Las Colinas, TX

Texas is an untapped gem in the world of winch spots, and Clint Tompkins is doing his best to hit everyone of them. Surely you’ve seen the giant cement spillways that are classic Texas in mags or videos, but those are just the beginning. Since the state would be pretty much uninhabitable if it weren’t for tons of manmade fountains, dams and spillways, it lends itself well to wakeskating.

Clint has been kind enough to take Alliance to some of his spots on a few occasions including the Deer Gap in Las Colinas. The name comes from the fact there are two ceramic deer perched on top of walls that surround the drop. The spot itself is a big, wide drop into a deep landing. The dimensions come in around 30 feet wide and a little over 7 feet down. The landing is entirely surrounded by sloped concrete, so you need to use the rope to pull yourself out. Luckily there is a fence covered in No Trespassing signs to tie the winch to.

Aside from the signs though, this spot is relatively mellow on the bust scale. There is a constant stream of workers on golf carts passing back and forth dong some sort of maintenance on the adjacent gold course, but they rarely seem to notice. Clint said he’s hit it several times and only been kicked out once. “You can pretty much go there whenever you want as long as you keep in low key,” he said. “I’d give it a 7 or 8 out of ten on a bust factor of being good.”

Aside from Clint a few Dallas locals have hit this one, as well as Bret Little and Matt Hooker on an Alliance trip. Clint has gotten several tricks down the sizable gap including regular and switch 180, backside shuv, frontside shuv and a kickflip, featured in Volume 6. Since this is his spot, I will let Clint sum it up:

The Good: I like it because its pretty good size. It’s got a really deep landing. The whole thing is 30 feet wide. You definitely have plenty of room to try whatever.

The Bad: You have to jump off the top and swim the rope out, so you have to be able to swim just a little bit. It’s pretty big, so it’s frustrating sometimes. It really is an optical illusion. It doesn’t appear to be as big as it really is until you go jumping off of it. You have to be careful how you land; it’s easy to get your legs bent the wrong way dropping that far.

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