Latest News, Blog & Videos
Where in the World Did RyGo???
Aaron: Thanks for joining us. We are catching up with RyGo, who is currently located in southern Florida. Where are you at right now, buddy?
RyGo: I'm in St. Petersburg right now, but I'm actually just getting the rig ready and we're gonna be heading to the Keys, probably later today.
Aaron: Awesome. Well, on this quick segment today I was wanting to catch up with you, talk about your new gig with Airush, and talk about what you and Kristen have been doing in the off-season down
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8th Mar 2023
Cabrinha’s Dave Hastilow Shares What He's Stoked About for 2023
Aaron: Well Dave, thank you for taking the time. Tell us about yourself and your role with Cabrinha. Give us a brief introduction.
Dave: I'm Dave Hastilow, brand manager at Cabrinha. I've been with Cabrinha in some form probably from the beginning, over 20 years. I'm based in Maui, and I oversee everything visual: what the brand is, the brand itself, and the direction. That comes from myself and the guys.
Aaron: We're here in Cancun for dealer week and the 03 Cabrinha release. I have b
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8th Mar 2023
Is the 2023 Duotone Evo or Evo SLS the Best Kite for Every Wind Condition?
Aaron from MACkite is on the beach at King of the Great Lakes with Ben from Duotone to find out what makes the Evo SLS such a popular kite.
Aaron: Why is the Evo SLS Duotone's best-selling kite? What's the magic sauce there?
Ben: The Evo has always been the all-rounder kite in our lineup. It does everything great. It's not spectacular at one specific thing, but you can do everything on it. You can unhook on it, it's great for jumping, it does boost--not as good as the Rebel--but it's us
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21st Feb 2023
Sam Medysky Interview | Airush and the Early Days of Kiteboarding
Pat: This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com and we're with Sam Medysky today. We're going to catch up and get a little bit of background about him.Sam: How's it going, guys?Pat: All right, Sam. So you grew up on Lake Huron, right? How was that growing up? I know you were influenced a lot by your dad being a windsurfer back in the day, so wind sports are kind of second nature to you.Sam: Yeah, when I was growing up my parents had a summer cottage on Lake Huron in Sauble Beach, so I'd spend my
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15th Feb 2023
Nick Baines Interview - Repping for Reedin and Jumping the Avon Pier
Pat: This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com here with Nick Baines.Nick: Hey guys. I'm Nick Baines here with Reedin USA in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.Pat: So Nick, how did you end up getting into kiteboarding?Nick: I got into kiteboarding when I was 13 years old. My uncle, who is based in Saint Croix, sent me a trainer kite. I flew that thing religiously for a full year and then purchased my first kite, a 2002 Slingshot Fuel. I took it out to the beach and learned how to fly the kite a
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15th Feb 2023
Navigating the Seas of Change with Brendan Healy, Cabrinha's Sales Manager
Pat: This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com here this morning with Brendan Healy from Cabrinha.
Brendan: Good to be here. Thanks for having me, man.
Pat: No problem, Brendan. So you came from a background of sailing, right? Is that how you got into wind sports?
Brendan: Yeah, exactly. I grew up in Annapolis, Maryland. The Chesapeake Bay is almost like an inland body of water, more or less, so there are no real waves of any kind, and the breeze is pretty frontal. I grew up sailing; it's a
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24th Jan 2023
Duotone Kite Model Overlap
This is Aaron from MACkite with Ben from Duotone. I was asking Ben about some of the overlap within the Duotone kite product line.
Aaron: I've been a fan of both the Neo and the Dice because of their surf characteristics, and I started thinking how, within the entire line of kites, there is some functional overlap between the different models. What are your thoughts on the design process behind that and how those design concepts come into play?
Ben: We do have quite the lineup of kite
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13th Dec 2022
The Fred Hope Interview | Kite Foiling, Wing Foiling and Traveling
Fred Hope is among the most talented kite foilers we've ever seen. He's also a Product Test Administrator for Slingshot Sports, in Hood River, Oregon.
This offseason, he'll be traveling between Barbuda, in the Caribbean and the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Along with kite foiling, Fred is an amazing freeride kiteboarder, kitesurfer, and wing foiler.
The Fred Hope Interview - Kite Foiling, Wing Foiling and Traveling
Pat: This is Pat with MACkiteboarding.com, here with Fred Hope. What
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23rd Nov 2022
Interview with Sensi Graves I Being a Pro kiter & Learning to Wing
Hey, what's up guys? I'm Rygo.
I'm Sensi.
And today we're going to do another interview, and we're going to chat with Sensei Graves here. So it's been kind of a big year for you, a lot of change, a lot of things happening. You just got onto Slingshot. Do you mind sharing about that experience?
Represent, yes! I actually was on Liquid Force for eight years prior to this. They went out of business, I broke my wrist shortly thereafter, and so I wasn't stressed at all about finding a new sponsor b
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17th Nov 2021
How I Learned to Kiteboard - Rider Profile: Evan Netsch
Rygo: Hey, what's up guys? I'm Rygo.Evan: Evan Netsch here.
And today we're going to do another rider profile. We're going to going to get to know Evan who's been a kiteboarder for what, like 10 years now I think? Maybe longer?
Twenty.
Twenty years. Okay, so you started when you were a kid.
I'm older now, yeah. I'm 31 now.
It's not that old. But yeah, Evan's an absolute ripper, somebody that I've known about for a long time. I've known him for a few years now and we're going to do some
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7th Sep 2021
Cabrinha Ace Hybrid Review
What's going on guys? I'm Rygo.
Hey guys, and I'm Lucas.
And today we're going to do another interview, kind of bro-down video about something from your quiver, the Cabrinha Ace.
The new Ace, yeah. First off, man, we've got to talk about the graphics- did you see that board?
The graphics- I did, actually, yeah.
That board is insane; I'm super stoked on it. Patrick, our graphic designer, crushed it. It's a super good-looking board and it's kind of the first one you see and you want to gr
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6th Jul 2021
Cabrinha Xcaliber - Wood Vs Carbon kiteboards
An interview with Evan on his choice boards!
The Cabrinha Xcaliber, one's carbon, one's wood. Depending on the day, depending on what I'm doing, I'd use either one of these as my go-to boards from Cabrinha.
What are the major differences when you go for a wood board or a carbon board, and why might you choose one?
The main difference is the wood board's going to be a little bit of a smoother ride. It's going to be a little bit flexier, cut through chop a little bit better,
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28th Jun 2021
Snowboarder trys kite
When I first started kiting, unhooked freestyle and strapless surf were king. Athletes were pushing the sport forward at an incredible pace. We started to wonder what it would be like if athletes from other sports took notice. Would world class surfers pick up a kite? What about wakeboarders or snowboarders? As things panned out, some did, but never quite on the level we hoped for. Tye is the rare example of a pro crossing over from another sport and excelling at kite. The only other pro snow
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19th Jan 2021
MACkite Team Rider Interview with Chris Bobryk
Chris Bobryk is a Slingshot Rider and a former member of the NA Blend, the 2nd wave of wakestyle riders in the USA. In 2019 he's joining the MACkite team moving forward. You'll be seeing a lot more of him in future episodes. Follow the adventure on social: #ChrisBobryk
Sponsors: Slingshot, Soflo, Brunati, MACkite
Check out Chris' gear
Gear Talk
Chris's Kites:
The RPM
The RPM is one of the most unique kites available. Technically, it's an all-around kite. It has a good wind range and the rel
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9th Oct 2019
Tucker Talks Foils with Slingshot's Tony Logosz
Tucker Talks Foils with Slingshot's Tony Logosz
When was Slingshot founded?
Slingshot was originally founded in 1999. Started in ‘95 and officially launched in ’99.
So going on 18 years-ish. Wow, that is basically the entire lifespan of kiteboarding. When did you start to see Hydrofoil's becoming part of the sports Slingshot represents? When did you start designing your own products for that purpose?
We were influenced by the original kite-skiing that started here in the Columbia Go
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21st Dec 2017