I wanted to get into vaping back when it was near impossible to find an online vendor who's website didn't look like a dog's asshole.
Why?
Smoking was costing me a fortune and ruining my health. Its that simple, and maybe where you are in the world it's not nearly as expensive as it is down here in the land of Aus, but it's still killing your health.
But vaping is destroying your health too!
Maybe. But here's the thing. I couldn't give up smoking, I tried again and again. More importantly though, I never really wanted to quit smoking. I took my health for granted, and wanted to enjoy smoking for as long as I lived dammit!
When I finally took the plunge and bought my first ego-style electronic cigarette, I went cold turkey on the durries and solely used my newly found technological cessation device WITHOUT nicotine for a month. A solid month. It was brutal.
Needless to say I started smoking again, and all it took was one night out at the pub with my mates and a couple of beers.
"I can handle just one." I said.
"All the cravings are gone now!"
Hah, bullshit.
So for the next three years I yoyo'd between vaping and smoking. I'd vape for a month or two, with nicotine, get sick of the flavour, and switch right back to cigarettes again.
The hunt for flavour
If you've ever tried getting into vaping before, you probably found one of the biggest struggles isn't the jargon or what device to buy, but which God damn flavour is a good all day vape? Changing flavours is a pain in the dick, I want this to be simple!
"Ok excellent I think this is the one now, this flavour is amazing holy shit! I can't believe it's not analogue!"
3 days later..
"This tastes like soap and I want to die."
Then in a lightbulb moment I decided to mix up a batch of my own eLiquid FLAVOUR FREE. It was the most satisfying, non offensive blend I had ever vaped. It stood up to all day and heavy vaping, it never made my tongue feel fucking weird, it was so simple and so cheap to produce, and it worked, and I made the switch permanently to vaping.
(70vg/30pg 12mg (salts) for anyone curious)
Fast forward 12 months I can breathe, I can even run and shit and every day I'm getting my beautiful and special nicotine fix and loving every white pillowy moment of it.
What's more is just recently in the last couple of months is I've found that if I dilute a flavour heavily, I'm talking it's no more than 5% of the total mix, that I can enjoy flavours now on occasion, but with all the same benefits of pure flavourless. Sure it's heavily muted, but a hint of grape or icecream can be quite amazing.
Ok point of this post; vaping can be a freaking struggle to figure out what works for you and what doesn't. For me it just so happens I'm a freak and it took flavourless or near flavourless for me to successfully make the transition.
How do I know I'm successful at it?
When I'm out drinking with my friends, and I have that odd cigarette: It's enjoyable, sure - I won't lie, but it's simultaneously disgusting, and I'm not at all drawn back to them the next day when I wake up.
So tl;dr, vaping is for stubborn assholes like me who want that nicotine punch in the throat til the day they die, but don't necessarily want the health risks and financial burdens of traditional analogue cigarettes.
Thanks for your time, and cheers to Squishy for snapping this groovy photo of me vaping by the water.