Vaping is a male dominated industry, everywhere I looked there were men building coils, blowing clouds, designing RDA’s and mechanical mods. Megan’s Instagram page was a breath of fresh air.
For these reasons and so many more, I was very excited when Megan agreed to do this interview with me.
Like Tom, who we featured in our last Newsletter. Megan was never a “smoker”, as a woman with chronic asthma, smoking would exacerbate her attacks, but still she was looking for a vice. After trying a Hookah she found that that form of “smoking” didn’t give her the asthmatic attacks that she had grown used to, she did her research and found that with all the accessories a Hookah was going to end up being quite pricey. This is when a friend of her put her onto the idea of vaping, and once she found out that you could get different flavours of e-liquid, she delved back into her research, this time on vaping.
In the beginning, she intended on buying the EVOD pen style starter kit, that many people start with, but didn’t want to be stuck with the dilemma of upgrading within a few months.
She went back to her research and after doing the hard yards with ohms law and battery safety, decided on a mechanical mod, specifically the Nemesis Tube and Mutation X v2.
Since then Megan has been taking New Zealand’s vaping community by storm with her intricate and artistic coil building, and as a professional photographer she has been able to provide me with some magnified images of her work.
It didn’t take long for Megan to be submerged in what we call, vapelife, she ohhed and ahhed over the coils other vapes and coil builders showcase on Instagram, which is where she caught the bug.
“All the different and intricate coils on Instagram had me wondering if I could do the same?
Naturally, I started with the easier builds and progressed on to the more technically challenging ones. Even though I still build coils, I don’t really make many for artistic purposes anymore, I build more for vape-ability purposes now.”
What is Megan’s favourite coil? Alien wire. Alien wire is an excellent all round coil for maximum flavour and cloud production. Although Megan started with chucking clouds, things change and after discovering more and more flavours of e-liquids, she started dabbling in more flavour. Every set-up she has reflects her choice, mods that can handle the thermal mass of the coils she produces with RDA’s that can fit them. After winning the H-Cigar VT200 from one of our very own online giveaways, she discovered the joys of having a customisable DNA mod, and from there has continued building her collection with The Hustler DNA 250, by Legit Mods in Christchurch, personalised with her very own OhmKiwi Coils logo on the battery door.
Vaping in New Zealand has always been a controversial topic, but for people like Megan, it’s simple. It’s better than smoking. A statement shared by almost every member of popular vaping pages like NZ Vapes and Vape NZ, through these pages New Zealand has developed strong vaping community, not unlike ones that you would see in America or England, where vaping is more prominent. Even with the similarities in these communities, Megan has found there are a few key differences, “Most of what I’ve seen regarding the differences in vaping communities in NZ and overseas have been on Facebook. So, it’s a little difficult to compare the communities due to how different people act when they’re online compared to when they’re in person.
As diverse as the Global vaping community is, it’s an incredibly supportive community with many members willing to help and guide each other through their vaping journey.
On Facebook, I’ve seen more compassion and courtesy within the NZ vaping community compared to what I’ve seen from the overseas vaping communities. Especially when it comes to gender. Vaping is a male dominated industry, and I’ve seen the sexism and the sexual harassment in more of the overseas vaping communities than our own. Granted, no vaping community is perfect and we’ve all seen our fair share of drama within our local vaping community, but I love our dysfunctional vape family.”
As usual we ended the interview with the question, if there was anything you could say to the vaping community right now, what would it be?
“Vape safely by doing your research! If you have the knowledge, educate others so they can vape safely! Finally… Be kind to each other! We are a diverse group of people from many different backgrounds and personalities, but one thing brings us all together… #VapingHasSavedOurLives!!!”
Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me Megan! We look forward to many more Vape Days spent with you and the rest of the community!
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