Slingshot Hope Craft V1 103 Kite Foilboard Review

What's up guys? I’m Pat from MACkiteboarding.com. I’ll review the new Slingshot Hope Craft, a pretty neat little board brand new to the Slingshot lineup this year.

The Hope Craft is brand new to the Slingshots lab this year, taking the DNA from the successful Dwarf Craft. It was designed by Fred Hope with the desires of St. John himself. So really, just taking everything that he's looking to get out of a high-performance pocket foil board.

Hope Craft Size and Construction

The Hope Craft is 103 centimeters long, a little bigger than the 100 Dwarf Craft, but not as big as the 110. Slingshot placed a lot more volume in the nose of this board which helps with touchdowns, and if you're jumping to fall landing, that volume up front helps. It's got additional stringers, unlike the Dwarf Craft, which adds a little bit more stiffness and rigidity to it that helps with the jumping and landing.

I’m not the jumping and landing guy but riding and cruising this board around is fantastic. With this being a 103 board that’s a little bit smaller than the board I normally ride (I’m usually in the 110 range, a little larger than this), I was surprisingly and reasonably comfortable on this 103. It was surprising. I went out expecting to be a little over my head on this board, but it worked really well for me.

I was happy with where the strap placements on it. It's pretty minimal as far as options go. You have two mounting points on the back and two on the front. They have that stance down on the sport too. They know where you want to be. You can trust them on that.

The board has a little bit of instability, but it's there for you if you want to rock straps. The idea is to help cut down that weight by not putting a million inserts on this board. To make up for those extra stringers they put in, they took out some of those insert packs to make them weigh less.

Who's the Hope Craft for?

The Hope Craft is ideal for an intermediate to advanced foiler looking to start getting the jump in their foil and looking for a pocket foil board. You can jump right to this board; it's forgiving enough that anyone can hop on and ride it but advanced enough to the point where you're never going to outgrow it. It's going to grow with you. You can push this board to the absolute limits, and it will never fail.

The Hope Craft is a small, concave deck. Not super scooped out in the middle but has enough concave to give you an excellent heel-toe contact when rolling over. It gives you that added control.

Finally, the Hope Craft has track mounts similar to the Dwarf Craft. It has a long track giving you massive room for adjustment. When combined with the Phantasm mast, you’ll also have additional adjustment points.

Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comment section down below. And if you'd like to check out some more information, you can find us on our website Mackiteboarding.com.