Hallo
I registered today, but I've been reading for some months. I started vaping in December after smoking hookah daily for over 15 years. I'm almost 30 now, and never really felt problems until a tough time in my life led me to smoke hookah for about 5 hours a day. I was inhaling a lot of carbon monoxide and all the known tobacco toxins. I started getting a lot of phlegm in my throat, which made breathing difficult, and my stomach was terrible with ulcers from smoking on an empty stomach and prolonged acidity.
A few years ago, I bought some pods like the Koko Prime but couldn't make the switch. Then I got a Geekvape Aegis (the first model with only pre-built coils). It was better, but still pretty lame and didn't satisfy my craving, which was more about the act of smoking itself than nicotine. As I said, I was in a bad place, and the conscious inhaling and exhaling, standing still with something in my hands, made me calm. Those devices just felt like trash.
This year, I met a guy with a Voopoo Drag 4 and got curious again. I tried his vape and felt it had potential to help me switch from hookah. I wasn't sure if it was healthier, so I started researching, looking at real studies instead of clickbait. I decided it was a better option for me. Since selling any e-cig, nicotine, or even nicotine-free juice is illegal where I live, he got me a Voopoo Drag 5 with a PnP X from his country (I live in a border city). It was awesome!
From there, I got a Zeus Mesh, a Blotto Max, and an Elder Dragon RDA. I had some really hard dry hits with the Zeus that almost made me hallucinate, haha, it was terrible! But after I learned wicking, I can't use anything besides SS316 mesh. It's my favorite; when I try any other coil, I just think, "meh, why am I not vaping with mesh?"
I started making my own DIY juices after just one month of vaping. I have 104 flavors right now because I wanted to get references about tastes (all 10ml bottles). In my country, I can only find Capella, TPA, or some limited Flavorah, Inawera, SSA, or WF. Not all of them, but enough to be happy. I tried importing some from Nom Nomz UK, and my package is currently being held in customs for authorization analysis. I really like milkshake and bubblegum juices. Oh, and I absolutely hate Johnny Cream Puff Banana. It was the first juice I bought myself because it sounded so good (US-made, and I love banana), but I still have 50% of it because it's horrible. Sometimes I just use it when my cotton is going dark just to try it again.
I still want to get a DNA 250C or a YiHi, but they are hard to get here. Only the G Class V2 or DNA 100C are available right now, and I'm not sure if it would be worth it for me since I only use mesh. TC wouldn't act the best, and I really can't understand the "replay function"—I don't grasp the concept of it just repeating the heating.
I'm worried because disposables are dominating everything, and I'm afraid I won't be able to find any good new mods here in a few months. But since I live on the border, I could order from the US or UK, send it to the other country, and bring it over on foot; for personal use, that should be okay.
Oh, and of course, now that I'm only vaping and not smoking hookah, my phlegm has started to improve. I had actually given up hope it would return to normal because it had already been six months, but now it's much milder, and I also have more energy—not just from having more oxygen, but genuinely more motivation to get things done. With hookah, I had to sit for an hour doing nothing until it finished; with vape, I can just take a puff now and another whenever I want. I really believe my health is still improving, even though I'm a heavy user, going through 20-40ml per day of either 3mg freebase or 6mg salt. But I know that with time, I can cut down. I'm just afraid of increasing the nicotine and only increasing the quantity instead of decreasing my puffs.
And my nickname just means badger in my language that i use since i was 12, mostly because i lack the creativity to think in a better one.
I'm from Brazil, that i get reluctant to say most of the times, because it doesnt get a good reputation
