This year Slingshot has got their foot to the floor with the new Rally, new Fuel and the light wind machine called the Turbine, and its only JUNE!
We were lucky at S2AS to have a play with these kites, so below is a little info to get your taste buds going!
Slingshot Fuel 2012
Ok so most of us have at one time tried or even owned a slingshot fuel in the last 10 years and if you haven’t, well you’re missing out on one of the best kites to ever appear on our beaches.
The new 2012 Slingshot Fuel has again been given a tune up by the R&D team at Slingshot HQ.
The changes are as follows:
Split Struts – It’s back! and back for good not to sound too cheesy, but this is a feature that I myself have been begging slingshot to put back into their kites for years, we first saw it in the Slingshot fuel long time ago in 2004, which was the first year for one pump too. Back then the process for split strut was very costly and time consuming so it was decided to end production, well now for 2012 the new Slingshot fuel has it back on the kite. This greatly enhances the strength of the kite hugely and offer less drag to help the kite fly even faster than the past Fuels.
Another thing you will notice is the canopy of the kite is very tight this year, this was first done on the Slingshot RPM 2011 and has been very well received so they have added this feature to the Fuel 2012.
The affect this has is it offers the rider a smoother feel in the gusty conditions due to the kite having a lot less movement in the canopy so you don’t feel the arm wrenching gusts in the wind any more. Also it helps to keep the canopy shape in the light winds producing less drag and this helps with the low end power of the kite.
Also the wing tips have got a lot more rip stop nylon in them to make the kite lighter and again create less drag. This vastly improves the speed and feel of kite loops for 2012.
5Th Line or No 5th Line? I’m personally not a fan however a lot of riders out there are and slingshot have decided to offer them the option to retro fit a 5th line to the Slingshot Fuel this year. For me the 5th line is a extra line that I don’t need, I can re-launch super easy with 4 lines by just pulling on the leader line or both leader lines for a reverse launch.
The safety this year is a highly familiar and award winning CSS System, and I would say that Slingshot have is perfect.
Check out some of the photos, we think the typically bland slingshot graphics this year a huge step forward and really pop out in the sky or on the beach.
Thanks for reading and bookmark our blog to keep up-to-date with the latest 2012 kite and gear news!
Angelo
S2AS Team
www.S2AS.com