Slingshot Asylum expert reviews
What Chad Williams thinks about the Slingshot Asylum 2015:
Let’s get one thing straight, the Asylum twin-tip is a balls-out, loud-mouth, in-your-face freestyle machine that caters to freeride needs secondly. From the second you hit the water you feel the competition freestyle pedigree of the Slinghot Asylum breaking through it’s easy going freeride persona. Slingshot have a long and decorated history of building some of the best wakeboards the world has seen, and you can bet that this superb build quality has transferred to their kite boards – and here’s how...
The Slingshot Asylum is the ultimate combination of freestyle inspired pop, rocker line, grip, speed, channels and weight. Absolutely everything put into this board is aimed to put riders on the podium at freestyle competitions. The board carries a slightly flatter rocker line to allow quicker and easier planning and combined with a progressive flex pattern, delivers mind-blowing pop. The Atomic wood core is the secret to the Asylum’s aggressive pop but is also the reason the asylum has a flex pattern that softens hard fast landings. The continuous channels running along the base of the board give the board solid grip in the water allowing the board to travel upwind surprisingly well, and this is key to staying in the designated area at competitions or keeping you in front of your mates to show-off all your new tricks. In fact the channels grip so well that the board performs almost identically even without fins – something that the wakestyle riders with boots will really appreciate.
As mentioned before, the board will satisfy all your freeride desires thanks to it’s continuous rocker smoothing out the choppy water, laser cut channels providing unrivalled grip and upwind performance and chined rails which focuses spray down and away from your face, yet you can’t help but feel that the board is more happy when you’re riding hard and pushing the limits of your unhooked freestyle/wakestyle riding.
I would recommend this board to anyone that wants to get out on the water and experiment in freestyle all the way through to the top competition freestyle riders looking for a premium performance freestyle twin-tip.
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What to choose: Slingshot Asylum VS Slingshot Vision
The Slingshot Asylum and Vision twin tips both cater for freestyle and freeride purposes, so how do you go about deciding which board to ride, or which board would suit your needs? The answer is simple actually. The Vision is a smoother, more surfy feeling board that I would describe as “buttery”. It is a more forgiving board that will soak up even the choppiest conditions and make you kiting sessions easier. The Asylum on the other hand feels more direct and grippy. It almost feels alive below your feet. The Asylum is designed for you to be throwing trick after trick from the moment you hit the water. It’s faster than the vision and has more aggressive pop.
So, do you prefer a softer feeling board for an easy kite session with surprising freestyle abilities that allow you to progress your freestyle riding – like the Vision - or do you prefer a faster more direct board with aggressive grip and pop for a more intense action packed session with more opportunities to throw a trick – such as the Asylum.
Read Chad Williams fully detailed review on the Slingshot Vision 2015 >>
