Part one: How does winter treat you?

Winter effects almost all of us,for most of us its freezing outside right now. The ground takes ages to dry. Dry days are a blessing. I wanted to ask a few pros how they deal with the winter, just a simple question.

How do you deal with the winter? Indoor spot, only ride when its dry or brave the elements and ride in the rain?

Jean William:
Last year we had a spot at a skatepark here in Montreal, this year's spot is way too slippery. I'm working on getting it painted as fast as possible. I've also wrote to the city to ask for any indoor facility available for riding, answer was no. So I'm checking out churches right now, maybe i could ride in one of their basements. It's still ridable outside right now, when the suns out! So I brave the elements for now, but winter in Canada is cruel to the flatland community. That's definitely one reason why the scene doesn't grow much.
Last year we had a spot at a skatepark here in Montreal, this year's spot is way too slippery. I'm working on getting it painted as fast as possible. I've also wrote to the city to ask for any indoor facility available for riding, answer was no. So I'm checking out churches right now, maybe i could ride in one of their basements. It's still rideable outside right now, when the suns out! So I brave the elements for now, but winter in Canada is cruel to the flatland community. That's definitely one reason why the scene doesn't grow much.

Jean William

Bert Ribul:
I don’t have a winter spot, so we try all the underground parking lots, but mostly we get kicked out from everywhere. Last year we were riding in Tallinn’s liberty square tunnel, it’s a really nice place, but then we had a little incident with the cleaning lady and now we can only ride there like once a week if we are lucky.
So we try to find a parking lot or something with a roof on it to ride in and if we don’t succeed, we ride outside.
A few years back we tried to find a winter spot, but everybody turned us down and said we would ruin the floor or they don’t have any room, this year I might get an indoor spot, but nothing sure yet, doesn’t matter, I`ll ride anyways.

Matt Wilhelm:
I grew up riding in garages and basements for over the first 10 years of my life riding. After getting tired of not being able to do all my tricks all year I looked into getting my own indoor spot. I have been renting warehouse space since 2005 and loving it.
It is pretty crazy to think you have to pay money just to ride year-round, but it's better than the alternative of not riding.
I think it also brings our scene together a little bit because it forces the Chicago riders to ride together, which is always a lot of fun. Isn't that what it's all about anyway?

Part 2 later in the week, how do you deal with the winter? Lets hear it in the comments...