1st Cloud Comp...Felt Like An Idiot

[Bigflyrodder]

So, one of my local B&Ms ran a cloud competition yesterday and I thought I'd check it out. Didn't feel right from the moment I walked in, not really my scene but wanted to see what it would be like. Had to register and because the owner was making sure no underage people had snuck in had to give my name and age. Looked at the sheet and I was easily 20 years older than anyone else there...lol.

Stuck around for a while, watched a few guys build crazy set ups, and walked out before they even called my name to build. Don't get me wrong, I know how to set up a pretty good build but didn't want to mess around with dual parallel 24ga .2ohm rigs.

I slunk back home, pulled out my tried and true Reo Grand with VA Cyclone/AFC at .5ohms, imagined my ams covered with tatts, and feld like an old fart.

 

[2naphish]

my local B&M has a comp once a month. after they told me the guy who usually wins has vented 2 batteries (sony vct5's) during comps i just look at the highlights they post on facebook. i am sure they wouldn't want to hear anything i had to say about safety or public perception of vapers so i guess i'll just be happy with my .5 builds and DIY liquids. not so bad being an old fart.

 

[DowntownJStroud]

Can honestly say people have a point when it comes to perception. I used my buddy's mech mod all day the last 3 days and the looks some people give you is astounding. I love chasing clouds and going to comps just to see how well people set up their mods, but from a youngsters perception I guess it's just kind of cool to see what your work can produce. Probably not in the best investing way, but it gives you satisfaction at least

 

[Hawaiian Nate]

I'd be a little skittish walking in to one of those. I can just see a bunch of venting VTC's, 0.05 ohm on a purple efest builds, and an inevitable pipe bomb going off lol.
I'll give you credit for at least showing up. I'll just hang out in my basement, build my 0.3 ohm and chuck um.
Gotta love the kids these days. Their so fearless at times.

 

[nyiddle]

I'd be a little skittish walking in to one of those. I can just see a bunch of venting VTC's, 0.05 ohm on a purple efest builds, and an inevitable pipe bomb going off lol.
I'll give you credit for at least showing up. I'll just hang out in my basement, build my 0.3 ohm and chuck um.
Gotta love the kids these days. Their so fearless at times.

The good ones usually have .2 ohm builds, and people ensuring that testers are giving proper ohm readings/staff checking batteries and whatnot.

I'm just curious if they'd allow my box mod. A 14-wrap .8 ohm build at full crank (~150w) will EASILY destroy any .2 ohm parallel dual coil.

 

[Bigflyrodder]

Rules were only standard single battery mech mods, 18650, dual coil, had to use their wire but they had 24, 26, 28, and 30 to work with.

 

[Traijan]

Really not too different than when I re-entered college at 48 years old. My first class and I was easily 28 to 30 years older than most of the people in the class with me. I went home that night and didn't really feel like I wanted to go back again but it got better the more that I went, I saw that the youngsters in the class treated me basically the same as people their own age.

I've been to one cloud competition and it's not likely something that I'll go back to as it's just not my thing. I didn't mind the younger folks, nor the folks that were covered on 80% of their exposed skin with tats, (even some of their faces), it's just for me an uncomfortable place to be in an indoor space that is filled with vapor clouds like what happens when smaller shops hold their comps inside the store and they have like 50 people crammed into a tiny shop. Plus I'm still of the mind that I don't like to breathe other peoples exhale, whether it be with vapor or not, it just bothers me, kind of why I turn towards the edge of the bed when sleeping instead of facing my wife, It's just one of my mental problems I suppose which is only made worse in a tiny shop with masses of people all blowing massive vapor clouds and I think if I suck in that vapor I'm basically sucking in their exhale, which of course I understand just being in the same room with other people you are going to get some of their exhale anyway, but it just feels worse when all that vapor cloud is lingering around and the room gets like a movie class fog production machine is running somewhere in there.

 

[roxynoodle]

I taught college part time for 10 years. I had a lot of older students, including 1 in his 70s . He took the class to keep his mind active. When he was sick, his wife showed up to take notes and ask questions about the assignment from the previous week.

They would have to have an old lady with half fried lungs cloud comp for me to enter

 

[Madaz]

damn that's a thought, 2nd hand air

the oxygen as it is will be 1st hand as so to speak as most oxygen breathed in [previously would have been converted to carbon dioxide

but the rest of it especially the nitrogen will be used, huh

then what about the methane ... jeeze that could be prehistoric flatulence

I'm only breathing vapour from now on

Especially after reading this from the Cambridge University

I was just doing some calculations. It takes about 2,000 years for all of the plants in the world to work their way through all the oxygen in the atmosphere. So, some of the molecular oxygen you're breathing in won't have been breathed in before. But because the Earth is about 3.8 billion years old, you would have thought that pretty much all of it will have gone through plants and creatures in the past.

But then again, I wouldn’t say for definite that all of the atoms, all the molecules that you breath in have been breathed before, because there are 6 with 23 zeros (6 x 1023), or maybe as low as maybe 3 with 23 zeros (3 x 1023), molecules of gas in every lung full of air, and some of those might well have just been sitting there since the beginning of the Earth.

Also, some atoms have been coming out of volcanoes or degassing out of the centre of the Earth, and some have been raining in from space. So, in a normal breath, a few atoms won't have been breathed before, but I think most of the air will, wherever you are

 

[Rickajho]

As someone who came to vaping as a last desperate act to to quit a 30 year smoking habit that was killing me, I'll never understand how the "all the kewl kidz are doin' it" imprinting of smoking got transformed into the "all the kewl kidz are doin' it" imprinting of cloud chasing. It seems like whenever this topic comes up, especially when things rise to competition levels, it's 95% about "It's really kewl looking!", 5% about "it's a better vape and I need that." Meh.

 

[GreekLion]

It helps to put this in perspective, especially mentioning the smoking piece - typically when a group of people get together to smoke cigarettes, its during a break, party, etc..., but few if any smokers get together for fun to see who can build the best cigarette.

If you take away the nicotine need, what do you have left? On one hand, a group of people addicted to rolls of papers filled with leaves slowly killing themselves, and on the other hand you have people getting together to have a good time to practice amateur electrical design and engineering in the form of cloud-chasing coils.

There is nothing wrong with being anxious or getting cold feet, but cloud chasing gets people together doing something on a more productive side on a happier note. If you don't want to compete, just go for the fun!

 

[JHDublin]

never heard of cloud competitions here in Ireland but they probably happen, even if there was I wouldn't be bothered participating but would maybe go just to see other peoples setup and share experiences.
I'm 41 so probably considered an old fart too LOL

 

[Bigflyrodder]

I went to be part of the local vaping community and to see what it would be like, turned out to be what I expected all in all and I don't mean that in a bad way really.

Just got a little overwhelming with pumping techno house music, vapor you could hardly see through, etc. so I split after milling around for like an hour trying to make small talk.

 

[Feelinj]

We actually have cloud comps every weekend here. Our vape scene while, scared for some sort of state sanctions, is ever thriving. The group I usually go to I am the youngest at 27 and it goes to 50ish with a buddy's dad joining our group. We head to our local shop at 10 and chuck away.


**** everything and become a pirate!

 

[wonner]

The only way I would enter a cloud comp is if they were giving away a Provari 3 as a consolation prize.

 

[Rule62]

I must admit, if I were 40-45 years younger, I'd probably be into it. But I spent too many years working in a construction career where I had to inhale too much stuff, which has since been shown to not be good for a person to breathe. I'm lucky to have the lungs I have; but I don't want to push it.

 

[mountaingal]

The "cloud chasers" are testing their limits, but, it is in good fun. I got scared when I accidentally built a .9Ω coil! The CC's barely or rarely use nic in their setups. I am in it for the nic, so I use 18-24mg/ml. The CC's would pass out if they used my juice! And I would choke on the vapor they put out. It is kind of like cars: some like them stock and some like them "souped up".

 

[GrandPapa]

Hi,
Well after reading this thread (somewhat) I am going to attend a local Vape shop tomorrow night....I believe it is on building coils...but I would imagine it will be Cloud chasing after the coils are built...I am 70 years old and suffer from COPD so it should be interesting...I just wanna learn some coil build techniques...
Jim

 

[Smann245]

I could definately see one of these events as a way to see some crazy stuff and maybe learn something. Couldn't hurt.

 

[vince01]

Live and let live I say

but on a personal level I m very happy to say that just like

grunge, garage, rap and piercing, cloud chasing has passed me by

with nary a ripple in the ether