I feel a little silly for asking this but I will be making some changa soon and have never smoked a bong. And I don't know of anyone that can teach me. I've been looking at youtube clips but there doesn't seem to be many decent videos that explain it step-by-step without various criticisms from people in the comments sections, which leaves me feeling confused.

Can someone point a complete newbie in the direction of a useful video or two? Or a written guide would be fine as well. Specifically I am not sure on:

- At what point do I remove the flame from the bowl before sucking in the smoke?
- Do I remove the stem before taking the "hit"?
- When applying the flame, do I slowly pull the smoke through to fill up the chamber of the bong first fully BEFORE taking the hit in my lungs, or just pull it straight through continually?

Any help would be appreciated.

I'm confident in your bong smoalking abilities, have faith in yourself.




There are no hard and fast rules to smoking a bong. If you have watched the videos already I suggest your grab some pot or unenhanced herb and take a few practice hits. There is a slight learning curve but you will figure out what works for you fairly quickly. This is the easiest way for you to learn rather than someone trying to type out an essay explaining how to hit a bong.

I can best answer this question, in song.

I can understand your confusion. I remember when I went to smoke a bong for the first time, I was so confused, I couldn't tell if you inhaled or exhaled at first.

At what point you remove the flame from the bowl is a bit subjective. It depends in part on how big the hit you want to take is. If your bong is see-through glass, it is easier of course to gauge the size of your hit than if it were opaque, and then it takes a little bit of experience to get a feel of the specific bong. You basically want to make sure that the smoke has filled the chamber. You can light the plant material on fire, and turn the flame off and as you continue to pull, smoke will fill the chamber and the plant material will continue to ember (if not apply more flame).

Now as you're pulling and filling the bong, smoke will inevitably be filling your lungs as well. It will depend on your lung capacity, and lung sensitivity along with how big the hit is that will determine if you can clear the rest of the bong (i.e. get all the smoke in your lungs) in one shot. You don't want to take so big of a hit that you cough it up, so what you can do (if you want) is that when the bong is full, you can back off, maybe place your hand over the mouth of the bong so smoke doesn't continue to escape, hold in the smoke in your lungs for as long as you'd need to absorb it, exhale, and then clear the rest of the smoke remaining in the bong by inhaling and holding it in.

You'll be pulling the smoke continually ideally until your lungs are full - hold - exhale - clear - hold - exhale - hyperspace

Thanks Global, that is exactly the sort if information I am after. I will give your method a go. It answers a lot of my questions.

Doodazzle, that is a catchy song, some neat guitar work going on there!

Okay, so the first stage is burning the material to fill the bong with smoke.
Whilst burning the material, you want to block the air from flowing outwards.
During this phase, you block any shottie with a finger.
(A shottie is just a small circular hole that can be blocked or unblocked to control the flow of air.)

When this is performed, there is nowhere for the air to travel when you are inhaling, other than through the cone piece, into the bong chamber. This causes the lighter to be sucked into the cone piece.
I usually aim to keep as minimal of a temperature as possible when using a bong.
To do this, I simply light the cone piece, and take off the lighter and inhaling, checking if the cone-piece material is ignited.
I then just control my breathing to control the burning.
This is the same principle as blowing on the embers of flames to help it glow/burn.

Once the bong is filled with smoke, simply take your finger off of the shottie, and the air rushes in through the hole, and into your longs, taking with it, the lovely Drugs you have just vaped/combusted.

Note: Some bongs do not have a shottie hole.
The alternative to opening the shottie hole, is to use your fingers to lift out the cone piece to allow the air to rush in.
I don't like bongs like this, as it can lead to small burns. Best of luck, I hope that helped.
Any further questions, let me know.

So if my bong doesn't have a shottie, then is it absolutely necessary to remove the cone piece when trying to inhale the smoke in one hit? Or will I be able to just keep sucking it through because air is flowing through the cone piece after the leaf has been burnt up?

Also, how do I know when I should stop pulling the smoke into the chamber and prepare to take the big final hit? I guess that's when no more smoke comes into the chamber?

Unless you are a human vacuum cleaner, yes, you`ll have to take it out.
Most bongs you can visually see the cone-piece in your peripheral vision, and as such, you can just see if there's more to be burnt or not.
There's no issue with not burning it all, you can take it in 2 tokes (or any number).
Before you smoke infused Changa, I`d highly suggest smoking Mary J or Damiana or anything that is not going to smack you in the face hehe.

Righto, thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. It's obviously going to be a matter of firing it up and having a bit of practice, but I wanted to get a grasp on the basics first.

I've got an order of herbs coming which includes Damiana, so I will be able to practice with that. I wouldn't know who to get Cannabis from as I don't know of anyone that smokes it, but it sounds interesting so maybe one day I will get the chance.

There must be some people that smoke it in my area though because I sometimes find what I assume to be makeshift bongs lying around public areas - they are usually 600ml plastic Coca-Cola bottles with bits of garden hose poked through a hole in the side with scorch marks on it.

Ahhhh, home made bongs made out of coke bottles, they bring back many happy memories

good luck with your bong smoalking dmt_spider, its a pretty easy thing to get down, im sure you will be fine

making 2L Coke bottles into a bucketbong using my friends pool as the "bucket", brings me some nostalgic memories haha.

2l coke bottle, size 14 socket, mmmmmmmm buckets.

Careful if you are making your own bong-stem using hose, it will melt slightly when the cone piece heats up after lighting your material - you don't want to be smoking hose. Nothing worse than after a weekend of smoking and realising that you have smoked an inch of plastic. Invest in a metal stem and cone piece, and you can make anything into a decent and safe smoking device.

I definately prefer having a shottie/carb hole as opposed to lifting the stem out.

My method:

Put water in the bottom of your bong, enough to ensure the bottom of the hose is completely covered.
This filters out any ash and debris into the water while cooling down the smoke. You don't want to use too much water or you may get bong water droplets getting in your mouth (yuck).

Put smoking material in cone piece - use a small amount, just to get used to the process.
Cover the shottie hole with your thumb.
Breathe out all your air, so that you can be ready to take a big inhalation from the bong.
Light the plant material, and start sucking through the top of the bong.

This will begin burning the plant material, bringing most of the smoke into the chamber but some will be breathed in as well.
You can continue lighting it until it's all burnt through if you like, or you can simply light it once at the beginning - your inhalation will keep the embers glowing (like blowing on a hot coal)
Keep sucking until the ash of the burnt plant material is 'pulled through' the cone piece and there is nothing left to burn. If it's not 'pulling through' suck harder and tap the cone piece gently with your lighter, this will disturb any stuck ash and pull it through.

When the last bit of ash pulls through, the chamber will be filled with thick smoke.

(note: If you feel at this point, that your lungs are already too full to continue inhaling - or if it's becoming too harsh to smoke - as mentioned above you can cover the top of the bong with you hand, so that you can breathe out and ready yourself for further inhalation.)

This is where you take your thumb off the shottie.
By taking your thumb off the shottie, allowing air to come into the chamber, displaces the fresh air with the smoke and brings the smoke into your lungs all at once.

Smile. You just smoked your first bong.

Like any wind instrument, it will take a bit of practice to become a bong virtuoso. I suggest starting with small amount of plant matter, before you start packing massive cones.

Good luck!

Thanks for the excellent advice Lichen. I tried for the first time tonight to smoke my bong, using just Pau D'arco (no spice) following the help from yourself and others in this thread.

My technique needs much practice, but I feel confident that I will get at a stage soon where I will be comfortable smoking spice-enhanced leaf.

Thanks again everyone.

One final question though, any advice on the size of the bong? I got myself a "23cm" glass bong, in all the clips I've seen though of people smoking their bongs, they are using much larger bongs. Is a bigger bong actually a better choice for a beginner?

I have a 30cm straight glass bong and it is epically efficient, it feels like the perfect size.

As long as your bong feels comfortable it will be fine.

I like a big one, mine atm is around 40cm or so in size.
I`d say it makes little difference, and is just a comfort thing, stick with what you have.

OK forgive me here, but I find it hilarious that someone has found their way to the Nexus, made CHANGA, and is asking how to smoke a bong! This is just classic!

On the plus side you came to the correct place and it sounds like you have been given some solid advice.

Please don't mind my harmless jestering!
I suppose we did all in fact have to learn how to smoke a bong at some point or another.

Peace

No offence taken, I guess I can see how it does seem a little strange and funny to some people, especially those with years of experience under their belts smoking a bong.
I'm a late-bloomer in that respect! Not everyone starts their interest in various substances at the same time...as you can tell, all this is very new to me and the Nexus has been extremely helpful in answering my questions, which may seem very rudimentary to a lot of people on here.

I guess it is essentially no different to someone going onto a bodybuilding forum and asking how to "get swole", or on a racing bike forum asking how to be a competitive rider...

dmt_spider. Good luck to you friend. Don't worry so much about the bong.

If you have some caapi leaf present try a couple of bong hits with just plain leaf first to get the hang of it. Each bong does have it's own unique feel to it.

Honestly I have also found using a vapor genie (I don't own a glass one) works very well for CHANGA.

Good luck friend. CHANGA is without a doubt the only way (IMHO) to vaporize the sacred spice.

Peace