How To Smoke A Cigar

Wondering how to smoke a cigar? What are the essentials of cigar smoking? How do you light a cigar? How do you pull on the cigar correctly? Do you inhale? What are the do's and don'ts of cigar smoking? If you have ever pondered some of those questions, read on. This is a straightforward and practical primer intended to help you acquire familiarity with this sometimes confusing, always enigmatic world of cigar smoking

First Step: Lighting Up

First, new cigar smokers need to learn how to properly light a cigar. Use a clipper designed for cigars to help clip off the edge of the head(the portion you put to your mouth) . If possible light the foot of your cigar by using a cedar match. Stay away from normal cigarette lighters. They make a bad stench which will linger and ruin a good cigar. For those who must use a lighter, use butane lighter. These will keep the smell to a minimum. Nonetheless, you should always try to use a wood match because lighters can easily taint the foot of your cigar. How do you light up? Simply strike a match and hold the tip of your cigar over the flame. Avoid touching the cigar to the fire, simply hold the cigar over the fire and pull deeply until the cigar is lit.

Second Step: Burn it down to a nub?

Should you burn your cigar down to a nub? Experts suggest you leave a minimum of 2 inches on your cigar. Even the very best cigars will tend to get bitter if you let it burn entirely down. What about ashes? Should you knock the ashes off of your cigar? As opposed to knocking the ashes off the edge, let the cigar rest in the ashtray when you are not smoking it. The ashes will fall off naturally.

Third Step: Relax and Enjoy

A cigar should never be rushed. By design, cigars ought to be enjoyed, preferably after dinner with a glass of good brandy. Hold the cigar between your thumb and fingers—anything else might be thought of as bad taste. Also, don't breathe in deeply. The smoke should not reach your lung. This is extremely bad to ones health, and it won't help you taste the cigar any better. Certainly, you should always be considerate of those around you. If possible, smoke in the company of other cigar smokers. A good cigar might be enjoyed alone and perhaps more so with friends.

Balloning in the sky

Have you ever dreamed of being carried into the sky by a giant bouquet of colorful toy balloons? 

That's the idea behind cluster ballooning.  The pilot wears a harness, to which a cluster of large, helium-filled balloons are attached.  Control is achieved by releasing ballast to ascend, or by bursting balloons to descend.  
The most famous cluster balloon flight took place in 1982.  Larry Walters, with no prior ballooning experience, attached 42 helium weather balloons to a lawnchair, intending to go up a few hundred feet, but instead soaring to 16,000.  Surprisingly, Walters survived his flight.  However, both before and since Walters' adventure,   experienced balloonists have experimented with helium balloon clusters, some rising to even greater heights.

My name is krishnaiah. I have been flying hot-air balloons for almost twenty years; over the last seven years, much of my flying has been in single-person hot-air balloons called Cloudhoppers.  Eight years ago, I decided to fulfill a childhood dream by learning to fly with a cluster of large helium balloons.   I have made forty helium cluster balloon flights since that time.  All of them have been among my most magical flying experiences.
	The State of the Art
With half a dozen pilots worldwide, cluster ballooning remains something between an extreme sport and a personal eccentricity, for the moment. At present, I'm the only regularly active cluster balloonist in North America, and to my knowledge, have completed more cluster flights than anyone in the world. There are two cluster balloon pilots in the UK, and another three or four people who have made single flights.
Kids, don't try this at home!
Cluster balloons, like all balloons, are aircraft that require skill and training to operate safely.  Before I began flying cluster balloons, I was an FAA-licensed hot-air balloon pilot and had over four-hundred hours of pilot time in conventional hot-air balloons and Cloudhoppers.  These skills are not rocket science, but they are NOT something you're going to figure out on your first flight while you're drifting toward the high tension lines and imminent crispy-critterhood!  Fly safely!

Site Content

The following pages document my experiences flying helium balloon clusters. The principal content is pages devoted to flights I've done in various places, with photos and narrative; these can be accessed through the  pages. These pages contain a lot of images and may take a while to load if you're dialing up.  However, the photographs are very cool and well worth the wait.