Fill your bong with water, insert your downstem, grind some fresh cannabis buds, load the bowl, light it up, inhale, hold, exhale. Sounds simple... right? Not so fast! We'll get into more detail on how to use a water bong for beginners. This way there is no assuming. We'll give you tips and tricks to make your first time with a water bong as pleasurable as possible. First things first, make sure your bong is clean. The next step is to fill it with water to the correct level. The correct level is when you have your downstem inserted properly, all of the holes should be below the water level at least a half-inch, preferably 3/4 inches or more. Use ice water and you'll have a cooler smoke that helps with coughing. If you have an ice catcher, add some ice. It will help even more in most cases. Tilt your bong when loading the ice if it's made of glass or other fragile material. Warning: Don't just drop the ice in the top of your glass bong, you may end up sorry for doing that.
How To Grind or Break Up Your Cannabis
Okay, time to slow down. If you choose to grind and have a decent grinder, grind it up and get ready. If you are one who prefers to break up your bud, do it in small fluffed pieces.
How To Load The Bong Bowl Properly For Beginners
Now that your cannabis is prepared for smoking, it's time to load the bowl. The size of your bowl does matter, but not much for beginners. Our goal is to get you a great hit, not a crippling rip that chokes you down hard for 5 minutes. If you're using ground cannabis, keep it light and fluffy and load the bowl just short of the top. Do not pack it any more than just leveling off the top of the bowl. Place the bowl in the downstem. If you're using broken up cannabis, keep if fluffy for lots of air-flow. Don't pack it. Place the bowl in the downstem. Here's an option for either type of grind: you can place just enough to get a limited hit if it's your first time by cutting the amount of cannabis in the bowl to about 25 to 35% max. This method works best with broken up cannabis instead of ground cannabis, but can technically be used with either.
Breathing Prep to Get A Good Hit
Yes, take the time to read this. It's important than you might think. Preparing for a good hit is easy if you understand basic biology. Our brain regulates our breathing, heart rate, and every other function of the human body. If we have too much oxygen in our blood, the brain is notified and sends notice to the breathing dept. They slow the breathing down a bit and await further instructions from the brain. Too short of oxygen? We gotta get these numbers up, they're rookie numbers, and breathing increases. It happens rapidly. Take off running hard for just 15 seconds and stop. Pay attention. Your blood pressure is up, your breathing is rapid and deep, and you have this crazy desire to bend over and rest your hands on your knees. This all happened in 15 seconds. Your brain can make radical changes in your body very quickly depending on circumstances. But you can trick it... for a little while. Here's how you can do that with this breathing method. To show you how easily the body can be tricked short term, most humans are capable of intentionally hyperventilating to the point of extreme dizziness and in many cases, passing out. But you will eventually pass out, and that's the point. The human brain has many switches for emergency purposes. But what if you don't hyperventilate to the extreme? What if you just took 5 deep, normal speed breaths and then inhaled (take a hit) on the 6th? You would have increased oxygen in the lungs and bloodstream, you've just expanded your lungs 5 times and if you do it right, you can hold that hit for a while without suffering. Now that we have this important step out of the way, let's get to the hit. Time to fire up the bowl. Some prefer hemp wick, some lighters, some torches. I'll use the lighter in this example. Step 1. Hold the bong at an angle so you can see the bulb or flask at the bottom. If you have a straight tube, it will be harder for you to tell when to pull the bowl. Have the lighter lit before the end of breath #5. On the inhale of number 6, slowly draw on the bong while placing the flame over the bowl. Here's A Key Point As soon as the flask, globe or tube is full of smoke, pull your bowl and continue inhaling at the same rate until you have a full breath inhaled. Hold it as long as you are comfortable. Exhale. You should get a headrush pretty quickly. Good rips work basically the same way, but usually with larger rigs and slower burning of cannabis because of the extra concentrated smoke areas. You're all done. Lather, rinse, repeat as needed.