Where do you get a rola bola? You could buy one. I have seen them in the Dube catalog, but they were some really high price for a piece of wood and a PVC pipe. If you don't want to spend that money, you could always make your own. The idea is simple enough...

Design #1

When I made my first rola bola, I didn't really plan it out too well. I just built it to what looked okay to me. I started out by going to Home Depot and buying the two parts that make up the rola bola. Wood and PVC pipe. I bought a 3 ft long, 1 ft wide, 1 in thick plank of wood. Then I bought the biggest PVC pipe that they sold which I believe was 5 inches. One foot is all you need of the pipe since it shouldn't be wider than the board. Also, make sure you get the thickest PVC pipe that they sell. The thicker the pipe is, the more weight it can hold.

I then took the stuff that I bought home and put some finishing touches on it, like sanding the splinters out of the wood. And that's about all I did, and the rola bola worked fine...

...But I have thought of some improvements that can be added to the rola bola to make it better. I haven't done any of these yet, but I will eventually.

• First, I would add some reinforcements to the pvc pipe. Possibly some 1 inch wood slats screwed or glued inside of the pipe. I have noticed that the pipe without any reinforcements sags some when I stand on it.
• Second, I would shorten the legnth of the wooden board. I would make it 2 and a half feet instead of 3, or even shorter than that. Let me know if a legnth works good for you.
• Third, I would add wooden bumpers onto the bottom of the board on each end. One inch strips of wood screwed into the main board would probably work well. This is because when the board hits the ground, it gets nicked up, and after a lot of use, has started splitting.
• Fourth, I would add some kind of sandpaper or something rough to the board. If I use the rola bola wearing socks, the wood is very slippery and is hard to stay on. The sandpaper would solve this problem. And wearing shoes would too I guess...

Design #2

My second design at a rola bola improved on my first version. I decided that I would try making the rola bola shorter to see how that handled compared to my original 3 foot design. I had my wood cut to 29 inches for this rola bola (based on the dimensions given for the rola bola that is sold at the Dube website). I also had two end strips of wood cut for brakes or whatever you want to call them. Once I got all the cut wood home from Home Depot, I sanded the wood and assembled it. I screwed the end strips to the bottom of each end of the 29 inch board. I screwed them in from the bottom, so the top of the rola bola is plain wood, and you don't see any of the screw heads unless you turn the rola bola over. With that, I was done with the second version of my rola bola.

This design works a lot better than my original. Since it is shorter, it is easier to balance, but looks more impressive because you can roll to just about the end of the board with no problem staying balanced. Also, since the board is shorter, it is also a lot easier to keep the ends of the board from hitting the ground. With this new board, I figured out some new tricks that are easier to do with a shorter board, so they will be posted soon.

That's all I really have to say about building a rola bola. If you have any feedback about this page, let me know.