An Introduction

Photo Credit: @wireguy

Vaping is a lot of things to different people. For some of us, it’s a hobby. For others, a community. But it’s important to remember what vaping was about when each of us first started.

Why I Switched

When I first started, I didn’t want to. I was more or less coerced into quitting cigarettes, but I had no intention of quitting nicotine. The apartment complex I lived in banned smoking inside the premises, allowing them only on the sidewalk outside the front gate.

This meant that I had one of three choices: walk down three flights of stairs, out of the gate, smoke a cigarette, then re-enter my gate code and walk back up three flights of steps. That was about 10 minutes worth of smoking-related activity, every 45 minutes or so.

My second option was to continue to smoke in the apartment and just pray that I never needed to call maintenance, that I was never visited by the on-site property manager, or that I would never be inspected. Fat chance of any of those things going my way.

My third option was to find a way to consume nicotine that didn’t involve smoking. I had already tried Swedish snus at that point, but it didn’t quite do the trick for me. It lacked the full smoking “ritual”, the habituated series of actions: lift the cigarette to the mouth, inhale, exhale, hold the cigarette.

Then I remembered something I’d tried about three years before, just as a novelty: An electronic device that looked and acted like a cigarette. I won’t name names, but the cigarette-lookalike had arrived with one battery with dismal performance and one cartomizer that died after I’d inhaled from it a measly three times.

The point was, there was something out there that felt a lot like smoking — without being smoking. And since the technology had to have improved in the intervening years — and with no choice — it was time to give it another try.

Where I Am Now

Photo Credit: @wireguy

As I write this, I’m occasionally hitting an extremely stylish 220-watt variable-power and temperature-control mod with a sub-ohm tank. I haven’t touched a cigarette since 2012, and you couldn’t pay me to take a drag from one now.

I’ve written a book focused on helping smokers to get started with vaping; I write for an internationally-distributed print magazine all about vaping, and I’ve made more friends in this industry and in the community which has emerged because of it than I ever expected. In short, this choice that was thrust upon me is a choice which I’ve embraced, one which has almost certainly saved my life and enabled me to lend a hand in saving the lives of others.

Why I’m Here

Today, I’m grateful to begin to share with you. I’ll be sharing vaping-related stories with you, from basic information to help new vapers to make the most of their journey, to offer some commentary on the industry and the community, politically nonpartisan commentary on regulation and advocacy, and discussion of product trends and how to make the most of them.

I look forward to being a source of entertainment and information for you, and I hope to hear from you in turn with your questions and comments.

-John C.