He built a vaporizer because he couldn't buy one. By hand. From clay. In his workshop, chickens in the background, completely himself. The VapBong. His life's work. Award-winning. Irreplaceable.
Colly vaporized cannabis for 48 years. He started at 18 — a friend used a test tube over a bunsen burner. Got him high. He was a bong man after that, for 16 years. Then asthma. Then pain. Then 40 years of engineering a solution, and the VapBong was born.
Ceramic head, hand-thrown. Heating coil inside, rated to 1300°C. Water chamber below, to filter and cool. A breakaway cable connector so if you catch it with your foot, it disconnects before pulling everything off the table. Every piece unique. Every piece a conversation.
He sold them across Europe for 15 years. Then he trusted the wrong people — partners who took his techniques, his measurements, his knowledge, and didn't pay his share. So he went back to making them himself. No website. No web shop. Just an email address under a video, and the work.
His protégé Dean (Traverse Dean) shared his video with Chris after Colly died. “He was a legend without knowing that he is one and I want to give him the honour he earns.” That video became the Colly memorial on Cannabin-Oid. This page is the Basecamp chapter of the same story.
He is here in Berlin in spirit. Wherever vaporizers gather, Colly is there.