You know, for me it’s been an interesting journey, if not a Voyage of Discovery, since I pulled off of Tobacco Road after more than 50 years of happy travel on it, eight months ago on October the 17th last year.
As I’ve written before, I never intended to stop smoking when my daughter gave me an E Pipe back then - in fact having failed two Smoking Cessation courses using NRT and never having got beyond six weeks ( six miserable weeks with never a waking moment that I could not stop obsessing about my need to smoke) I did not believe I could live without smoking. On being given the pipe, my intention originally had been to take a couple of puffs of the thing, put it in a drawer and throw it in the bin, then when she’d gone home swear that it had broken and that I was terribly sad about it.
I did indeed take the couple of puffs, promise to give it a proper try later, and put it away in a drawer out of sight...then my conscience got the better of me ( it’s a Scottish thing - you cannot throw away a gift, even if you don’t like it) and the following week I took it back out.
To my amazement I got through the whole weekend without smoking...and without a craving. Shortly afterwards I bought another E Pipe and then went to Spain (where tobacco is cheap and plentiful) for the Winter. I was hardly there when to my real sadness one of the e pipes died and the plastic threads on the other one’s tank stripped.
Instead of breaking into one of the tins of Dunhill’s 965 in my stash and firing up one of the 28 pipes resident there, I took the next bus down to Fuengirola and visited the Vape shop, coming out with a Nautilus Mini, an iStick 30w and a packet of coils...the best purchases I ever made bar none.
The Nautilus and the iStick would have remained my kit for ever...but I joined this Forum and found that both in the EEC and the USA restriction were coming. Having, through the Miracle of vaping got off of tobacco and in my own mind now being committed to not smoking again, I started laying in stocks of kit, bought a couple of mech mods, learned how to build coils, discovered how to Drip and Squonk, and took up DIY- ing E Liquid.
vaping made the whole not smoking thing both easy and enjoyable - Christmas and New year were a real revelation; on both occasions I was offered really really good large expensive cigars while out at parties and was able - as I was enjoying my vaping so much - to turn them down without a moment’s regret. Back in Scotland in January when our street beside the River Teviot was flooded, I happily gave my pipe collection and large stocks of good tobacco to my cousin who had no interest in stopping smoking.
So where am I at in my journey now? The dippers, squonkers, box mods with replaceable batteries, mech mods, wires and cotton are in the “Future Proofing Box” and I’ve come full circle - the mainstay of my vaping is DIY unflavoured 16/18 strength liquid, vaped in a tank powered by an iStick… the Nautilus Minis haven’t had so much use this last three months - their own coils were unobtainable in Spain for the last few months and in Spanish heat I found the Triton Mini Clapton coils that I had to use ran too hot for me and ate batteries ( the ambient temperatures affected the battery chemistry ) so I discovered possibly vaping’s best kept secret - GS Air tanks ( cheap as the proverbial chips to buy, economical to run as their 0.78 ohm coils last me up to 8 weeks with clear DIY juice and offering a brilliant vape.... with coils readily available in most places). I now have four of these tanks with two more on order from China with even more discounts from their Dragon Boat Festival Sales... and I have built up a large stock of coils for them.
That’s my journey I hope all yours has been as enjoyable...and if anyone is reading this and contemplating taking up vaping to quit tobacco I hope it does show that there can indeed be hope at the end of the tunnel for even the most committed of heavy smokers.
Happy Vaping all!
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
As I’ve written before, I never intended to stop smoking when my daughter gave me an E Pipe back then - in fact having failed two Smoking Cessation courses using NRT and never having got beyond six weeks ( six miserable weeks with never a waking moment that I could not stop obsessing about my need to smoke) I did not believe I could live without smoking. On being given the pipe, my intention originally had been to take a couple of puffs of the thing, put it in a drawer and throw it in the bin, then when she’d gone home swear that it had broken and that I was terribly sad about it.
I did indeed take the couple of puffs, promise to give it a proper try later, and put it away in a drawer out of sight...then my conscience got the better of me ( it’s a Scottish thing - you cannot throw away a gift, even if you don’t like it) and the following week I took it back out.
To my amazement I got through the whole weekend without smoking...and without a craving. Shortly afterwards I bought another E Pipe and then went to Spain (where tobacco is cheap and plentiful) for the Winter. I was hardly there when to my real sadness one of the e pipes died and the plastic threads on the other one’s tank stripped.
Instead of breaking into one of the tins of Dunhill’s 965 in my stash and firing up one of the 28 pipes resident there, I took the next bus down to Fuengirola and visited the Vape shop, coming out with a Nautilus Mini, an iStick 30w and a packet of coils...the best purchases I ever made bar none.
The Nautilus and the iStick would have remained my kit for ever...but I joined this Forum and found that both in the EEC and the USA restriction were coming. Having, through the Miracle of vaping got off of tobacco and in my own mind now being committed to not smoking again, I started laying in stocks of kit, bought a couple of mech mods, learned how to build coils, discovered how to Drip and Squonk, and took up DIY- ing E Liquid.
vaping made the whole not smoking thing both easy and enjoyable - Christmas and New year were a real revelation; on both occasions I was offered really really good large expensive cigars while out at parties and was able - as I was enjoying my vaping so much - to turn them down without a moment’s regret. Back in Scotland in January when our street beside the River Teviot was flooded, I happily gave my pipe collection and large stocks of good tobacco to my cousin who had no interest in stopping smoking.
So where am I at in my journey now? The dippers, squonkers, box mods with replaceable batteries, mech mods, wires and cotton are in the “Future Proofing Box” and I’ve come full circle - the mainstay of my vaping is DIY unflavoured 16/18 strength liquid, vaped in a tank powered by an iStick… the Nautilus Minis haven’t had so much use this last three months - their own coils were unobtainable in Spain for the last few months and in Spanish heat I found the Triton Mini Clapton coils that I had to use ran too hot for me and ate batteries ( the ambient temperatures affected the battery chemistry ) so I discovered possibly vaping’s best kept secret - GS Air tanks ( cheap as the proverbial chips to buy, economical to run as their 0.78 ohm coils last me up to 8 weeks with clear DIY juice and offering a brilliant vape.... with coils readily available in most places). I now have four of these tanks with two more on order from China with even more discounts from their Dragon Boat Festival Sales... and I have built up a large stock of coils for them.
That’s my journey I hope all yours has been as enjoyable...and if anyone is reading this and contemplating taking up vaping to quit tobacco I hope it does show that there can indeed be hope at the end of the tunnel for even the most committed of heavy smokers.
Happy Vaping all!
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
