Well I own a bong and my preferred hit includes:

* Ice or Otter pops put into an Ice Tray and used in an Ice Catcher
* Cold Gatorade or Tea in the bongs base
* My big RooR diffuser
* Ash catcher with hot water in it or hot tea (REALLY flavors the smoke)

This way, if we have things with really strong flavors like Sobe or Gatorade, and with otter pops or those other drinks frozen and used as ice, we get smoke that is literally a little colored. We used grape gatorade with grape gatorade ice in the top and just Water in the ash catcher. Holy crap the smoke is faintly blueish purple!

And the inhaled smoke tastes almost like candy, not as strong, but definitely even around hookah tastes, sometimes even stronger.

Anyway,

I like to corner it when I burn it, but move towards the center. So I crisp up the corner and save a little weed but also get a good hit.

I inhale a bit faster on the bong since its filtering through 2 different liquids. Through the ash catcher with the hot water it literally almost eliminates any harshness in the smoke.

The cold water recools it down, and makes it even less harsh, and the ice makes it a refreshing it.

I wait until I see a thick blanket of smoke in there. I'm not talking like light, I literally mean like the bong has nothing but a thick, thick bunch of smoke in there, its velvety when I remove the ash catcher and inhale faster. Sometimes I'll cap the bong and take a deep breath before finishing my hit off.

I build it up slow, but if I lit it too hard or I have to light it a lot to get anything, it pretty much builds itself up.

I try to hold it in for 5+ seconds, its a big hit, there is TONS of THC getting into my blood stream only within the 1st 2-3 seconds. Its hard to hold in sometimes so I might cough, but very rarely with an ash catcher/ice.

When I have to use no ice or ash catcher, sometimes I'm not used to the harshness that also comes with smoking from the normal carb that came with my bong or smoking blunts/joints...but I can do those. For my personal bong and the way I normally use it though, I take my hits by lighting it nicely, letting it build up, and inhaling it quickly and letting it sit in my lungs for a decent amount of time.

For different bongs/methods of smoking however, its subjective. And every time I take a break from smoking I usually get pretty active exercise wise and reinstate my lungs to perfect healthiness...meaning that when I start smoking again I can't take hits even close to my old ones, my friends told me, after my first time smoking in 40+ days, to not take the hits I used to take since I can't handle it.