Glass 'Lympics 2024

Welcome one, welcome all to The Glass 'Lympics 2024! As you already know, every four years the world gathers to watch the Ritual Colorado team take some rips and give you our feedback on our wonderful glass pieces. It's that wonderful time of year again, the eternal incense is lit, and we've got lots of info updates on our Everyday glass offerings! Throw on your Team Borosilicate jersey and tune in here for all the excitement!!

This Glass 'Lympics is all about two categories, airflow and cooling. Our hope is that by providing better information in all of our Everyday glass listings you can get the perfect piece that matches exactly what you're looking for in your setup.

• Airflow: To achieve a high score in airflow a glass piece has to make it easy to move lots of air in a short period for those serious dry herb vaporization hits. In our scoring system 5/5 represents completely open airflow while 1/5 is for very restricted airflow. However, it's also important to note that more doesn't always equal better when it comes to airflow. For us it's all about what device / bowl you're pairing with and matching that with the glass for a perfect experience. For example, when we are dabbing we generally prefer devices with airflow in the 2-3.5 out of 5 range which we find works well for getting full dab hits without cooling down your banger too quickly.
• One important caveat on airflow is that it is possible for a piece with moderate draw resistance to still achieve a high airflow score. For example, The Judge features four total percs that naturally add draw resistance. However, the massive open mouthpiece and long neck force you to take in a significant amount of air in a single draw making it a bit of an outlier.
• Cooling: To achieve a high score in cooling a bong must provide lots of opportunity for your vapor to drop in temperature before it reaches the mouthpiece. In our scoring system 5/5 represents maximum cooling while 1/5 represents minimal cooling. There are lots of factors in a glass piece that determine how well it cools including the amount of water, how long your vapor is in contact with water, how much glass surface area your vapor touches before reaching the mouthpiece, and more! Typically smaller dab rigs and recyclers offer substantial cooling for their size by maximizing vapor contact with the water in your rig. You can also naturally get a lot of cooling in larger glass pieces as they have a lot of glass surface area that helps to bring down the temperature of your vapor.
• An important note about cooling is that it typically has an inverse relationship with flavor, particularly when you're utilizing water to help cool. For super terpy hits such as a dab we don't think this is a huge deal, although there are certainly heady bois out there who insist on dry dabs to get all of the flavor and terps from each hit. When using dry herb vaporizers it is popular to use a glass piece without any water in it (i.e. "dry") which utilizes the glass surface area for cooling without sacrificing flavor. Living in Colorado, us here at Ritual Colorado pretty much always use water in our glass pieces to help humidify the hits in our arid climate. However, we have been known to break out a j-hook or use a dry rig when we're particularly excited about tasting a new strain.

So without any further ado let's get into The 'Lympics! Competition categories include Airflow, Cooling, Dab Rigs, and Headies.

Airflow: Time to stretch those lungs and bust out the heavy hitters! The medalists for airflow are definitely some our favorite to pair with ball vaporizers to maximize how much convection heat you can bring down onto your flower. Another advantage of the open airflow is you can rapidly clear your smoke or vapor from these pieces when you're done with a hit.

• Gold: The Shower Beer - A proud member of The Function Bois, The Shower Beer is ecstatic to have received a gold medal in his first ever 'Lympics. Featuring a simple showerhead perc with a wide opening and decent size chamber for smooth and quick air movement. The sturdy 19mm connection has plenty of clearance for ash catchers or any other accessories you like to pair with your session.
• Silver: Straight Tube - A simple piece with few frills but big airflow! Bringing home the silver this year is the old reliable Straight Tube appearing in her 15th 'Lympic Games. While nothing flashy or new, this is a classic style ready for your big rips and featuring indents in the neck so you can add ice cubes for extra cooling power.
• Bronze: Tom Boy - A consistent favorite of the Ritual Colorado team, the Tom Boy is a reliable everyday glass piece that is compact enough to fit in a travel case while strong enough for huge hits! Unconcerned with the color of his medal, Tom Boy is just pumped to be back at the 'Lympics. He's putting in his real effort in athletes village...

Cooling: Experts in dropping the temperature of your smoke and vapor, these high quality glass pieces just want to make your life comfortable. Representing a variety of glass styles, the cooling category really shows that there are lots of ways to cool your hits and make a session ore enjoyable.

• Gold: The Judge - Another Function Bois member taking gold, seems suspicious if you ask me! The Judge is a unique piece that offers maximum cooling as well as huge airflow potential. It does come with come built-in draw resistance as a result of its size and multiple percs, but the wide mouthpiece and large neck ensure you'll be getting a large dose of vapor. On top of the multi-perc action, dimples in the neck mean you can drop in some ice cubes if you really want to get crazy with the cooling.
• Silver: The Coliseum - A powerful recycler featuring four pillars for your vapor to travel through, it's no surprise to careful observers that The Coliseum was able to snag silver at this year's 'Lympics. We have no clue what country The Coliseum hails from as it has been seen wandering the athlete's village in a wide variety of colors. But one thing is for sure, for powerful dabs and smooth dry herb hits The Coliseum is a stellar performer.
  
• Bronze: The Elephant Cage - Rounding out the cooling medals is the extremely popular Elephant Cage! An old-school competitor, instead of utilizing tricks like multiple percs and recycling The Elephant Cage relies on pure volume to give that vapor a nice cooling before it hits the mouthpiece. The built-in pass-through adapter is also a huge bonus allowing you to take clear air into the rig at a moment's notice.
  

Dab Rigs: While a wide variety of glass styles can be utilized for dabbing, these are some of our favorite dedicated pieces that really shine for those concentrated hits. For us the perfect dab rig combines lots of cooling with slightly restricted airflow so your banger doesn't lose temperature too quickly during your hit. Being easy to manage is also important given how hot quartz bangers are before a hit!

• Gold: Round the World - Taking gold this year is a beautiful small rig that features tons of intricate patterns in the colorful body. The inside is a classic fab egg shape with lots of glass surface area to cool down your vapor. The smallest of this years medalists, Round the World is a fun piece that offers function on par with its style.
• Silver: Peyto Lake - Taking home silver is another fun dab rig with beautiful color and lots of small details. Peyto Lake features a swiss perc in the upper chamber which adds a fun dimension to the colors while also providing extra cooling power for your dabs.
  
• Bronze: Swiss Cheese Moon - Rounding out the dab rig medals is Swiss Cheese Moon coming in with the bronze. This fun piece features a globe body with swiss perc for lots of glass surface area for cooling. A fun and practical everyday dab rig Swiss Cheese Moon also works well with a variety of dry herb vaporizers.

Headies: It's pretty much impossible to come to a consensus on what the best one-off, handmade piece of glass art is. Instead, this category is all about style and showing some love to our favorite pieces and artists. You can consider this the equivalent of floor gymnastics where scores are subjective and as the president of Ritual Colorado's ILC (International 'Lympic Committee) I get final say.

• Gold: Satanus Ruffer by T Tree Glass - Taking gold this year for headies is a fun variant of T Tree's Ruffer Series. Satanus has horns, a devilish goatee and really cool accents. The pomegranate accent in the base and detailed eyes show off the artists skill in this fun and functional heady glass rig.
  
• Silver: Chameleon on a Log by Hardman Art Glass - Coming in silver is Hardman Art Glass with his fun Chameleon on a Log glass rig. Chase Hardman's work is really unique and features special coloring techniques and extremely intricate shapes for truly one-of-one pieces. Taking his popular Chameleon form, Hardman has worked it into a functional rig featuring a 10mm connection for reliable function and lots of style.
  
• Bronze: Rainbow Swirl Shirley by Technicolor Tonys - Rounding out the heady medals is Denver local Technicolor Tonys with his Rainbow Swirl Shirley hand pipe. This intricate pipe features swirling rainbow accents on the outside of the glass with complementary swirling black and white patterns on the inside of the glass.