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Up in Vape – World Vapor Expo
Greetings dear readers, I have had an interesting past ten days. My laptop has been acting up, my back and legs have decided to go into meltdown mode, mainly due to the fact that I went to the World Vapor Expo at the Miami Beach convention center.
Now, it has been 5-6 years since I was in the Miami area, probably 5 times that long since I was in the Miami Beach area. That said, even though I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I was gonna pay, and pay dearly, for my trip down and back, I would do it again. Even knowing what it cost me, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Why?
Because I had a blast at the World Vapor Expo! From where I live on the east coast of Florida it’s about a 2.5 hour drive down, and the same back, then I spent 4+ hours at the event. The only reason I left was due to the fact that I was about out of cash, and I had been exposed to damn near floor-to-ceiling clouds of vapor. These weren’t your normal 8-10′ ceilings neither. OH NO….these ceiling had to be, 15′ or better in height. The vapor clouds went up as far as the air vents which were at the 12′-15′ height.
It was to the point that I was having a hard time breathing, well, maybe not a hard time maybe as though with every breath I inhaled vapor whether I were vaping at the moment or not!
Besides that, I had one hell of a nicotine headache, I have been vaping, less than 1mg nicotine level. I will vape 3mg or, if I can get it 1.5mg and then mix equal parts of VG with said eliquid.
How I Doctor Up My eJuice
If I get a 15 or 30ml bottle, I will transfer the juice into a larger container, then fill the bottle with VG and dump that into the mix, then… shake, shake, shake… shake your bottle!!
I do mean shake at least 3 minutes’ minimum, usually around 5-7 minutes, then I know it is thoroughly mixed. Next, it steeps, maybe just for an hour or two if it’s something I’ve used before, or it can be up to a week or more, it just depends.
Now, don’t take what I do and mix your juice my way…. well… I mean, you can, but the main reason I do it is because I have a high sensitivity to PG, even the most miniscule amount of PG in certain brands use in the flavoring can be enough to send me into a coughing fit, hacking like mad, it can get really bad. If you suffer the same way, then try mixing like I do.
Special Sauce
With my ‘special sauce’ as I like to call it, I can usually get the PG ratio down to where it doesn’t bother me…. much. There are still some flavors, flavors that I dearly love and will not ever give them up that still has enough PG in the mix to send me into a coughing spell, not as bad as it was before I knew about PG sensitivity and/or allergies, but enough to start me coughing. Anyway, my methods work for me, most of the time.
World Vapor Expo – Miami 2016
The World Vapor Expo was….an incredible, amazing, awesome, and several other adjectives that say just how awe inspiring it really was. There were tables, booths, stands everywhere, they had guys on L E D stilts or some kind of contraption that made them stand about 8′ tall. 
They had all this LED tech and they would move and groove to the music their costumes would change colors with the music, it was really, really cool, the music had that beat that you could get caught up in and ya just wanna rock!
Kinda hard to do when you are in an electric wheelchair/scooter like I was, still, it was all good. From there it was stopping at the booths that looked the best or were ones that I wanted to stop at.
One such stop netted me a Kanger Dripbox 160 TC a mod that I had been eying, it was given to me just because I am a disabled veteran! Nice right…. even now I’m not sure the dude that gave this to me was authorized to do so, unless he was the manager or owner.
He said to me as he put the box in my hand, thank you for your service, we need to do more for our veterans, I hope you enjoy this.
WOW, it almost brought me to tears. I have heard thank you for your service a LOT, since the war and all, and after a 16-year career and no one ever said anything to us veterans about serving, it is nice to hear.
But this gesture went above and beyond, I told him thank you that I really, really appreciated this, he just smiled and winked then went on to other customers, as it was…. busy!
Really though, the World Vapor Expo that was busy as hell, hmm, never woulda thunk that, OK, OK, I admit that I’m a bit of a smart ass, OK, I’m a LOT of a smart ass, doesn’t make me a bad person though, does it?
CBD At the World Vapor Expo
Moving right along I came across a table that bore a banner that read, Pure Science Labs, this is the same company that if y’all remember I wrote a review on their 100mg/ml CBD Hemp oil.
I sat there talking with the representative and he said to me when I gave him one of my last couple business cards, he was like ya know, I just read a review on Spinfuel, was that you? I’m like “no… no I didn’t write a review on…. OH….you mean about your product! Yea, that was me.” He then said something to the effect like that was a really good review, I said “you liked it”? He was like, “OH hell yea that was great!”
“Well I’m glad you liked it.”
We talked a bit more and I said about what was sent to me was the 100mg/ml CBD hemp oil, but by the time I had something to use for the wax, the wax was pretty well shot.
I had to break open the tiny container to get just a little bit, didn’t get anything out of that, but hey the 100mg/ml is still good stuff.
Then the rep said, well, if you liked that, then you’ll really like this, he passed over a Pico mod with a 2ml tank on or something about 2 ml and put a tip cover on and handed it to me.
“I’m not gonna pass out or anything?”, I queried, “nah but you’ll like it just the same.” I wish I could remember what the name of this stuff was, I know it’s a brand new product, I haven’t seen it on their website, but wow…. good.…no, great stuff.
I was almost, almost pain free, I mean going from a 12 on a scale of 1-10 I hit this 2 or 3 times and after a few minutes I felt pretty damn good, good enough that I was able to really enjoy the event. Only down side was that it wore off less than half way home.
Still, for a CBD oil of that caliber to last as long as it did without side effects and/or a nasty after taste. If it isn’t price prohibitive I might see if I can’t find it on their web site and get me some, a good bit of it to be sure.
There were some really bad ass cars at the expo too, a Lamborghini, don’t ask me which model I have NO idea, I am way out of my league when it comes to the high end sports cars. There was a new model Vette there and one I have never seen or even heard about…. BMW has a sports car…. HOLY SHIT!! This is one hell of a car, the doors instead of opening out, went up, kinda like slid up. I can’t think of what they call that kinda door set up, don’t know if it was standard issue or if it was aftermarket. Something tells me though that id BMW went to the trouble of manufacturing a high end sports car they wouldn’t use an aftermarket door kit on it, besides, I saw another one outside the convention center and was identical to the one inside, only the doors weren’t open. There was a Honda motorcycle, looks like and older model bike, either that or it’s a new model that is a retro version, I see a few of the bikes and cars coming out on the market at least the ones that most of us will never be able to afford are going with the retro look.
Oh the things I saw and the diversity of the people there. I heard more languages being spoken, other than English, since I left Germany some 35+ years ago…. did I just say that….35 years ago!! Geez, I make it sound like I’m old or getting old or something…. nah…. can’t be.
Anyway, as I was saying, I heard so many different languages being spoken, Spanish, German, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, there were at least 2 or 3 others that I couldn’t identify being spoken as well.
While I was making the rounds and I heard someone say something about a booth doing giveaways in a couple 
minutes. So, I scooted on over to the booth in question and true enough they were giving away a whole lotta different stuff. I moved up closer and saw a square-is bottle sailing over the heads of those of us gathered I snagged it, a bottle of 6mg, (definitely gonna have ta dilute that juice)! Then I was able to move up to the booth itself and some sweet young thing caught my eye and motioned me up, gave me a small bag that was rather heavy and after I got back away from everyone and everything I caught a moment to see just what was in this bag that this young lady gave to me.
Wouldn’t you know it, one of about a dozen Aspire Plato mods plus a couple bottles of 0mg juice, I’m like holy smoking donuts, this wasn’t on my list of hot items.
I’ve seen the Plato, thought it was a decent mod but one that I knew I would get eventually. All righty then, let’s get back at it shall we? I moved around, watched some young girls who thought they could dance, but was failing badly.
There were battery vendors, and battery charger vendors. There are some really nice chargers coming out of Japan in a few months. There were 4 and 6 bay chargers, some had Bluetooth some were able to charge not just the batteries we use in our mods, but one had a connector where you could connect a LiPo battery pack, along with 18650, 26650, 18350, etc.
I stopped at a booth and snagged me a new charger.
Let’s see, what else… there was so much going on…. side shows in different areas of the arena. Music so loud and it seems as though the deeper and louder the bass the better. Only issue I really had with it was there were 2 or 3 other areas that were doing the same thing, at any one time there may be 3 maybe 4 different parts of the arena that had the beat goes on…and on…and on. I’m not opposed to music and I can listen to almost anything, as long as the tempo is decent. However, when you gotta turn the bass up so high that you can feel your inside jiggle around and feels like your guts are moving with the groovin’. That I could deal with, to a point, then I would have to go out to the lobby for a few minutes and decompress…. whew, it kinda wears on ya after a bit.
I would then return to the front lines and continue the mission, which was to hopefully come away with as much ejuice as I did at the Orlando show. In a way I did, I only bought 2 bottles of juice 2 bottles of Naked Fish Sting Ray, a very tasty Peanut Butter & Jelly, 2x 50mL (100mL total) for $25.
I would scoot around with the few business cards I had and told them who I was, who I was with and I could usually count on getting a show sample pack.
One company I saw early on Snow Cap, they make a killer Hawaiian Shaved Ice eliquid, they have 3 flavors, all of which are really good! I started talking to the manager, gave him one of my cards and told him the who, what, where, and why and they had definitely heard of Spinfuel….who hasn’t, right?
As we talked and this rep was telling me about their juice and he said here, these are what we are selling to the general public, Buy 2 get their new flavor for free. All 30 ml bottles, plus a T shirt and ball cap.
I came away with 3 new T shirts and 2 new ball caps.
I was waiting for a T shirt to come sailing my way and there was a guy standing next to me; we started talking and I was like yea, I get a T shirt here they need to start throwing out gym shorts or something like it. If they did, I could walk away from here with a whole outfit, pants, shirt, and a ball cap….works for me. This guy thought that was the funniest thing he’d ever heard, about that time a T shirt came sailing right over everyone up front over heads and landed a foot away from me…. NICE!
One of the last places I stopped; I was quite literally on my way out, and figured I would take the long way and take my time. I saw this one setup, they had half dozen mods, mostly vape pens and the like, some were 18650 size mods, most had integrated LiPo’s with the mod.
However, they were showing off a new mod, the company is HAKA, and they will be offering up for sale to the public sometime next month is the HAKA MT 80.
It is an 80-watt TC mod, takes 2x 18650 batteries. It is a very easy mod to use, virtually no manual to speak of, but it isn’t really needed.
The MT 80 has the +/- adjustment buttons on the front and in-between the two was this function button. You tap that and then use your +/- buttons to scroll up/down, at the top is the turbo function. What that does is neat as hell, and yes there are other mods out there that have a turbo function of some type. Only with this turbo, when you have it enabled, you mash the fire button, and you fire your Atty like normal, then you mash the button just a tad more and the turbo kicks in, it boosts the wattage up by 10 watts, and….and it vibrates!
Way cool…. I know, I know, I am easily amused by these nifty neat little gadgets and gizmos. Any way as I was talking with yet another manager and he told me that these mods haven’t been released to the public as of yet. However, they were selling them at the show for $40, suggested MSRP he said was gonna be in the $60 range. Not bad, and over time I’m sure the price will come down some.
I was about to take my leave from the World Vapor Expo, told him my story, who I am, that I’m from Spinfuel.com and I write a weekly column. He said…. “you want…” I said yea, I would like to get one, but I’m a little cash strapped after a long day of picking up odds and ends. He said to me, “you like; you tell everyone about this yes?” I told “Absolutely”, “it would be my pleasure.”
After I left the world vapor expo I had the valet bring the truck up, got in, put all my stuff inside, and began the drive home. 
I ran into two storms on the way back; big ugly ferocious storms. They were both full of thunder and lightning. The lightning was close, real close. I even saw sheet lightning, cloud to ground lightning… it was one hell of a storm. Got through one, and ten minutes later went through another storm of the same intensity.
All in all, the World Vapor Expo was another superb show. I just wish that I was in better shape to do these shows. I just don’t know how much more of this I’ll be able to do.
I had an appointment with my pain management doctor that Monday, just 2 days later. I was told that although he, (my doctor) can and will continue to treat my pain diseases he has done everything in his power to try and relieve the major issues going on in my low back. He then told me he was referring me to a neurosurgeon…. I’ve been fighting back surgery for 25+ years!
I did ask my doctor what he thought might be in order in terms of surgery? I was told at the very least a Laminectomy, and he said he wouldn’t be surprised if some fusion wasn’t in order as well. My heart sank….
After all these years of avoiding, fighting against, any form of back surgery, I just don’t want it. But then I was to the point of getting back spasms, my legs felt like they weighed a ton, each.
I was tired of not being able to walk, not being able to do squat. I’m just tired of fighting a losing battle with my back. But, hopefully this will clear up some problems and allow me to carry on for a few years more.
Didn’t mean to get too personal there, but I know that within a month to six weeks I will be going under the knife, and will probably be out of action for a couple of weeks.
I do apologize for missing last week and the week before, but with everything that has been going on, it’s a wonder I was able to continue to march on now.
This column this is my therapy, my distraction, my career, and anything I can do to get better at this is to keep on keeping on.
I’m in it for the long haul, be it good or ill, I know there will be times when I can’t physically do anything, I may be out a month, don’t know, but I know that in order to heal I’m gonna be on the straight and narrow for a while.
If y’all have anything you want me to write about, please let me know in the comments section below.
I’m here for y’all, I can think of a lot to write about…. I want to hear from you my friends, fans, followers, you want the medical side of vaping, you want some of my tricks & tips, you tell me. Until then, I’ll count on having something for next week.
I am looking forward to next week where there will be another installment of Up in Vape. Be well, stay safe, God bless, and….VAPE ON!
Thank you all so very much for being a part of my life, and me a small part of yours, enjoy your day.
Tim Timblin
