Tkb Review: 2019 SLINGSHOT Rally

Sizes Available: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14m
Sizes Tested: 7, 9, 11m

Slingshot Says:

The Rally will take you where you want to go. Upwind, downwind, back rolls, front rolls, mega boosts, waves or flat water, the Rally has done it all. It’s even crossed the Atlantic.* The Rally inspires confidence, knowing that it will make you a better rider no matter what you’re up to, your on the right kite. Great range and depower, easy relaunch, solid upwind ability, predictable performance in gusty wind, lofty hang-time and solid crossover surf performance.

The Rally features a Delta-C shape, tapered wingtips and fine-tuned three-point bridle system. This design yields more depower and a wider wind range than more traditional shapes and makes relaunching as easy as a gentle pull on one end of the bar. Tapered wingtip provides a tight pivot radius for fast steering and mellow, predictable loops. For jumping, the Rally’s hybrid delta shape provides long, lofty airs that are great for staying under control and landing gently regardless of how high you go. For wave riding and foiling, the Rally’s feathery downwind drift makes the Rally the ideal cross-over performer, while on the opposite spectrum it also unhooks relatively well for cross-over freestyle/wakestyle.

Visit for more info: www.slingshotsports.com/2019-Rally

Our Testers Say:

“Fast pivot style turns with on/off power. Very stable, quick pivot turning, smooth power through turns and reactive steering, fun and easy to fly. Bar ergonomics are comfortable but grip is aggressive.” // Joe Chehock

“If this were a rally car it would be a diesel truck; lots of torque, just sheet in and stomp on the throttle and prepare for lift off. The Rally loves to boost and more, with nice soft landings. Great for heavier riders, so much power smaller riders could size down.” // Dray Murray

“Solid kite that goes upwind well with lots of grunt, great for those that don’t want to actively steer fly the kite. Medium bar pressure, good relaunch, solid pull that will take you upwind without any thought.” // Marko Bartscherer

Meet Our Testers

TKB Says:

The Rally is back for another year as the jack of all trades with user-friendly delta-style freeride all-around performance. The Rally features a 5-strut delta shaped air frame with really sweptback narrow wingtips and medium length fixed single setting front bridle. The wingtips feature three settings for adjusting kite feedback with the stock setting located in the middle. The Rally uses a large diameter bayonet style inflation valve that requires no nozzle on the end of your standard pump hose for a quick and easy pump up. When it comes time to deflate, there’s a standard dump valve that allows you to quickly deflate the kite without unthreading the bayonet valve. The first aspect of the Rally is that of all the Slingshot kites it probably features the lightest bar pressure, with light to medium bar pressure. The Rally has a distinct pivot style turn that rotates on a very tight axis while not creating too much pull through the turns. The Rally offers riders the ”˜sheet and go’ feel on the bar with progressive power delivery that doesn’t require aggressive kite flying to find the power. While the Rally is often described as being grunty, it also does an excellent job of releasing that power, particularly in the smaller sizes. When it comes to boosting big airs, the Rally is one of those kites that builds a ton of lift and then amazes you with seemingly endless hangtime. Despite the Rally’s grunt, testers indicated the Rally trucks upwind really well. Because the Rally has little in the way of wingtips, it does like to slide down the side of the window, so it does require a bit more input to maintain its position at the edge of either side of the window, this being a characteristic of delta designs. When it comes to relaunch the Rally has always been an easy candidate with its sweptback leading edge. At the bottom of the window the Rally wants to roll up onto a wingtip and relaunch with very little input. The Rally has all the user-friendly characteristics of an all-around freeride kite that makes progression, general boosting and cruisey riding easy and fun. The Rally can be a great option for foilboarding with a bit more pull but generally will take a rider from zero to hero while traversing the worlds of freeride, surf and foilboarding.Our Slingshot kites came with both the Compstick Guardian or Compstick Sentinel control bars. Both of these bars are fixed length bars that comes in three sizes: 17” width with 20m lines, a 20” width with 23m lines (3m ext), and a 23” width with 27m lines.

The Compstick Sentinel features above the bar power tuning with single center-line safety depower, spectra sheeting/throw line with sliding stopper, adjustable length throw, tuning cleat power system with a toggle that uses a magnet to control excess tuning slack and a low V. The inside lines end in knots and the outside lines end in loops. The Sentinel offers a sturdy quick release that integrates a below the bar hand swivel which also doubles as a quick release guard. The quick release handle locks in the open position and resetting is fairly straight forward simply place the end of the loop back into position and then depress a stainless steel tab that frees the release handle and locks the quick release back together. Testers did note that when you release the gate, there is a sharp edge on the handle that tends to pinch the finger on the tab. This could be easily fixed by sanding off the pointy ends on the red and white handle. The Compstick is the only bar in our test that featured dual outside line OS handles with no adjustment for outside line length. OS handles can be bulky and a point of tangle in spaghetti situations, but they can also save you in a dicey situation. The bar ends offer bungees for keeping the lines clean and the floats are separate from the bar ends. While testers liked the smaller diameter grip and raised volcano next to the insert which helps avoid pinched fingers. Testers found the grip to be fairly dense with thin rubber ridges along the handle that make for a very aggressive yet solid grip. This year the bar got a color upgrade with the left side of the bar and the floats getting solid red color for a very clear and obvious color coding that is unmistakable. The Compstick features bomber construction and tons of features which makes this one of the heavier bars in our test and as a result comes with bulkier foam floats as a result.The Compstick Guardian features a single center-line safety depower, spectra sheeting/throw line, a low V, a sliding stopper andbelow the bar cleat tuning integrated into the push away quick release. There’s no travel guard or below the bar hand swivel but the quick release is compact and keeps a large amount of throw travel within reach of the rider. This bar uses Slingshot’s existing Guardian quick release system which puts the kite’s tuning below the bar, which allows surfers to increase the amount of throw/sheeting while still being able to reach the tuning of the kite. Testers who are not used to below the bar sheeting often find it’s difficult to get the leverage to operate the cleat, but with the proper technique (place the cleat on the side of your favored arm and sheet out while adjusting) this is a fairly easy and functional design for performance kiters. The bar design and other rigging is the same as the Compstick Sentinel (see above). If the advantages of below the bar tuning systems is lost on you, then check out the Compstick Sentinel above.

Visit for more info on the bar: www.slingshotsports.com/2019-Compstick-w-Guardian