The Slingshot FLYER 280 Windfoil Board | Reviewed by Andy Brant
The Slingshot FLYER 280 is a versatile board that can be used for paddleboarding, windsurfing and windfoiling. it is enabled for early takeoff, lift and easy jibing when combined with the Hover Glide hydrofoil package, which includes the #Infinity84 wing.
Transcribed from Video:
Hi, I’m Andy Brant. Today, we’re going to take a look at the Slingshot Flyer 280. This board is a combination of a stand-up paddleboard, windsurf board, stand up foil board, and a windsurf foil board; this board does it all.
This board works great as a beginner board, and for first-time foilers. It lifts up very smooth, very easy while foiling. When non-foiling, it sails upwind like a longboard, it glides, and it’s a really fun board to have on the lakes or the rivers when you want to just gust bust, or for occasional foiling.
What’s deceptive about the Flyer 280, is that even though it’s long and pointy it still rides great for when it’s not foiling, when it’s in the air and on the foil, especially on this short fuselage setup, it turns beautiful. I am able to do foiling 360s, jibes, and keep it up in the air, no problem. One board does it all. If I could have one board in my life besides my short board, this would be it.
For paddleboarding, there is a Slot-Box in the tail for a fin. Also, if you’re going to windsurf the board without the foil or even with the foil, it doesn’t hurt to have the fin in there for tracking. We have a deep tuttle box for mounting the foil. Currently, we’re running a 24-centimeter mast with the Infinity 84 wing. This works really, really well. Having it in the C position, which puts the front wing a little bit further forward so that we can stand forward to help get that nose up. The 24 mast works really well with this board, once it breaches or it gets too high, it doesn’t go with that really big arc, so this is a great combination.
On the top of the board, we’ve got lots of stuff going on. Starting on the tail, we have our leash mount for paddling and paddle foiling. That way the board doesn’t get away from you. Again, here’s the deep tuttle box from the top, and we have this great soft deck for climbing on and off. The carrying handle’s up here by the front, which is perfectly balanced. This board is amazingly light. It looks big and heavy, it’s not, it’s just big. And finally, we have the mast track up here. The mast track, when we foil, typically we’re going to run our foil, the mast base, just in front of the halfway point. For 5.6m, 5.2m, 4.8m sails that work pretty good. And
then I will run it further forward if I got to put a big 7.5m or 8m to get it going.
Windsurfing the board also, with the foil in it and non-foiling, we’ll keep that track a little bit forward. We’ll tend to stand up by the mast with our feet on the lower side if we’re going to windsurf it with the foil, non-foiling, so it goes upwind like a longboard. And then once foiling, we’ll tend to step back a little bit by the back of that foil, right where it connects as it starts to come up, and then we may move our feet further forward again. You get a chance to move around and experiment in the air.