The Team

B.J. first picked up a hoop in the late 90s at the Gaian Mind psytrance festival and was later gifted his first hoop in the spring of 2007 while attending Toast!, the Arizona regional Burning Man event. He was instantly hooked. With a background in computer programming and electrical engineering, it wasn't long before B.J.'s geek side kicked in and he started work on an LED hoop. Not wanting to create just any LED hoop, he jumped straight into trying out different ideas for controlling the LEDs with custom circuitry.

By the Spring of 2010, B.J.'s obsession with working on these LED hoops had led to the creation of some nicely refined designs and Astral Hoops was born. Hooping had already added so much to B.J.'s life. The creation of Astral Hoops allowed him to take that a step further by trading in his corporate career for something that he had genuine love and passion for, while contributing to the hooping and flow arts community.

 

Jay
Lead Wand Tech / Hoop Medic

Jay has worked for Astral since the very beginning 11 years ago. He met B.J. at psytrance parties in Arizona, and wanted to get involved after seeing the first LED hoops B.J. engineered, to become Astral Hoops’ second employee. His favorite prop to use is the levi wand, and is our wand production lead and medic for hoops in need of service. Outside of Astral, Jay is a resident DJ at Milk Bar and also DJs around the city at various venues.

Michael has worked with us for 3 years and his background and degree in automotive tech has led to his knack for leading our high-tech workshop. He hoops, juggles, and spins fire and a variety of ninja props, including sai, staff, sword, and chakram. Michael and Tyler also own a circus entertainment booking group called Augmented Entertainment.

 

Tyler
Hoopsmith

Tyler has been with Astral for 3 years. Outside of being a super speedy hoopsmith, he spins a number of props, including dragon and contact staff, and poi, and is also a juggler, aerial performer, stilt walker and character artist. He is also an event coordinator at Augmented Entertainment with Michael, and loves spending time with his pup, Sokka.

 

John
Hoopsmith

Catherine has worked at Astral for just over a year, and co-manages our social media and Sponsored Artist Program, while providing the stellar customer service we are so proud of! She has been hooping for 7 years, and fire spinning and performing for 5 years. With a simultaneous passion for live music, she also enjoys working at the Black Box when she’s not here at the office.

 

Alex
Marketing / Customer Service