At 7:30 a.m. every weekday morning, Ryan Smith finds his way to the upper quad outside of Koch Commons. He stands in his favorite spot and watches people coming and going, dragging themselves to their 8 a.m. classes. In the midst of this, he keeps busy and focused with his favorite activity, hula-hooping.

Smith, a sophomore and music business major at St. Thomas, is most likely known around campus as the Hula Hoop Guy. He began hula-hooping, at his mother’s suggestion, during the past summer as an initiative to lose the “freshman 15.”

“She said it would work, and I honestly didn’t believe her at first; so I bet her that if I hula-hooped all summer it wouldn’t do anything,” Smith said. “By the end of the summer I lost 20 pounds by just hula-hooping and dieting and just working.”

Smith’s hoop weighs about five pounds. He hoops between 30 to 40 minutes a day, depending on whether or not he “spices up his routine” with the accompaniment of a stair machine or another type of cardio workout.

“I feel like if I can get up and hula-hoop, people can go up and go to class,” Smith said. “It’s sort of like a beacon, ‘oh the Hula Hoop Guy is there; If he can do all this, I can do this.’”

While Smith acknowledges that people think he is strange for hooping every weekday morning, he knows that once he explains why he picked up the activity, people begin to understand. Smith’s roommate, Cole Hansen, had a similar reaction.

“I thought he was joking. I was trying to figure out what this multicolored, oversized circle was.” Hansen said. “I think he makes a positive impact on people’s mornings and would be considered by some an inspiration to exercise.”

Freshman Haley Wincek also wonders what the Hula Hoop Guy is up to.

“Is he trying to set, like, a record or something, or is he just doing it for fun?” Wincek wondered. “He’s out early, early every morning too, which is a lot of dedication to whatever he’s doing.”

Occurrences such as students at the Binz asking Smith if he was the Hula Hoop Guy and an appearance on the St. Thomas Snapchat account have made it obvious to Smith that he is a campus celebrity.

“I see people take pictures of me a lot, and so I used to not really look at them, but now if I see someone taking a picture I’ll definitely smile and wave,” Smith said.

Along with in-person interactions, Smith also sees commentary on the anonymous app Yik Yak. The app allows people to “Yak” about anything in their local area. Around St. Paul, the Hula Hoop Guy is the talk of the town, literally. Some of the “Yaks” include:

Smith finds the app funny. In fact, so funny that he collects the comments.

“I have a collection of Yik Yaks on my phone,” Smith said. “I want to show my parents when they come out for Thanksgiving.”

Some people wonder whether Smith will start a hula-hooping club. Smith said he is open to the idea of a group for anyone wanting to hoop.

“Anyone is welcome to join me any time. I love when people come up to me and introduce themselves, and I get to meet all these people.” Smith said. “ If you ever get a Hula Hoop, you’re welcome to join me in the mornings.”

For Smith, hula-hooping has become an activity that he enjoys and is dedicated to. In the short time he has pursued it on campus, he realized that he has a much greater impact on students than he thought.

“There’s probably a lot of people that think I’m just a fool, just because I’m out there in the middle of the quad every morning hula-hooping,” Smith said. “I like to make people laugh, and I like to bring joy to people. If I can do that in any way, and that way is a way that’s helping me help them, more power to them and me.”

Noura Elmanssy can be reached at elma7206@stthomas.edu.