New Hobbies

by Alexis Bryan

When you watch a Hawaiian luau, a Hawaiian party or feast, you may see what is called poi. In Hawaii though, they mainly spin fire on two sides of a staff. A couple of years ago poi was introduced to Gothenburg, Ne. I have personally been doing poi for about three to four years.

I was introduced to poi by my younger brother while I was still in highschool. There were about two people in Gothenburg that started this. It was just a harmless hobby that captured the eyes of many--freshman Bailey Rickertsen being one of the many.

You can have sock poi, which looks mainly like an extra long sock with a small ball in the end of it; pendulum poi, which looks like a rope with oversized hollow bouncy balls on the end; or fire poi, which looks like a chain with a ball or square of cloth on the end of it. There are so many more types of poi that you can find on www.homeofpoi.com.

Poi comes with so many different possibilities, but one thing you can be sure of is that no matter what you choose one of the hardest parts is learning how to use them.

Bailey states, “I would have to say the hardest part of poi is trying to learn new tricks on your own. And trying not to hit myself in the face.”

Some people, including me, have what is known as TERRIBLE hand-eye coordination. With poi, though, you really learn how to exercise this ability and strengthen your self-trust, because it does take a lot of trust in your hands not to hit yourself in the face.

This is just another thing that helps get rid of stress and just pass time.

“I just want to get better everyday and try to get other people to love poi as much as I do,” explains Bailey. So if you are finding that you have way too much time on your hands maybe you could give something new a twirl.