Fred Hope and Slingshots Project Drag

What we talk about

• Slingshot's Project Drag: a wing board and Tuttle mast programme with shapers and designers Ken, Kyle and Michael, plus Liam's homemade board based on Ken's shape
• The new Discord forum, around 370 members, where riders talk directly to designers, and how it compares with Facebook groups and kite forums
• Brands leaning into community and behind the scenes content, and mast trends like thinner profiles, chord length and taper
• Where kitefoiling goes next, whether riders might move to parawing, and the hosts' curiosity about wingers taking up kitefoiling
• How Project Drag began with Fred's friendship with Ken, early sample boards, and testing in Maui with Trent Carter in January
• Building track and Tuttle versions, working with Michael on the Tuttle box, and fixing early mast stiffness with a titanium collar and new layups
• Liam on a plate board versus a Tuttle board of the same shape, and how much better the Tuttle recovers from touchdowns
• Board sizes, prone foiling and Tuttle in other brands: a 62 and a smaller 50 are in testing, and Fred wonders who else will follow

About this episode

Fred joins us to discuss the Project Drag programme from Slingshot. It feels like this has been a long time coming now, but thats maybe as we've talked on and off about it a lot already. Liams got a setup and he's also been riding his home made board which is based off Kens shape as well.

Nows the time to delve deeper into how its going for Slingshot though and why they chose to go this route. Fred discusses how setting up their discord forum has enabled him to talk directly to the consumer and figure out which direction to take things.

We know we've not been around for a while - its been peaceful! We've a few episodes coming up though, so while we might not be weekly again just yet - theres more to look forward to!