Remarks from a Pump nooblet: advice for new pumpers and requesting critique

Hello everyone. I’m starting this thread so that I might receive some criticism or pointers and in case my experience can help anyone else new to pumping.

I’ve only just started pumping the last two months or so. I bought a”wide body oval” tube from LA Pump. I orient it such that its wide aspect is perpendicular to the ground, so that the tube can better accommodate my upward curve than a regular round one would. This is of course not what the tube was designed for, but as it is the curve causes my glans to smush up against even this oval tube.

This goes for the duration of my experience thus far: I use a towel that’s been warmed by water as a heat-wrap for 5-10 minutes, during this time I have the tube sitting in hot water in order to preheat it. No one sells thermal blankets here, they’re out of season =(

The first few weeks I did as follows: enter soft and sort of quickly pumped to ~3-5 hg. At the time I was not getting a good seal and so had to use the hand pump more often then is convenient. I would usually exit somewhat firm, nearly purple and quickly go to a plump soft, with a more normal color.

By the third week I was doing a 5 minute set in the morning and one in the evening, never going above 5 hg. One problem I began to notice was the suction of skin into the base of the pump, which I figure was preventing me from getting a good stretch where I wanted it, and causing me to pump to a higher pressure.
Around this time I started condom pumping. Perhaps I was overdoing it at the time or perhaps condom pumping is not good for me personally or for newbs in general, either way I noticed less night wood and whatnot and so stopped for a week.

When I came back I stepped up to about 7 minutes in, never above 5 hg (trying to stay around 2.5), and without condom. I typically exited somewhat firm but not terribly hard, especially if I was on the second set of the day.

THUS FAR I FEEL IT IS BEST TO ENTER SOFT AND PUMP VERY, VERY SLOWLY. I don’t start the timer, so to speak, until I see the needle move, which may take several minutes, as the expansion in the tube offsets the early uses of the hand pump (I think it does, anyway). This means my ‘15 minute set’ takes more like 18 minutes.

Now I’ve changed up again, and am doing one 15 minute set, in the morning, every other day. I enter soft and pump very, very slowly. I focus on keeping a clear mind and breathing regularly to facilitate good expansion. I haven’t noted the rate but I’d estimate I increase pressure ~ 1hg per 3 minutes. I previously marked the tube at the point of greatest expansion, and now pump so slowly during this set that I don’t reach that expansion level until about ten minutes into the set.
When I exit it usually springs right up to full attention and doesn’t mind lingering there a bit, which is a nice change. I don’t believe it was doing this when I was doing multiple sets in a day or pumping every day.

Currently I think every other day works best for me, and that entering soft and pumping very slowly are essential.

Anyway, as I said I wanted to write up some thoughts about my earliest experiences with the pump in case they can help any other newbs, and in case anyone wants to offer some general advice or something more specific in response to what I’ve written here.

Be safe!