece fingerless gloves that are perfect for hoopers. They cover your wrists and palms to cozy perfection, while allowing for much greater dexterity for your fingers to do all of the hooping (or crafting, texting, typing, etc.) you want. Amber also makes amazing shawls, jackets and hats to keep you toasty warm all winter long! Yay for staying amazingly warm this winter! Thanks so much Xmittens! And thanks again to all of our Amazing Race Grand Finale Prize Package sponsors!

THE FINALE JUDGES: Over the course of the race we’ve had special guest judges in cities around the world, as well as special guest celebrity judges – but for the final leg of The Amazing Hoop Race, who knows more about what the race is like than the racers themselves? Having previously spun their way across thousands of miles with our finalists, spanning numerous continents, we invited all of our 11 previously eliminated teams back to be a part of our Amazing Hoop Race Grand Finale judges panel. We’re so excited to have them on board.

WELCOME TO LOS ANGELES:

Welcome to Los Angeles, California, the home of Hollywood and the entertainment industry, the birthplace of the modern hooping movement when Anah “Hoopalicious” Reichenbach began spinning things up fifteen years ago, and our final destination for The Amazing Hoop Race itself. Los Angeles is also the home of the The Hooping Life movie, the phenomenal hooping documentary that will be coming your way in 2012, and donated super cool prizes for our earlier race legs including Hooper Playing Cards and the amazing Hoop Loops VJ Mix DVD. With Los Angeles being the place where movie magic happens, it was only fitting for our Amazing Hoop Racers to be presented with a couple of challenges inspired by the movies themselves.

Upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport, our final three teams were to race their way to the Griffith Park Observatory, which has appeared in “Rebel Without a Cause”, “The Terminator”, “Devil in a Blue Dress”, “Earth Girls Are Easy” and countless other films. Once there they were to use this incredible Los Angeles landmark as their backdrop for a short travelogue video including approximately one-minute of the World Hoop Day Dance Choreography for 2011. Which section of the choreography they decided to include was entirely up to them, and they could earn a maximum of 20 Travel Points for completing this challenge. How did our teams do at Griffith Park? Presented this week in a randomly selected hand drawn order, let’s take a look.

TEAM WISCONSIN:

TEAM SEATTLE:

TEAM LONDON:

All three teams each scored 20 Travel Points at the Griffith Park Observatory, proving that this is going to be a really amazing hoop race to the finish. Now for their final Vista Point Challenge videos.

For their final Amazing Hoop Race video challenge, in an homage to Hollywood itself, each of our teams was to make a hoop dance video that was inspired by a movie of their choice. Their video submissions were to be under five minutes in length. Without any further ado, here they are:

TEAM WISCONSIN: Danielle and Savannah were out to “Kill Bill” – or should we say, Evil Dr. Square.

TRAVEL POINTS: 20
VISTA POINTS: To be awarded by our judges panel.
AUDIENCE POINTS: To be determined by you.
PIT STOP POINTS: 10

TEAM SEATTLE: Michelle and Taylor were “Hoopless in Seattle”.

TRAVEL POINTS: 20
VISTA POINTS: To be awarded by our panel of judges.
AUDIENCE POINTS: To be determined by you.
PIT STOP POINTS: 8

TEAM LONDON: Jazz and Jen hoop things up “Pulp Fiction” style.

TRAVEL POINTS: 20
VISTA POINTS: To be awarded by our judges.
AUDIENCE POINTS: To be determined by you.
PIT STOP POINTS: 9

And there you have it! Now it’s time for you to participate in The Amazing Hoop Race by casting your vote for the team you believe is the winner of The Amazing Hoop Race. You can only vote once and for one team only.

VOTING HAS CLOSED. THANK YOU.

Voting will close at 5am PST on Thursday, November 17th. Your Audience Point Awards will then be combined with the Pit Stop and Travel Points noted above, as well as the Vista Point video challenge scores from our Amazing Hoop Race panel of judges, ultimately giving each team their final point total for the race. Based on those scores one team will emerge victorious and win our Amazing Hoop Race Grand Finale Prize Package, though all three of our final teams are already winners in our book. They’re truly amazing and we whole heartedly invite you all to share the hoop love with them that they have so generously shared with us over the past several weeks. Hooping.org congratulates all three of our final teams for an amazing job that was amazingly well done. You’re all truly amazing!

Be sure to tune in tomorrow when we see which team crosses that finish line ahead of the pack. Until then, happy hooping everybody!

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