Hey guys, I’m new here. Mostly come here for the recipes and to read info on DIY when I wonder about increasing a certain flavour or something like that. Thought maybe I’ll share my transitioning story here as my first post/comment. Not sure if anyone will read it but feels rewarding to get it out.
I started smoking cigarettes around the age of 13 or so, on my first year of high school (In NZ we have year 1-6 in primary school from the age of 5, intermediate from 11-12 to 13-14 and then high school till 17-18 years old). Im 22 now, so my life since smoking cigarettes progressed at around the same time E-Pens and the likes started becoming popular. A good friend of mine would steal tailormades or rolling tobacco off his old man every day and eventually I gave in to the offer to try one. We thought it was cool to smoke at our age, where everyone else was to proper to do it, we took it as them being afraid. By this time I already had a job as well, so pretty soon it became me putting by some money for our smoking habits to reduce his dependency on his dads. Initially we would buy rollies because it was cheaper long term than us smoking tailormades. At the age of 15 I had a fight with my step mother and ended up moving out of home, the plan was to move back to my mothers but she thought we needed a family meeting before that could happen, so another friends family took me in. He also smoked with us from time to time and I got him a job at the supermarket I worked at so we could both support our smoking habits. Now at this stage my friend that initially got me into smoking was smoking cannabis regularly and wanted us to get him a job so he could support both his habits. This soon turned into all of us having smoking sessions, indulging both cannabis and cigarettes. I always smoked more cigarettes than cannabis in the earlier years, until I was around 17 and broke up with my first serious girlfriend which seemed to trigger a heavier dependance on substances. I went from smoking rollies to tailormades for better nic buzz, which became a more expensive habit in turn. The next couple years of my life included dropping out of school and partying a lot more, where I found I could smoke less cigarettes when I wasn’t drinking or stoned, but when other substances came into the mix the cigarettes came right back. During stressful periods of these years, I tried to put down the pack many times, but always ended up smoking again as soon as I picked up a bottle. In the more recent years I had reduced my cigarette use to when drinking or mixed with cannabis only. This was successful for a long time until I ran into some trouble with the law (which I won’t elaborate here as its still ongoing), which for a while triggered heavy drinking and daily cigarette smoking again. After a month or so I managed to curb the drinking but the cigarettes stuck with me. After said legal trouble eventually landed me in court with bail release conditions, I was no longer able to smoke cannabis without the consequence of going straight to jail, so my reliance on cigarettes increased dramatically again to a pack a day or more. Around the beginning of this year, a couple months after I turned 22 my father in law suggested I try out vaping, as he was a heavy smoker who managed to quit smoking via habitrol and vaping, then eventually curbed the habitrol and stuck primarily to vaping. So I went to the Vape store with him one day and brought a SMOK Alien device that has since died and been replaced with another SMOK device, as well as 2 bottles of 6mg/mL E-Juice. My first 2 flavours were Mango & Pear Ice Cream and Apple Sour Cherry, both by Elate Vapes. After tasting them it immediately piqued my interest in creating my own e-juices. I think maybe a week after buying a vape mod I decided my next pack of cigarettes would be my last and by the end of that packet I didn’t even want to finish the last cigarette. All was well until One day my SMOK Alien stopped charging and I felt that panic set in, the ever ominous need to smoke a cigarette. Instead I googled where I could find a vapouriser after dark on a Saturday night, which led me to pod vapourisers that are sold at gas stations and the likes 24/7. NZ has been monopolized by a brand called Alt. they are much like the NZ equivalent of Juul though I must say their marketing tactics are a lot better and geared towards a smoke free NZ as well as primarily targeting adults instead of younger people, they just have a huge market presence here as they are stocked in over 2000 retailers around the country. Which turned out to be my saving grace, we drove to the gas station and found an Alt started kit and a spare pair of 40mg/mL Mango pods. At $40 for the handset + 1 Pod, then $20 for a 2 pack of pods I immediately thought about how that wasn’t any more sustainable price wise than smoking cigarettes but brought them to get me through the night till I could go get a new sub ohm vape the next day. After the first puff of one of these vapourisers my eyes were opened to the future of vaping, stylish, effective and tasty. I immediately switched from Nic Freebase to Nic Salts as my primary go to and have rarely felt the craving for a Cigarette since. I brought a Uwell Caliburn Koko and a heap of spare pods as well as a few bottles of VG Cig Salts assorted flavors to last me till my DIY stuff arrived. Now I use my sub ohm primarily for trying out new flavour creations then tweak them for pod use in the Caliburn Koko. Current state of my vape stash is over half full bottles of each VG Cig Salts juice I brought initially for my Caliburn Koko as well as my personal stash of DIY flavours. Some of them I have yet to try as they are locked away for their recommended steeping period 
am currently vaping my own creation, Pink Melonade v1 50mg/mL which is one of my first DIY flavours I created and tastes just as good as the stuff I got from the shops if not better. Something about knowing exactly what’s in your gear makes it that much more satisfyin. I may eventually post the recipe for my Pink Melonade and other flavours once I feel they are worthy of sharing, at the moment I love them but still feel they can be improved!
In closing, if I can leave some advice to help others quit smoking it would be this. Go straight to Nic Salts. Go get a Uwell Caliburn or something similar and some spare pods, as well as some 50mg/mL e-juice. The high end stuff here costs about $35 NZD for 30mL, which I will come back and edit if I remember to include the USD equivalents of this. The main thing is that instead of $10/mL like prefilled pods cost, this stuff is around $1/mL if you have expensive taste or even cheaper if you’re happy to start with a cheaper brand (satisfaction is a must if you wanna keep off the cigarettes though so treat yourself). This way, you can sustain your habit for around the cost of 1 pack of cigarettes a week / fortnight depending on your consumption, without sacrificing any satisfaction. Once you are safely off the cigs, you can then try 25mg/mL salts and try out vaping Freebase flavours and the likes as well. I think one of the biggest barriers stopping people switching is big clunky mods to carry and refill, as well as not feeling the same satisfaction from freebase without vaping every 5 mins, so imo nic salts and pod devices would be the best starting point for general smokers looking to quit. Just my opinion though, do whatever is more accessible and appropriate for yourself 
Now I’ve been smoke free for around about 3 months, have over 100 flavour concentrates and a couple litres of PG & VG as well as both freebase and nic salt to create my own flavours and will continue DIYing as long as I am able, I hope to eventually be able to release my own line of ADV Salts and partner with a pod manufacturer to help people in NZ get smoke free and provide a platform to share the same knowledge on helping quit smoking.
P.S. sorry for the size of this novel, to anyone who read this all the way through I want to thank you for letting me share my story and taking the time to read it, it means a lot to me and I’m proud of myself for getting off the drink, the cigs and the weed, with the help of vaping and if anyone was interested in what’s in the Pink Melonade feel free to flick us a message, it’s mostly just Melon, a couple different Lemonades, Raspberry, Strawberry and a hint of Lemon Sicily + Cactus.
Sjcloudz
) flavored ejuice.
everything about vaping and have met some amazing 
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