Worst experience?

[jeans]

Not to be negative, but I figured if we all shared our worst experiences with hookah, we could all learn something and try to avoid it in the future.
My worst one was this night. I only went with one other person, and we're both very new to this. At first the smoke was really nice and flavorful, but then it turned very harsh. I blew the ashes off the top of the foil and cleaned off the coals, but we tried to ride out the harshness (like it did last time we were there). I think that wasn't a good idea, because it made us both very sick. Is there a way to make it not be so harsh? What do you do when you start to feel sick?
Thanks!

[Soup]

Experience #1...
I was at a friends place and he set up the hookah.  He used foil and a large coal that covered the entire bowl.  The tobacco burned to a crisp!  Now, he was the guy who introduced me to hookah, and has been smoking for some time, you'd think he'd know what he's doing, but no.  He was sitting there, "Man, this is really good!"  I was sitting there, "Tastes like charcoal and ass!".
Me, Stew, and another well-versed-in-hookah guy told him that you're not supposed to burn the tobacco, but roast it.  To which he relpied, "Whoever told you this was on crack!"  I can't believe that we wasted our last bowl of Romman lemon on that.
Experience #2
The purge valve on Stew's hookah broke off so we just put a ball of stucky-tac there to block it.  This created a problem where you cannot blow into the hose to clear the base, what happends instead is water is forced up the stem, to the bowl, and over the top.  Mike, blew into the hose.  The coal was toast and the bowl was basically ruined.  "Luckilly", Mike had a propane torch with him.  We took off the screen, lit the torch, and puffed.    You never want to experience that.  I was actually surprised to find that, once lit, the ma'assell will hold a flame on its own pretty well.

[Guest LondonShisha]

Worst experience was with a sheesha that had not been set up correctly, and I ended up sucking in water through the hose - that was disgusting As for harshness in your smoke - go back to basics and check the following:
- Check your coal management (using less coal with a windcover can help)- Check you have a reasonable gap between the tobacoo and the foil. Pack the ma'assell loosely and leave a few mm gap so the foil doesn't touch it.  Do you push down on the coal with you tongs whilst smoking? This isn't required if your coal management is good, otherwise you might end up pushing the foil onto the ma'assell and burning it.- Clean the bowl occasionaly whilst smoking. You do this by taking off the coals, lifting up the bowl vertically (use oven gloves or something) and blowing through the bottom of it to blow out the ash etc. Do this about half way through your smoke and the rest of your smoke shouldn't be harsh.I use a fairly largish bowl and pack the ma'assell so there is about 1/2 cm gap to the foil. I use a windcover to manage the heat of the coals - putting it on when smoke gets a little thin and taking it off when it's about to burn. If I don't use a windscreen I use a bit more coal, and move it around every 5-10 mins or so to stop it heating one place too much.

[[LB]]

[quote name='LondonShisha']Worst
experience was with a sheesha that had not been set up correctly, and I
ended up sucking in water through the hose - that was disgusting As for harshness in your smoke - go back to basics and check the following:
- Check your coal management (using less coal with a windcover can help)-
Check you have a reasonable gap between the tobacoo and the foil. Pack
the ma'assell loosely and leave a few mm gap so the foil doesn't touch
it.  Do you push down on the coal with you tongs whilst smoking?
This isn't required if your coal management is good, otherwise you
might end up pushing the foil onto the ma'assell and burning it.-
Clean the bowl occasionaly whilst smoking. You do this by taking off
the coals, lifting up the bowl vertically (use oven gloves or
something) and blowing through the bottom of it to blow out the ash
etc. Do this about half way through your smoke and the rest of your
smoke shouldn't be harsh.I use a fairly largish bowl and pack
the ma'assell so there is about 1/2 cm gap to the foil. I
use a windcover to manage the heat of the coals - putting it
on when smoke gets a little thin and taking it off when it's about
to burn. If I don't use a windscreen I use a bit more coal, and
move it around every 5-10 mins or so to stop it heating one place
too much.[/quote]

hahah the same thing happened to me, except here the bad part...
i was using milk in the vase, so i spat out a fat gob or brown milk


about coal management-
- i rarely need more than one coal, i simply take the coal, light it
thoroughly along the bottom, break it vertically, and then throw the
big cluster of fragmented coals into a pile on my bowl, spread them out
so they cover the whole bowl .I feel i get a nice even smoke like this-
and if any cluster is to big i just put them back into this metal dish
i have (not the charcoal dish! it must be walled our you will get
charcaol all over the floor) and then i pulverize the sucked until
little pieces remain.

[[LB]]

the sucker* we need an edit button that other thread was right.

[[LB]]

have an of you had friends who knocked over the hookah? or dont know
how to pass so they hank the hose or some sh*t? that ruins an
experience right away- and they get expelled from my house indefinently

[mushrat]

Jeans: either it was burning, or your coals were giving you a bad taste. what kind of charcoal are you using?
My wost experience was burning a bowl of....nakhla mixed fruit. Nuff sed.

[Guest LondonShisha]

[quote]about coal management-- i rarely need more than one coal, i simply take the coal, light it thoroughly along the bottom, break it vertically, and then throw the big cluster of fragmented coals into a pile on my bowl, spread them out so they cover the whole bowl .I feel i get a nice even smoke like this- and if any cluster is to big i just put them back into this metal dish i have (not the charcoal dish! it must be walled our you will get charcaol all over the floor) and then i pulverize the sucked until little pieces remain.[/quote] I use naturals now, but when I used to use charcoal discs, i'd heat them up and break them into little pieces using an old cup and my tongs (stab the charcoal in the cup till it breaks into little pieces). Little pieces give great heat distribution, but also die out quicker due to the increased surface area.With the natural finger coal I use right now, I break off about 3 smallish pieces, put them on my gas stove for about 3-4 mins and use them when they are glowing red. Using a windcover, they last about 30 mins.

[jmexx]

We never really experienced BAD hookah experiences other then the unlimited amounts of times that people have dropped the coal. This usually happens when I have hookah parties with a few of them going so I can't really pay attention to all of them. I have a friend who's infamous for the amount of times he drops the coal. Once, he pulled the hose towards him, the hookah tipped, coal fell on the floor, he was on a rolling chair and was like "Where's the coal?!" while rolling around, rolling over the coal... *sigh*. Imagine a 300lbs white boy destroying a hardwood floor... It's a sad site but funny none-the-less!Jon

[HookahDuck]

I use Golden quick lite's.... I got through 3 in a smoking session with
a very large bowl, and will make it last about an hour and 15 minutes.



Worst experiance? Smoking an entire large bowl of Nakhla strawberry, by myself... then throwing up with a migrane for the next 2 hours.


I've found a pretty good way to get rid of harshness. Its a pain.. but
it works. As SOON as you start to feel it getting harsh, pull the
coal(s) off of the bowl, and grab the bowl near the bottom where its
coolest. Get your lips as close to the bottom of the bowl as
possible(putting your lips around it works the best, but sometimes you
will get drippings in your mouth), and blow at a steady pase up through
the ma'assel.  You will see quite a bit of smoke coming through
the top of the bowl. Do this for 30 seconds or so(or more if it was
REALLY burning quickly). Put your coals back on, take a few puffs- and
you should have a nice smooth smoke again.

[slayman1]

hi guys.I had a funny but bad experience once.I was at a picnic with relatives and we were all sitting around with about five hookahs going at the same time and here I am changing the coals on my hookah.As i was smoking,I could smell like a burning smell that really got up my nose,it was like a chemical or something,I looked around the shisha thinking that something was stuck on the tongs or the bowl.I then asked relatives if they could smell it,but then I felt some heat around my legs and had realised that when I changed the coals that a large piece fell in the fold of my jeans and had now burnt a massive hole in my jeans.I was the laughing stock of the whole picnic.Till this day,if my cousins are smoking with me and smell something burning they always say,check your jeans,they're probably burning!!!!

[Donkeema]

 worst
time ? worst time was actully at a HOOKAH SHOP !! the shop was up in
town and me and a bunch of 9 other boys went to ' cristen ' the shop.
we ordered 4 pipes.

1)lemon
2)peach
3)melon
4)apple? i think

well anyway the man took a good 20 minutes setting up all the hookahs
and then gave them to us 1 by one. i realised it was the same hookah i
bought when i first started out - £25 from edgeware road. well anyway
we started smoking it and
EEEEWWWWWWWWWWW !!! it was the worst sh*t we had ever tasted - one of
the hookahs tasted like fish - i think it was meant to be lemon , the
other 3 were drawing no smoke and was tottaly rubbish

the only decent 1 was melon but that drew no smoke aswell still as
there was 10 of us we only spent 2pound each on the hookah so it was
alrite

[Guest LondonShisha]

Which Hookah Place was this?

[yashman19]

[quote name='HookahDuck']I've found a pretty good way to get rid of harshness. Its a pain.. but
it works. As SOON as you start to feel it getting harsh, pull the
coal(s) off of the bowl, and grab the bowl near the bottom where its
coolest. Get your lips as close to the bottom of the bowl as
possible(putting your lips around it works the best, but sometimes you
will get drippings in your mouth), and blow at a steady pase up through
the ma'assel.  You will see quite a bit of smoke coming through
the top of the bowl. Do this for 30 seconds or so(or more if it was
REALLY burning quickly). Put your coals back on, take a few puffs- and
you should have a nice smooth smoke again.[/quote]

This never worked for me for one specific reason. When something is on
fire or getting burned, blowing on it helps to get it going doesn't it?
When people are lighting a camp fire and getting wood going, they blow
on it to get it going better, so doesn't this work the same way with
ma'assel?

I'd suggest if it starts burning, yes take the coals off, and just set
the hose down for 5 minutes and let the ma'assel cool off.

The only reason I have seen people take the bowl off the stem and blow
into it was to blow the excess ash that has fallen from the coals into
the holes of the foil and into the ma'ssel.

[jeans]

I'm not quite sure if the ma'assel was burning, because after about three rounds or so the harshness went away...but we were still sick. I'm sad, because that's my typical experience at this place near where I live: it's good, it gets harsh, then it gets alright again. I really like it because there is no cover to get in, so my non-smoking friends can sit with us, and it's close. I hope next time is better!
Oh, my stomach still hurts from last night.

[MR Bubble]

I've had so many bad experiences, it's hard to nail just one. So, here is my two or three most memorable bad-nights:
Back a year or so ago, when the forum was still new, I did a review on a base half-and half of water and No. 12 ouzo, while smoking a bowl of Nakhla apple. Awesome smoke (which got me a little dwunk) and life was good for about 30 minutes. God, I wish adrock didn't delete those old posts! Why'd you do it Adrock?! Anyway, in all my intelect, I figured if a bowl of apple was good with ouzo in the base, I figured my trusty (if if not somewhat dangerous) 2 year old Nakhla strawberry would really get things interesting. Oh yea buddy. First time a shisha session ever made me Ralph. Learn from this, and don't do it.
I got my first bag of Nour fingers. I loved how they broke into perfect sized pieces and the heat was perfect. Well, I noticed quite a buzz on my bowl of apple. Then it got really bad. Then I started seeing shades of gray. Then my hearing started to go. MRS Bubble had to help me up and put me to bed, while all I could do was talk trash about anything and everything. That's when I told her about my dead Egyptian Buddy. It took about 2 hours to get straight again. Then I asked the dumbest question: "Think the coals had something to do with it?" So, like the soldier I was at the time, I marched right back to the kitchen and fired up another bowl. This time I went tilt. I missed half a day for a migraine.
Okay, last one. While spending the weekend in Dahab, Egypt, A friend and I ordered a shisha at a place along the beach. Little could I see in the dark, the purge valve was soldered witrh a nail in it. You need to understand one thing about Dahab: You cannot get a decent shisha anywhere in the village. I think they fill the base with sea water. Anyhow, the stuff turned coughing-nasty, and I'm sitting there trying to clear the thing, and I can't get anything to come out of the valve. So, I'm pissed now. I figured something has got to give, so I blew so hard, I farted. Ever seen Old Faithful? The bowl actually came off of the pipe and I swear that I was wearing half the hookah water. We figured we were about done at that point.
MR Bubble

[mushrat]

Jeans: I know what the problem is. I'm willing to bet the place uses a finger coal, likely al kemma or the like. I noticed at my local place, it tasted great until i stood up and de-ashed the coals. Then the taste was horrific! a bit later the place had bags of al kemma on the shelf, the owner said it was what they used, I should try them.
As an experiment I took a piece of one and started it up , no smell. let it burn a while, still no smell, once it built up a good ash layer i knocked it off, the same gross smell as the taste I'd noticed at the cafe! Once the ash layer built up again around the glowing red core, the smell went away.
When you get the gross taste, has someone done anything to the coals/bowl? Now when I'm smoking at the place if I de-ash the coal, I wait a few minutes THEN start hitting it again and no bad taste.
Do keep in mind, hookah bars/cafe's are businesses. They don't WANT you to have an hour long smoke on the same bowl. They don't make money that way. They will use smaller pieces of charcaol, or fewer pieces so your bowl will burn about half an hour and be done to create turnover. For a truly long and satisfying smoking experience, set up your buddy's machine and have your smoking friends over...you can even pick your OWN music to party to.

[yashman19]

Probably my worst experience with hookah had to be when I shattered my glass base from my first hookah...

It was my 26" egyptian style hookah with a dark green base and dark
green accents on the silver stem. The base went so well with that
hookah, and when I was cleaning it in the bathroom, I turned and
knocked the base into the sink and shattered it...

I bought a replacement base at my local market but the closest green
they had was clear base with a fat mint green color strip in the
middle...It just wasn't the same after that



Another bad experience with hookah I had was when I toasted my bowl. A
couple buddies of mine were setting up a bowl in my room, getting ready
for a nice chill session with music and talking, but I was all out of
my normal ma'ssel and all I had was some strawberry nahkla that was
REAL old..Then a couple of girls I know came buy because they heard we
were going to smoke. The session started out ok but then took a turn
for the worse.. The bowl started burning to all sh*t and was unbearable
to smoke... I took off all the heat, cleared the chamber and let it sit
for 5 minutes, then tried it again with less heat. I swear to go, I
ended up having barely any heat on it but it still was harsh as a
bitch.. My friends understood, but I think the girls thought I was a
poser who didn't know what I was doing

You guys know what I'm talking about right? People look up to you as
being a hookah guru, someone who has mastered the art of smoking that
sweet, sweet smoke that is hookah...I felt inferior for a while after
that, but I got over it and smoked a bowl

[jeans]

Yeah, the coals at the place looked a lot like quick-light kinds. Nothing was done to the coals when it turned harsh, but our solution in the past was always to get a new coal. I can't wait until my friend gets his from his cousin...we'll go sit on the lawn outside the dorms and do it.

[HookahDuck]

Haha I hate it when I am entertaining, and introducing people to
hookah- and It isnt set up *perfectly*. I actually would much rather
smoke with my friends that own their own, so they'll understand when It
takes me a few minutes to get my heat management down- ect. When people
I dont know are smoking one of mine, I get paranoid that it isnt
perfect =P




The reason the blowing- harshness trick works is that the ma'assel isnt
actually on fire. FLAME needs oxygen to burn- thus coals grow red when
you blow on them. HEAT is dissapated by moving air... you are just
blowing air through the ma'assel, cooling it down a little.

[pyramidscheme]

I burned a hole in my band kilt when I tripped carrying coals to my pipe (hookah, not bag- ). Nearly shattered my windows with creative blasphemy.

[mushrat]

Good thing your sporran was in place, could have burned more than just yer kilt laddie...

[Donkeema]

[quote name='LondonShisha']Which Hookah Place was this?[/quote]

it was a hookah shop in ILFORD = Redbridge , if you know where that is
well then it was very close to the EXCHANGE SHOPPING CENTRE!! 

[Aggroman]

Two words:

Nakhla cherry....

Tastes like soap and sugar.

[HooKendo]

Too many people
No one paying attention to the hookah as they walked
next thing I know I'm spending 2 fun cutting away burnt carpet in my apartment...