Vapers Spotted in the Wild!

[Xenu2112]

So I walked (got dragged into, actually) a local coffee shop here and, after vaping for 18 months & seeing exactly 2 other people vaping during that time, I was shocked to see TONS of people sitting around with PV's, vaping with abandon!

They were mostly college kids & the shop is near 2 fairly 'hip' universities near my old neighborhood, but it was still a revelation. 5, 10, 20 years ago these same kids would all have been smoking analogs (trust me, I was one of them once), but it looks like vaping is much more common than I thought, at least among this demographic.

Their setups ranged from Blu's to fancy-schmancy APV's (which I noticed they loved showing off...these would be the same kids who would have been smoking cloves back in the day when everyone else was on regular cigs).

Not big on coffee shops, never have been. I'm always afraid someone is going to start reading poetry or doing a performance art piece without warning , but I have to say that, for this reason alone, I'm glad I went.

I wonder how much of it has to do with a new B&M shop that opened nearby, although I did spot one young lady using an EVOD, which I know they don't carry at that particular shop yet. There's another (better, IMHO) store a couple miles away, but it's not in the same area. Still, for a big city, it's still sorta small-town here, so who knows.

In any case, the people ARE out there, and hopefully there will be enough of us to raise our head when the man inevitably tries to sink his hooks into our beloved hobby.

 

[Butters78]

That's awesome. Considering they are college kids I wonder if they are all ex smokers or at least if they are not they are vaping 0 nic.

Lmao @ the performance art that is too funny.

 

[UntamedRose]

saw two yesterday...... one was a navy guy sitting in his car in the next line over to get gas. It looked like he had some kinda chrome mechanical telescoping mod with a tank attached.
second was a gal walking off a plane puffing on what I am damn sure was a Chuck

pulled out mine did the vapor salute and went on

 

[kdubbie]

I too am seeing more people use these "out in the wild". When I used to visit the smoking area outside my office, I noticed that in the last few years the number of e-cigs have increased from 0 to at least 5 or 6 (out of about 20 - 30 people any given time).

Also, just the other day, I was meeting some friends and a buddy who still smokes analogues commented ... "I see you're using e-cigs too, it seems like everyone I know has them these days"... I was like "really? that's great when are you going to join in .." LOL...

Hope a lot more people free themselves from analogues...

Not big on coffee shops, never have been. I'm always afraid someone is going to start reading poetry or doing a performance art piece without warning

This made me LOL.

 

[Baditude]

My college age kids "treated" me to a night out at a local hookah bar for Father's Day. I had never been to one before, but these seem to be quite popular with college kids. There must be three of them around the local University.

I happened to meet the manager of one of these hookah bars while at the AltSmoke vaper shop in my city a while back. Started up a conversation between her and her friend. They asked me how long I had been vaping and did I like it. Well, yeah!

They were former smokers but it had been a long time since they had quit. They were asking a lot of questions about e-liquid flavors and eGo setups in particular. I kind of put 2 + 2 together and figured out they were not there to find personal vaping setups for themselves but probably were scoping out how to sell eGo's and e-liquid as a form of portable hookah pipes to their hookah customers. Not a bad idea for a potential additional source of income for a hookah bar.

My daughter doesn't smoke cigarettes but she does socialize with friends at hookah bars. Many of her friends smoke cigarettes. She asked for her own mod setup for her birthday recently to vape no-nic flavored e-liquid. Since she was 18 and could purchase for herself if she wanted, I complied after educating her of possible health dangers (no studies to prove e-cig use is safe), which she already knew from being around me and taking an active interest in my own vaping.

Since she has been vaping, several of her friends have bought their own e-cig setups and are making the transition from smoking to vaping. Even her closet-smoker mother has "stolen" my daughter's mods when she has been out of cigarettes, and is strongly considering getting her own mod to make the transition.

I see this as a big win from all perspectives.

 

[bhswmc01]

My hubby is a chef at a large convention center here, and we had a big group of Amway people in there this weekend. He was taking a break outside yesterday, and had a run-in with a group of clients with ego-style PVs. They were VERY interested in his SVD...it was pretty humorous, actually.

Oh, and on a side note, they all had lanyards. LOL

 

[Signal30]

My college age kids "treated" me to a night out at a local hookah bar for Father's Day. I had never been to one before, but these seem to be quite popular with college kids. There must be three of them around the local University.

I happened to meet the manager of one of these hookah bars while at the AltSmoke vaper shop in my city a while back. Started up a conversation between her and her friend. They asked me how long I had been vaping and did I like it. Well, yeah!

They were former smokers but it had been a long time since they had quit. They were asking a lot of questions about e-liquid flavors and eGo setups in particular. I kind of put 2 + 2 together and figured out they were not there to find personal vaping setups for themselves but probably were scoping out how to sell eGo's and e-liquid as a form of portable hookah pipes to their hookah customers. Not a bad idea for a potential additional source of income for a hookah bar.

My daughter doesn't smoke cigarettes but she does socialize with friends at hookah bars. Many of her friends smoke cigarettes. She asked for her own mod setup for her birthday recently to vape no-nic flavored e-liquid. Since she was 18 and could purchase for herself if she wanted, I complied after educating her of possible health dangers (no studies to prove e-cig use is safe), which she already knew from being around me and taking an active interest in my own vaping.

Since she has been vaping, several of her friends have bought their own e-cig setups and are making the transition from smoking to vaping. Even her closet-smoking mother has "stolen" my daughter's mods when she has been out of cigarettes, and is strongly considering getting her own mod to make the transition.

I see this as a big win from all perspectives.

By mid-fall semester you will see a lot more vapers in and around UC.

 

[tidegirl]

I would say it definitely is related to the local shops. We have so many shops here i have lost count now- 8 to 10 maybe?- and I can't go anywhere without seeing at least a vaper or two. We went to Friday Fest this past Friday (close the street, set up vendors, bands, lots of beer drinking...) and I saw at least a dozen vapers there, most with egos. The more shops we get and the more they advertise, the more vapers I see out and about.

 

[Xenu2112]

My daughter is about to go to college, and while talking to her today, she said that she saw several people vaping on campus during her last visit. I think the kids today are more hip that we might think...

 

[SnowDog]

I have not spotted anyone vaping in the wild yet but I got a nice clue the other day that there are more vapers around here than I thought. We have one local B&M vape shop and until this last Friday there has never been more than one other customer in there when I visited the shop. In most cases, I'm the only customer in there at the time.

I stopped by Friday afternoon to pick up a Protank and there must have been 8 or 10 customers in there besides me. I enjoyed seeing all those vapers in one place and it was also nice to know that the shop is getting some good business. It kinda made my day.

 

[Thunderball]

Many of my daughters friends have ego's and mods some Ive recognized, some home made out of wood and an assortment of tanks/drippers. Most of them have been vaping between 2 to 3 years and more. This rather large group actually got me into this and got "Ol Dad" off the Cigs.

At my grandchilderens birthday this year, We rented this giant Dragon water slide thing. I bet there were at least 15 of these 20 and 30 somethings in the back yard vaping away.

They are part of a group of young folks that are into a somewhat underground music scene in Downtown Atlanta that they refer to as "Dub Step" and "Jungle Music".....Electronic stuff. Well, I see it as underground, but my daughter would say its now ruined and has gotten mainstream. Anyway... these kids have shown me a thing or two.

By the way, Most of these "Veteran Vapers" wear leather lanyards and clip them to belts and back packs.

 

[alisa1970]

I've seen a few--one was just walking across the street holding his pen-style while I was waiting at the stop light. We didn't make eye contact.

The second I never would have known--I was waiting inside a Zoomcare clinic and a guy came in with his small daughter. I went out to take a quick vape and noticed a weird home-made clear acrylic box mod with a protank attached to it inside one of the cars in the parking lot. I went back inside and when he came out and left, he got into the car that had the PV in it.

The last one was right behind me at a metered onramp. He had an ego-syle and was puffing on it. I opened my window, stuck my arm out holding mine up so he could see it. Then I in the rearview, and I saw him get a huge grin on his face. It was edifying to give and get recognition to and from a fellow vapor. I haven't seen him in that line again, though.

 

[BlueMoods]

Quite a few here, for the small town it is. Down the road in T-town, it's more spread out, but still I never go to town w/o seeing 2-5 in the wild as it were, sometimes more depending on where I go. The cafe in my small town always had several in the used to be smoking, now vaping section. At least one or two of our vaping officers of the law is usually around the small truck stop, and, someone is at least walking around Wal Mart with one visible, if not stealthing with it.

 

[Katdarling]

Posts that truly made me smile...

Not big on coffee shops, never have been. I'm always afraid someone is going to start reading poetry or doing a performance art piece without warning , but I have to say that, for this reason alone, I'm glad I went.

pulled out mine did the vapor salute and went on

We have so many shops here i have lost count now- 8 to 10 maybe?

Altho I'm in an area that is swimming in vape stores and vapers, I still get incredibly excited when I see someone out in the wild vaping!



UntamedRose, can you teach us the correct salute? And is it followed by the deafening scream "OMG, you're a vaper!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

[State O' Flux]

I've not seen anyone in person (until below happened), but on the rare occasion that I get out and about, I see folks staring at me when I vape... even with my "stealth" 350mAh eGo/EVOD rig. (So much for stealth)

My daughter works with a few women and a man who vape - all with, I believe they called them, "Vapor Zeus" cig-a-likes. I went to pick her up from work last Thursday, when her car was in for service, and I had my MVP/3V 3ml carto tank combo with me - they and several other of her co-workers were all standing around talking, and when I got out of the Jeep followed by a big cloud of vapor trailing me, two of the women's eyes got real big.
Long story short, all 5 of them came over, we struck up a "cig-a-chat", and by the end of the conversation they were all talking about buying iTaste MVPs, 3.0s, Kanger T3Ss and EVODs... and even 3V carto tanks. One was absolutely certain that she'd be first in line to buy a iTaste VTR, and 3 of the ladies said they'd call me.

I told my wife later that these ladies might call. She was, ah... not thrilled.

C

 

[bscheff]

I've started to see them more frequently around the university where I work over the past 3 - 4 months. I'm a musician, and have recently been seeing at least one or two vapers in the crowd/at the bar when I play shows.

 

[Abbell]

I had a family on vacation come into my restaurant today. They saw me vaping outside (yes, the owners banned employees from vaping inside...translation=me)... anyway the ladies (grandma and mom) started asking me questions. I was using my MVP.

The older lady talked about her Blu cigs. I asked how she liked them. She said she still smoked, but less often. I talked to her about the advantages of an ego style battery. I let her see some of the juices I carry with me. I just started on a new recipe that she thought was really good. About halfway through talking about ego's her daughter pulls out an Ego c 650. So we ended up having a conversation about what options she could try so they both could enjoy vaping more... They were from Wichita. In the end it was a great conversation and I hope everyone learned a bit.

 

[Xenu2112]

I had a family on vacation come into my restaurant today. They saw me vaping outside (yes, the owners banned employees from vaping inside...translation=me)... anyway the ladies (grandma and mom) started asking me questions. I was using my MVP.

The older lady talked about her Blu cigs. I asked how she liked them. She said she still smoked, but less often. I talked to her about the advantages of an ego style battery. I let her see some of the juices I carry with me. I just started on a new recipe that she thought was really good. About halfway through talking about ego's her daughter pulls out an Ego c 650. So we ended up having a conversation about what options she could try so they both could enjoy vaping more... They were from Wichita. In the end it was a great conversation and I hope everyone learned a bit.

Sweet! Bonus points for cool grandmas...

 

[handdrive]

Now that I have started vaping i seem to see more people doing it then before, maybe cause I am looking now. Like if you buy a green car with pink polka dots to be different as soon as you roll it down the road you'll see one just like, maybe not to that extent but you get my point.

 

[State O' Flux]

Like if you buy a green car with pink polka dots to be different as soon as you roll it down the road you'll see one just like

So... you've seen my Jeep have you?