this is me about to attempt the world record for the largest hula hoop ever hula hoop six months
earlier i had no idea how to spin a normal hula hoop or how to build something so obnoxiously
large that's so freaking big oh my god welcome to how to learn anything the show where i do my best
to learn two unrelated skills from scratch and combine them to do something ridiculous
in this episode i want to get really good at hula hooping then i want to construct the largest hula
hoop ever built if i'm able to do that i'm going to learn how to spin that gigantic feat
of backyard engineering around my body why because if i'm able to do this i will get the world record
for spinning the largest hula hoop around my body that means that i will be the best at something
even if that thing is super dumb in the world i really really want this let's go to get started
with this challenge i figured it made sense for me to learn how to use a normal sized hula hoop and
then go from there all right this is the first official day of hula hoop practice here we go
that's not bad
i don't get this quickly i'm gonna be very annoyed oh yeah
i'll be the one to say it i was not expecting to struggle this much and even though i did make some
progress that night i thought i would get some help yeah we call it hooping or hoop dancing
this is marika sila a professional hoop dancer and she is very good at hooping
so what you want to do is have the hoop at the small of your waist behind your back and then
from here you're going to use your dominant hand to push the hoop into the other side of your waist
once you have it started most people think that you're going to go in a circular motion with your
hips but as you can see i'm actually just rocking back and forth and kicking one of my hips upwards
and that's what we want because if you don't it's gonna fall to the ground after hanging out with
marika and showing off some hooping skills of my own i was ready to give this thing another shot
whoa look at that
what the heck
nice
what is going on here wow
i think it's safe to say that at least counter-clockwise
i've got this whole hula-hooping thing figured out
let's try adding a couple more just jump into three at a time ain't got no time for two
oh my gosh whoa
you want to try not really come on all right director lindsay give it a shot
it turns out that hula hooping is probably really easy and that maybe this guy was just having a
tough time either way it doesn't matter because now i had to start figuring out how i was going
to build the world's largest hulu all right today we're going to make a big friggin hula hoop my
plan was to start out by testing progressively larger hula hoops made of different materials
before moving up to the big one the most flaccid looking hula hoop i've ever seen here we go
it was pretty obvious that this floppy pipe by itself was not going to work but i wanted
to test it out on a smaller scale just to see what would happen this looks a little bit better
after some practice i was able to get the hoop spinning around with relative
ease it was bigger than where i started but nowhere near as big as it needed to be
to add structure to the floppy pipe i tried adding in some wire and it kind of worked but
it also looked like a giant piece of half cooked spaghetti and i was pretty sure it wouldn't scale
next i tried putting some lightweight foam into the pipe to make it rigid it's dried overnight
and i want to see if this hula hoop is indeed stiffer than without the foam inside it it was not
i also tried a few more types of plastic pipe and one by one they all failed after
getting to a certain size and then in an act of desperation i spent an entire day learning
how to solder together a giant hula hoop out of copper pipe i can't even lift this thing
come on i'm gonna try bolting all these joints together so it doesn't come apart hopefully
that's gonna work okay here we go copper hula hoop mark two come on baby please stay together
it's working
that's intense
and it breaks man with the copper hula hoop out of the picture it was appearing that this
was going to be a much more difficult engineering challenge than i expected
so i decided to get some help what do you think the best way to build this thing is going to be
well keep in mind that there's no such thing as a hula hoop textbook we we can't go to the
theory and do the equations beforehand so no matter what you do there's going to be
a bit of trial and error um so if i were you i look at three materials and look at aluminum
carbon fiber fiberglass all good stiffness to weight ratios i learned from brian that the
material i used for this hula hoop needed to have the best stiffness to weight ratio
possible or in other words it's got to be super rigid and super light and it'll allow you to buy
a bunch of different diameters and play with it so you can do a bit of trial and error once you get a
prototype made i don't know why people haven't broken this record before they're not smart
enough i think that's what's going on or they haven't put all the physical training in like you
just to clarify that one i haven't done any physical training okay here's the plan we
need a hula hoop that is 18 feet in diameter in order to get that i found some super duper
lightweight aluminum rods that i've ordered online i'm going to send those rods to a pipe bender who
can professionally bend them in the perfect angle and then once those are bent send them to our guy
larry who is really great at building stuff and he'll connect them together and then we'll try
it out oh yep just taping the hula hoop i built all by myself all right the first 18
foot diameter hula hoop is constructed now we just got to measure it to make sure it's actually
18 feet larry's the man here who basically did everything he gets the credit so it's interior
diameter oh baby we're 18 feet and one and a half inches right i didn't just eat 14 cheeseburgers
i'm wearing body armor and that is so that my ribs don't get totally bruised when i spin this around
now that it's put together we want to see if this works before we bolt everything in
i really really hope that this works okay here we go big hula hoop attempt number one
that's really tough
oh jesus christ
the school loop is like 12 pounds but holy crap
that's super tough we're gonna do a test comparing the size of this hula hoop
to the barn oh yeah oh yeah that's working so much better that's so freaking big
oh my god i'm just hula hoop in a barn right this is the first attempt of trying this with cleats
i think it's gonna help i'm nervous i really want this to work here we go
oh my god
that is freaking hard
all right we're going to try something just to see if it'll work we got my twin brother and
he's going to hold the other end while i spin it around and he's going to try and keep up with it
all right this is the guess is going at your pace michael so just start sprinting
there's no way there's no way that was stupid i think we need to find a slippery air surface
right it's day three of attempts for the big hula hoop we're out at a gravel road
i got my cleats on i'm hoping this is gonna be the key okay here we go
oh my god we got it up that is incredible how much easier that is on here this is doable
all right we're trying out a new location today with smooth floors for the hula
hoop that are also really grippy for my shoes i'm hoping this gives me the edge
oh baby all right just so we're on the same page here to officially break the world record i have
to get this hula hoop around my body three times with it staying in between my waist and shoulders
without me touching it with my hands so that means i have to spin it three times
just using my body like this
and it can't touch the ground at all during those three rotations
even though it's easier in here it's still really freaking hard leave and you will achieve
i think this is physically possible i just got to get the right technique here we go bye-bye
oh i am feeling sore today sore but hopeful there we go
no not a tough fix but you know something we got to deal with all right i've moved out to
an airfield today the problem they're in the middle of a field
and it's super windy and i think it basically is just a giant sail
oh my god it's gonna keep moving forward tweaking it we're gonna stiffen it up tomorrow
and hopefully that makes a big difference
at this point i had been building the hula hoop and practicing on and off for about
six months and i was incredibly close but i was also running out of time to complete
this season of how to learn anything so even though i had no idea if i was gonna get it or
not i scheduled in the record attempt crossed my fingers and hoped that it was going to work
a big day here we go
okay so your official measurement is 17 feet 11.9 inches all right let's freaking do this
all right this is attempt number one of me trying to break the record for
the world's largest hula hoop here we go
not a bad first attempt felt okay about that tip number two this is the one baby
oh my god dumb number four this is the one
oh my god
that might have been it it was not counting how many times this thing spins is difficult
attempt number five attempt number six oh my god come on that's gotta be it
time number nine
i'm strength i'm speed
oh my god oh no i think that was just two my heart is in this 100 percent my body is
starting to deteriorate a little bit but this last attempt gave me hope attempt number 15.
this one's for real this time
positivity is the key here we go number 16.
oh
damn it speed power fast level speed power fast level speed
attempt number 22 this is the one
oh no
the hula hoop is broken we're so close
this isn't the end this is just part of the journey
to making this thing happen you know what like
like failure is just a part of this process and this is just one little failure in the road
to doing something really cool so i'm still feeling good i feel better if i had the record but
i know that i'm gonna keep doing it i'm gonna get it eventually
to be continued
you