Johnny

I have many a flogger, and it is really hard to single one out as a favorite. I suppose my general go-to style is the figure eight, but have been working on, and improving my florentine for a bit now. And for handles, I like woven (or braided) over just a “wrap” style. I have come to really like roo skin a LOT, but it comes with a bit higher price tag and so far have one flogger and one signal whip in roo.

Thinking it over, I can come up with 2 I will call favorites.

One goes by the name El Kabong (makers name, not mine) It is a beast! If I recall correctly there is about 9 sq. ft. of leather in this one versus somewhere around 3 sq. ft. in a “standard” flogger. It is made with the idea of using it with both hands, as it is quite heavy compared to many you may have handled, pure thud and everyone (OK, one exception) who has ever felt it’s effect has fallen in love with it. Made by rosie_cd, who is a pleasure to deal with, and quite reasonably priced…particularly when you factor in the amount of leather involved. I have a couple of her other models and have been very pleased with them all.

The other would have to be one of Sovran’s Top_Shelf custom creations. Another great maker to work with who has always been happy to take my requests and thoughts into consideration and we come up with a final design idea after he shares his own insights. Tis’ a buffaroo model, which has a roo skin handle, and (go figure) buffalo hide falls. He worked my initials into the handle which was a surprise added bonus and makes it all that much more special to me. He does exceptional work, and I have several other of his creations, love them all. He is always working towards perfecting his craft further and further.

The 2 are not listed in any particular order, just so happened I had El Kabong handy in my own pics, but had to go to the Top_Shelf page for the other pic and took me a moment longer. Clearly two VERY different style floggers. I could have sworn I had my own pic of the buffaroo, but it seems to have magically disappeared. Crazy internet…

I was in high school when I had my first actual fun bondage experiences. My high school girlfriend was a total head case when it came to self-help books. The worst one I had to pretend to like was, “I’m OK, You’re OK.”

So anyhow, when her mother bought “Joy of Sex”, my girlfriend had to read it. And then, thank God, she was very eager to show it to me after she stole it for a day or two.

I was astounded to see a chapter on Bondage. It’s still one of the best things I’ve ever read about Bondage as a fun game and as an orgasm enhancer.

I pointed to that chapter and said, “It says right here that you need to be tied up.”

She laughed and to my great surprise, she said, “That sounds super exciting.”

Of course I had already been thinking about this for years, and the chapter in the book said that technique was extremely important. So one day we went to my parents’ lake house after school and played around with me tying her up. It was a big success.

I tied her hands behind her back and her feet together. We hadn’t actually had sex at this point, but I had brought her to orgasm several times with my fingers.

So once she was all tied up, I started messing with her. She was fine with it. In fact she was astounded at the extreme level of emotion and arousal she felt. So I fingered her to orgasm very slowly, just like the book said. Win win.

So of course that became one of our most valuable “shared experiences.” We messed around with it every chance we got. I added some other ropes to my repertoire and we found that she liked a nice thickish cleave gag. We messed around with time limits during which the captive is, in fact, an actual captive during that time. We became pretty decent at simulating the reality of a kidnap scenario.

I urge all of you to check out the Bondage chapter in the “Joy of Sex.” It’s all there.

I don’t know how it is with other cultures but I’ve noticed that there are exceptional rope tops who have massive egos and one’s that don’t. Most of it seems to deal with the person in general. Rope is simple, it’s people that are complicated. The percentage in bondage is about the same that it is anywhere else. In everything that we do there are people with inflated egos made of glass and people who are simply awesome without being an asshole about it. The most ego I’ve ever seen was in the vanilla world of sport cracking.

I can understand how easy it is to develop an unhealthy ego. If you have ‘the bug’ then you practice more and you improve faster than many of your peers who don’t have ‘the bug’. Pretty soon after that you have your selection of willing uke and you keep hearing how amazing you are. If you hear something often enough you’re probably going to start believing it. It’s one of the reasons that I prefer constructive feedback by a small handful of people that I know have no fear in letting me know where I can improve. I’m not going to lie, positive feedback following a performance or a scene feels good. I get a warm tingle down my spine but I don’t let it go to my head.

In conclusion, feel free to compliment people, it makes them feel good. If you’re the one getting complimented don’t let it go to your head. Bear in mind that you can always do better and there’s probably someone better than yourself out there.