I detested dip until I turned 19. I never thought I would even try it, much less get addicted to it. I did not know if I ever could have been considered the stereotypical dipper, but it turns out I was. I ran cross country and played soccer through high school. I surfed on the surf team. I hated football and baseball. I was a beach bum through and through. I guess most of the time people associate dippers with your hunters, ballplayers, fishers, etc. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen an ad for dip in any of my surfing magazines. Doesn't matter though. When I hit college, i started working as a deckhand on a boat full time and going to school. One of coworkers, and now a great friend, was an avid dipper of grizzly wintergreen. I thought it was sick for awhile, but it slowly started to wear on me to try it. I mean, I was in college, I was drinking, smoking reefer, trying all sorts of weird stuff, I figured why not? I found out in the beginning that 12-14 hour days on a boat are demanding on mind and body, and I thought grizzly took some of the stress off of being a deckhand. Washing dishes, cleaning sewage spills, floods, psycho asshole captains, you name it. From there on out grizzly joined me. We started to add a capfull of jackdaniels to our cans just to heighten the buzz (science majors - grizzly works by opening your gums to deliver nicotine straight to the head, add a little alcohol to the mix and you have jack and nic heading to your head). Shit, I'm rambling....long story short, 5 years later and jay has been quit. He had the fortitude to stop on his own, which is highly respectable. Me, I remained a ninja dipper. Only a few people in my life knew the full extent of my habit. My parents never knew, only a couple of close friends, everyone else thought it was just something I fucked around with once in awhile. A can a day is a nasty habit though. I "quit" so many times i lost count. I was afraid to go to the dentist. I had dreams of my teeth falling out. I did not want to be a slave anymore but I could not stop on my own. I found this site. I started posting roll sporadically. Around 55 days my first go around I caved. Got it hard from a lot of people. Joined the August 09 quit group, POSTED ROLL EVERY FUCKING DAY WHETHER IT WAS VIA TEXT OR MY COMPUTER until I hit the HOF. Had awesome support from Big Brother Jack, BobbygolfNC, nmc, and quite a few others. I know the battle is not over, I am not doing this for anyone but myself, but I am glad I have quit brothers to help me keep my shit straight. I don't think anyone will ever truly win the fight, I still get craves, but as addicts, we at least know what we are up against and have the working knowledge to deal with our shit effectively. That is what this site provides, knowledge, tools, and support to beat off craves so we can keep going just one more day. That's all I tell myself, I have made it 144 days so I know I can make it one more.
I want to thank everyone who helped and supported me and has continued to do so.
-Dr. Strangelove (Alex Weaver)
