Greetings everyone. I wanted to make an introductory posting and share a bit of my experience so far with vaping. I was a smoker from age 14 until 21, at which point I suffered a rather serious allergic reaction to a chemical that I believe was possibly in a cigarette. I don't know how accurately I can describe the experience, but one night shortly after lighting one up I began to feel my body react violently. I started shaking uncontrollably, my heart began racing, and I was on the verge of blacking out. This continued for hours and I almost ended up in the hospital. For the next week I didn't smoke or drink at all, I just spent time recovering in a weird unnatural state of mind. The next time I tried to light up a smoke it caused a similar reaction, though not as intense. Ever since then, I haven't been able to smoke or take too much in the way of stimulants, which means I have to semi-regulate the amount of energy drinks, coffee, and whatnot, otherwise I feel rather ill.
But the thing is, I still loved the smell of smoke, I missed the relaxing effects, and I hated that I wasn't in control of the situation. So for all intents and purposes, I had a rather drastic life change on something I actually enjoyed. With that aspect gone and without any control over deciding to quit, I felt irritated and frustrated for a while. Back when the Blu e-cigs were pretty new, I started hearing about them and other basic e-cig brands and thought of trying them out, but between the high prices on them and the prior reactions that I had with analog smokes, I had psyched myself out of considering trying them.
Jumping ahead to just a few months ago, I made a new friend on the PlayStation Network, Jazon1, who's been a member here for a while and has been vaping for quite a long time. Interestingly, he shared a somewhat similar story to mine with the reaction that I had, and suggested that it might have been one of the chemicals that were added just that year. He provided a lot of information about vaping and how he's been enjoying it for a long time. Initially, I was mainly interested in getting something for my best friend who's been a smoker since about the same time I started (14), and really needed to get away from all the rough stuff in analogs and to cut down his smoking expenses. The concern I had about getting him something, was that he had tried a few e-cigs in the past (I'm guessing the blu's or something similar) and he wasn't a fan at all. Said they were really weak and didn't do anything for him.
With my newly acquired info from Jazon1, I decided to put some real time of my own into researching everything about e-cigs. I looked up everything I could find about VG, PG, nicotine, throat-hit, making your own flavors, and all the different types of hardware used. Everything I saw made so much sense and I was blown away that this isn't more widely known. With some recommendations from my PSN friend, I hopped onto MFS, grabbed my friend a Kanger starter kit, some 50/50 flavorless nicotine juice, and a couple tobacco/RY4 flavors for him to try. Given all this info, I was also much more open to trying things myself, so around the same time, I decided to order myself a Kanger starter kit with the hopes that I would be able to enjoy vaping and that it would be close enough to what I was used to.
To my total surprise, not only did my friend completely quit smoking and replaced it with vaping, but I also was able to enjoy it without any real negative reactions or anything like that. Just a little more than a week ago I turned 30, and although I haven't smoked in 9 years, the sheer fact that I'm able to vape has been a really awesome change for me.
I now have some better hardware, but I'm still learning a lot. I have found that I'm not a very good flavor wizard myself yet, but I'm finding plenty of companies that make some incredible flavors. I did find that I can't take too much nicotine, so I'm usually vaping on about 6mg while my friend vapes on 18-20. My favorite flavor thus far has definitely become Milk & Honey by Cosmic Fog. And I recently ordered my first mod, a Vamo V2. Beyond all this though, I think you guys have an amazing community here. I lurked around for a while before deciding to sign up, and it seems like everyone is really supportive and very knowledgeable here, so I'm stoked to be a part of it all. Thanks!
But the thing is, I still loved the smell of smoke, I missed the relaxing effects, and I hated that I wasn't in control of the situation. So for all intents and purposes, I had a rather drastic life change on something I actually enjoyed. With that aspect gone and without any control over deciding to quit, I felt irritated and frustrated for a while. Back when the Blu e-cigs were pretty new, I started hearing about them and other basic e-cig brands and thought of trying them out, but between the high prices on them and the prior reactions that I had with analog smokes, I had psyched myself out of considering trying them.
Jumping ahead to just a few months ago, I made a new friend on the PlayStation Network, Jazon1, who's been a member here for a while and has been vaping for quite a long time. Interestingly, he shared a somewhat similar story to mine with the reaction that I had, and suggested that it might have been one of the chemicals that were added just that year. He provided a lot of information about vaping and how he's been enjoying it for a long time. Initially, I was mainly interested in getting something for my best friend who's been a smoker since about the same time I started (14), and really needed to get away from all the rough stuff in analogs and to cut down his smoking expenses. The concern I had about getting him something, was that he had tried a few e-cigs in the past (I'm guessing the blu's or something similar) and he wasn't a fan at all. Said they were really weak and didn't do anything for him.
With my newly acquired info from Jazon1, I decided to put some real time of my own into researching everything about e-cigs. I looked up everything I could find about VG, PG, nicotine, throat-hit, making your own flavors, and all the different types of hardware used. Everything I saw made so much sense and I was blown away that this isn't more widely known. With some recommendations from my PSN friend, I hopped onto MFS, grabbed my friend a Kanger starter kit, some 50/50 flavorless nicotine juice, and a couple tobacco/RY4 flavors for him to try. Given all this info, I was also much more open to trying things myself, so around the same time, I decided to order myself a Kanger starter kit with the hopes that I would be able to enjoy vaping and that it would be close enough to what I was used to.
To my total surprise, not only did my friend completely quit smoking and replaced it with vaping, but I also was able to enjoy it without any real negative reactions or anything like that. Just a little more than a week ago I turned 30, and although I haven't smoked in 9 years, the sheer fact that I'm able to vape has been a really awesome change for me.
I now have some better hardware, but I'm still learning a lot. I have found that I'm not a very good flavor wizard myself yet, but I'm finding plenty of companies that make some incredible flavors. I did find that I can't take too much nicotine, so I'm usually vaping on about 6mg while my friend vapes on 18-20. My favorite flavor thus far has definitely become Milk & Honey by Cosmic Fog. And I recently ordered my first mod, a Vamo V2. Beyond all this though, I think you guys have an amazing community here. I lurked around for a while before deciding to sign up, and it seems like everyone is really supportive and very knowledgeable here, so I'm stoked to be a part of it all. Thanks!
