Hey everyone, just felt like reminiscing, and I might throw in a question at the end, but it depends on what direction I reminisce in, haha.
When I just started with pipes, not too long ago, I thought back to when I decided to throw a yoyo. Now, I'm probably one of the younger guys on here at 20, but many of you might think, "What? He started yoyoing when he was 18? That's a bit old for yoyoing, isn't it?". Well, I guess by stereotypes, I'm pretty young for pipes too; I guess I don't like to fit into the typical age demographic (though if you check out the forums and communities, there are quite a lot of people around my age and older that have discovered/rediscovered the joys of such a spinning device). I started simple, a nice $15 yoyo, a small delrin throw (a "throw" also means yoyo). Just like in most hobbies for most people, I had my eyes on the high-end, and in this case, the aluminum yoyos (if at all interested, companies include CLYW, SPYY, YYF, YYR... etc). I couldn't have been yoyoing for that long before I broke down and bought myself a nice aluminum yoyo on Black Friday. Great, now I had two yoyos, a plastic and a metal. I told myself that I could not afford to get anymore yoyos before I learned more tricks (a high-end metal is typically $75-$120, believe it or not). I did my best to learn, but soon I found out that the aluminum yoyo I bought was undersized, a pocket throw, and not a standard-sized yoyo. I couldn't have that, now could I? I needed to get a standard sized yoyo because otherwise, I was at a disadvantage because smaller yoyos have less stability and spin time than a larger one.
So once again, I ordered myself a "normal" high-end aluminum. The story goes on and on, I get more yoyos, join a forum, start trading with other yoyoers, and sometimes I get a good deal and sometimes not. I even picked up a titanium yoyo (those run for 1.5-2x as much as aluminum because the material is more expensive and harder to work with). Alas, my obsession for a year died down, I realized I had spent a ton of money on yoyos (and I was mainly collecting and barely throwing and learning new tricks) so I went cold turkey and sold them all.
It felt a bit like a part of me was missing. Despite not knowing a ton of tricks, I realized how much my hand was used to holding a yoyo, how much my middle finger wanted to be pinched (if you throw a lot, you get a ring of a callus around your middle finger). I lasted only a handful of months before I got back into the loop, albeit with more control; my (smaller) collection seems to have settled down, and you can see the yoyos I've owned since starting.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swilly
How does this tie into pipes? Well, pipes and cigars always held some fascination to me. I have a neighbor that smokes cigars, and when he does yardwork, the smell often wafts over and it's pretty nice. When I got to college (by the way, I think my parents would kill me if they knew I was smoking, it's DEFINITELY not something any explaining would fix), I picked up some cigars from the local grocery store. They actually had a humidor, but I don't think it was actually doing its job (I doubt they had any sort of humectant either). I guess those were okay, but I don't think I had any bit of a palate for smoke. I knew for sure that they weren't anything like the cigars or smells coming from my neighbor's house. Later on, I was able to get a ride to Des Moines where I visited a cigar shop. I grabbed a Rocky Patel, Oliva series O, a Brickhouse, and two more or so. I went back smoked two or so. Still not my cup of tea, plus the smell really soaked into my hands and clothes, definitely not a plus. I had three more cigars by the time I went home for this past summer(I forgot to mention, the cigar affair was started this year). I talked to my friend about my experiences and was surprised that that same year, he also got into cigars! Well, I still had three, so what better way to relax on a summer night than converse over a cigar? We decided on the Rocky Patel, and we passed it back and forth. Wow it was strong. I ended up smoking most of it because my friend was even less for such full-flavored smoke. After that light-headed experience, I left cigars, both figuratively and literally, at my friend's house.
Enter Beijing. I'm walking down the 后海 area when I see a pipe shop. I decided not to go in because I felt like the store owner would look at me funny and not take me seriously because of my age. Several weeks later, when I was in the area again and saw the shop, I decided to go in and check the wares out. After talking with them, they hooked me up with a rosewood bulldog, Borkum Riff Orange and Honey, Mac Baren Vanilla Choice, a lighter, a tamper, filters, and pipe cleaners. Alright, it was time to test out the other side of my curiosity towards smoking! I hadn't tried the pipe before this point because I thought all the equipment required to even START was a hassle, whereas with for cigars, a cigar, lighter, and cutter (even that is optional) was all I needed.
I lit up.... and had some trouble. I think I packed the tobacco too tightly so I was having issues with keeping the pipe lit. After reading the forums and other guides, I knew that the first, second, or countless times thereafter would still be lessons through trial-and-error, so I stuck with it. Second time seemed okay, third time I think I packed too loosely. After about five total smokes, I decided it was time for another pipe. I went back to the pipe shop, and picked out a Savinelli Tortuga 127 and some Dan Pipe 2000. A couple days later I fired it up, and man, that was a delicious smoke. Just like what many of you have experienced, I was very pleased with the purchase. And just like what many of you have also experienced, I was very unhappy to find out the shank had a crack in it. No, I did not handle the pipe wrong; the defect must have been there before I even bought it. Chalk it up to my noob excitement for failing to examine the whole pipe closely before a purchase. Anyway, I brought it back to the shop, they said they'll do their best to resolve this issue (fix/refund/exchange, who knows? I find out in a week), and in the meantime, I got yet ANOTHER pipe! Exciting, eh? I went up another notch with a Radice Silk Cut billiard.
Well, that's where the story ends because that is the present. What does the future hold? Who knows. How does the Radice smoke? Who knows, I haven't had a chance yet, but all in due time. Sitting here and thinking about my pipe experiences up till now reminds me of my yoyo story. We'll see if I go cold-turkey or not, but as of now, I can say I'm only enjoying my puffing time. Hope you enjoyed my random write-up. It's 4:30 in the morning here, I was busy with some translations and I'm still not done with those, I'm just taking my mind off of them and writing a fun post here :D. In a roundabout way, any of you have a similar hobby with a similar story?
Ciao, and happy smoking!
-Swilly
When I just started with pipes, not too long ago, I thought back to when I decided to throw a yoyo. Now, I'm probably one of the younger guys on here at 20, but many of you might think, "What? He started yoyoing when he was 18? That's a bit old for yoyoing, isn't it?". Well, I guess by stereotypes, I'm pretty young for pipes too; I guess I don't like to fit into the typical age demographic (though if you check out the forums and communities, there are quite a lot of people around my age and older that have discovered/rediscovered the joys of such a spinning device). I started simple, a nice $15 yoyo, a small delrin throw (a "throw" also means yoyo). Just like in most hobbies for most people, I had my eyes on the high-end, and in this case, the aluminum yoyos (if at all interested, companies include CLYW, SPYY, YYF, YYR... etc). I couldn't have been yoyoing for that long before I broke down and bought myself a nice aluminum yoyo on Black Friday. Great, now I had two yoyos, a plastic and a metal. I told myself that I could not afford to get anymore yoyos before I learned more tricks (a high-end metal is typically $75-$120, believe it or not). I did my best to learn, but soon I found out that the aluminum yoyo I bought was undersized, a pocket throw, and not a standard-sized yoyo. I couldn't have that, now could I? I needed to get a standard sized yoyo because otherwise, I was at a disadvantage because smaller yoyos have less stability and spin time than a larger one.
So once again, I ordered myself a "normal" high-end aluminum. The story goes on and on, I get more yoyos, join a forum, start trading with other yoyoers, and sometimes I get a good deal and sometimes not. I even picked up a titanium yoyo (those run for 1.5-2x as much as aluminum because the material is more expensive and harder to work with). Alas, my obsession for a year died down, I realized I had spent a ton of money on yoyos (and I was mainly collecting and barely throwing and learning new tricks) so I went cold turkey and sold them all.
It felt a bit like a part of me was missing. Despite not knowing a ton of tricks, I realized how much my hand was used to holding a yoyo, how much my middle finger wanted to be pinched (if you throw a lot, you get a ring of a callus around your middle finger). I lasted only a handful of months before I got back into the loop, albeit with more control; my (smaller) collection seems to have settled down, and you can see the yoyos I've owned since starting.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/swilly
How does this tie into pipes? Well, pipes and cigars always held some fascination to me. I have a neighbor that smokes cigars, and when he does yardwork, the smell often wafts over and it's pretty nice. When I got to college (by the way, I think my parents would kill me if they knew I was smoking, it's DEFINITELY not something any explaining would fix), I picked up some cigars from the local grocery store. They actually had a humidor, but I don't think it was actually doing its job (I doubt they had any sort of humectant either). I guess those were okay, but I don't think I had any bit of a palate for smoke. I knew for sure that they weren't anything like the cigars or smells coming from my neighbor's house. Later on, I was able to get a ride to Des Moines where I visited a cigar shop. I grabbed a Rocky Patel, Oliva series O, a Brickhouse, and two more or so. I went back smoked two or so. Still not my cup of tea, plus the smell really soaked into my hands and clothes, definitely not a plus. I had three more cigars by the time I went home for this past summer(I forgot to mention, the cigar affair was started this year). I talked to my friend about my experiences and was surprised that that same year, he also got into cigars! Well, I still had three, so what better way to relax on a summer night than converse over a cigar? We decided on the Rocky Patel, and we passed it back and forth. Wow it was strong. I ended up smoking most of it because my friend was even less for such full-flavored smoke. After that light-headed experience, I left cigars, both figuratively and literally, at my friend's house.
Enter Beijing. I'm walking down the 后海 area when I see a pipe shop. I decided not to go in because I felt like the store owner would look at me funny and not take me seriously because of my age. Several weeks later, when I was in the area again and saw the shop, I decided to go in and check the wares out. After talking with them, they hooked me up with a rosewood bulldog, Borkum Riff Orange and Honey, Mac Baren Vanilla Choice, a lighter, a tamper, filters, and pipe cleaners. Alright, it was time to test out the other side of my curiosity towards smoking! I hadn't tried the pipe before this point because I thought all the equipment required to even START was a hassle, whereas with for cigars, a cigar, lighter, and cutter (even that is optional) was all I needed.
I lit up.... and had some trouble. I think I packed the tobacco too tightly so I was having issues with keeping the pipe lit. After reading the forums and other guides, I knew that the first, second, or countless times thereafter would still be lessons through trial-and-error, so I stuck with it. Second time seemed okay, third time I think I packed too loosely. After about five total smokes, I decided it was time for another pipe. I went back to the pipe shop, and picked out a Savinelli Tortuga 127 and some Dan Pipe 2000. A couple days later I fired it up, and man, that was a delicious smoke. Just like what many of you have experienced, I was very pleased with the purchase. And just like what many of you have also experienced, I was very unhappy to find out the shank had a crack in it. No, I did not handle the pipe wrong; the defect must have been there before I even bought it. Chalk it up to my noob excitement for failing to examine the whole pipe closely before a purchase. Anyway, I brought it back to the shop, they said they'll do their best to resolve this issue (fix/refund/exchange, who knows? I find out in a week), and in the meantime, I got yet ANOTHER pipe! Exciting, eh? I went up another notch with a Radice Silk Cut billiard.
Well, that's where the story ends because that is the present. What does the future hold? Who knows. How does the Radice smoke? Who knows, I haven't had a chance yet, but all in due time. Sitting here and thinking about my pipe experiences up till now reminds me of my yoyo story. We'll see if I go cold-turkey or not, but as of now, I can say I'm only enjoying my puffing time. Hope you enjoyed my random write-up. It's 4:30 in the morning here, I was busy with some translations and I'm still not done with those, I'm just taking my mind off of them and writing a fun post here :D. In a roundabout way, any of you have a similar hobby with a similar story?
Ciao, and happy smoking!
-Swilly
