I’m almost 40 and have been smoking since I was 14-15…

Sitting around with the boys one night, I noted the amount of coughing and wheezing coming from most of us…. The dreaded smokers cough….  Surely this wasn’t happening to me? I mean, I didn’t smoke that heavily… Or so I thought…. But looking back at this statement now, I’ve smoked more than half of my life…. That’s almost my entire adult life and the majority of my teenage years……

I’m not the most dependant smoker in the world, but, I’m man enough to admit that I had a problem.

About 5 years ago, I started looking for Vape Info.

Like most people back then, there was no info available, and we had to rely solely on what we could find… I looked everywhere to get products, information, knowledge, but found nothing. So, like most people, I just went with what I thought everyone else was using.

Enter, The Vape Pen…

I put the pen together, charged it up, loaded it up, and proceeded to have my first attempt at vaping…. All be it extremely unsuccessful.

I absolutely hated it! What was this weird sensation? Dry throat? Weird mouth feel and taste?

Over the coming months, I tried and tried and tried… but I just wasn’t getting it… If anything, the issues I had were making me more and more agitated and before I knew it, Hello Combustion my old friend…

I was back smoking like a demon, worse than ever before… I felt so let down…. So broken… I really wanted this to work. It was at about this point my partner told me she was pregnant with our 3rd child….   

Now before we get too far here, let me just say… I’ve always enjoyed smoking…. It was my me time. My 5 min break to have a coffee, relax and enjoy something for myself…  Even if it was trying to kill me.

By this stage, I had thrown the pen away and started to do my homework whilst researching benefits and facts…

I started to look what the market had available… Google, YouTube and WordPress became my go to sites to get information. My new best friends if you will. I was a man on a mission!

The mission: To end combustion…

The Revolution: The Real Vapes I Should Have Been Looking at from The Beginning

Sifting thru all the information, and pestering people who had posted reviews on the product, I had finally made a decision! I purchased an Arizer Extreme Q just after they launched…

Bought the unit online from the US, and in a few weeks, it turned up on my door in Australia.

This was the weirdest parcel I had ever received…. For I knew inside, was either going to be my salvation or my downfall.

I remember those Christmas morning feelings from when I was a kid… All the excitement that came from unboxing a new product…  I still remember looking at all the glass pieces in the box thinking to myself that isn’t going last!  

How wrong was I! The next few days were spent reading manuals, cleaning everything before I used it, watching YouTube videos to get the process down to a fine art.

I set up the Extreme Q in my Office out in the shed.  The unit didn’t intrude in my space, and the fact that it could vaporize essential oils as well was a big hit…

First Test: Essential Oils and Potpourri Bowl

No more smelling the dog!!!!! Sorry let me just say that again! I COULDN’T SMELL THE DOG!!!!

I never knew that I could put oils or fragrant flowers/herbs into the unit. For me, this was already a hit, as I could improve the smell of my office… No more dirty ashtray smells, no more wet smells, NO MORE DOG SMELLS!!!!!!!!   

If anything, it actually smelt kind of nice in there…

Potpourri still gets loaded into the dish, and it still makes me happy being able to smell all those wonderful rose aromas! The smell of potpourri still to this day reminds me of my Nana… and anything that triggers memories is a good thing!

Second Test: The Cyclone Bowl and The Whip

OK, for those of you who have not seen the device, this is what drew me to this particular animal….

It has a whip!! Kind of like the Shisha or Hookah commonly seen, the unit was a little mini electric version with a single whip/hose!

This is where the nerves started to kick in… For me, this is what it was all about.  This was ‘make or break’.

I reached over to grab my preferred flowers and herbs, loaded the cyclone bowl, put the elbow and the whip on, and prayed. I prayed that this was going to be the change I needed. This was the first real step towards ending combustion, and all the other nasties that come from burning/combusting your material.

I grabbed the remote, turned it on, set the temp, and had a panic attack!! What the hell was I doing?

It almost looked like a science experiment… But I was determined… I needed this to work, as I needed to make some big changes in my life.

I was completely and utterly shocked by what occurred next… It would have been one of the most, if not the most pleasant experience I had to date with a vape… I was able to enjoy my vaping, whilst still caring for my health, and being responsible about what I was doing.

As the days past, I found that the vape was being used more and more…. It was like my new best friend.  

It took about 2 weeks before I noted some minor health improvements. Breathing wasn’t as shallow, my snoring had almost ceased, I wasn’t as short of breath, but more importantly, I hadn’t purchased any smokes during this time….

Over this two week period, my friends had noted that I wasn’t smoking… Intrigued, they asked how?. Simple.. I showed them the Extreme Q.

Third Test: The Visitors Test aka Balloon Time!

So now the boys were around for our weekly catch up…. The usual group of old mates, that have done almost everything together for some 20 + years… Holidays, get togethers, weddings, weekends away, etc etc.. Calling them brothers or family would be more appropriate, as they are to me, my family.

Before we get too far ahead, let me just say, can you imagine the look on their faces when they saw the Extreme Q for the first time? These are people that don’t know vaping, and are pretty old school in terms of custom and demeanour…

They thought I had lost the plot!

So, what was this scientific looking apparatus that looked like I just borrowed it from the CSIRO?

Cleaning out the cyclone bowl, reloading, and then passing the whip around, the lads were very quick to make their own conclusions…… Nearly all being positive, except for that one naysayer in every group… He wasn’t convinced, and couldn’t see any great benefit……

It was at this point, I pulled the elbow, whip and cyclone bowl off, reloaded the spare cyclone bowl, and attached the balloon. This was nothing short of hilarious as we all cracked up at this little machine filling up this massive balloon… Before we knew it, the balloon was fully inflated, and there was a fine vapour mist inside….

Passing the balloon around and having a cuppa, we chewed the fat for quite some time… Everyone completely amazed that we weren’t in fact smoking, but we were enjoying our vape from a balloon, that was very socially acceptable, as we could choose to have a go, or pass on to the next person.  A few more cyclone bowls later, and even the naysayer, was starting to convert…..

I personally found that the balloon was a fantastic choice, especially when you had a group of people around. It made it more or a social experience being able to share with my closest friends, enjoy a cuppa, and kick back and talk about life…. The device was simple enough to use, so simple that even they could use it! It didn’t take long before they were all in their cleaning and setting up ready to go for the next vaping session.

Could It Be? Could We Have Found Our Recipe to Kick The Smoking Habit?

For me personally, the whip on the Extreme Q was my salvation… I still had the sensation of having to draw back on something, and still getting a mouth feel, and could see vapour clouds as I exhaled…

Even the fellas were starting to notice the benefits of vaping…. It wasn’t long before the Extreme Q became so frequently used, that the inevitable happened….

Yours truly… AKA Butterfingers, had picked up a hot cyclone bowl from the device, and proceeded to drop it, as well as the elbow, and unfortunately, they fell from a height and onto concrete. I was devastated…  Lucky there was a spare bowl in the kit…

Just after this had happened, I started searching Australia for local suppliers of vaporizer parts.  

This was where my journey had taken me to.

Australian Retailers!!! WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!  

I was a man with a plan, and since that day, I am happy to report, that I am a long time customer of the very website you are reading this from!!! VapeFuse had saved me… They were able to express ship parts out next day, and I was stoked that the girls rushed them out express that night so I could get it the next day in the post.

Are you about to start your journey to “End Combustion?” Have you already started?

Let us know in the comment section below how you went, how you are going and what were your turning points in your journey?
If you have never dealt with VapeFuse, give them a go, honestly…

You can say “Hey, BDV blogs for Vapefuse, why should I believe him????” To all that asked this question, my answer is very simple…

I was a customer for many years before I started to write for them!

Good Luck, Good Health and Happy Vaping.

Big Daddy Vaper. Aka BDV

Follow BDV and his friends’ journey, learn the truth why Mr Naysayer switched from smoking to vaping…