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SLINGSHOT Asylum
Sizes Available: 138cm x 42cm, 141cm x 43cm
Sizes Tested: 141cm x 43cm

Slingshot Says:

A hard-charging freestyle favorite with super hero grip and pop. This is a performance board loaded with high-tech design features and is best suited for aggressive riders who like to go big, ride fully powered and push their limits in the name of progression. NEW for 2020, we added a tip-to-tail carbon stringer to give the Asylum’s already lively wood core even more dynamic flex, spring and pop off the water.

Visit for more info: www.slingshotsports.com/2020-Asylum

Our Testers Say:

“The oval outline and rocker allows for edging at any angle for great carving and loading/pop in choppy conditions. Very responsive, great chop handling; comfortable with good upwind ability.” // Ray Borg

“Excellent quality and high performance look with good weight in a high performance board that rides smooth and delivers more load and pop than the Misfit. Excellent pop, carving and upwind ability with good tracking/edge control and chop handling.” // Brad Poulos

“This board is for more advanced riders and may not be for less aggressive kiters. This board was more challenging to ride because it was skatey and skips out.” // Dan Lerer

Meet Our Testers

Tkb Says:

The Asylum brings to the table pro-level freestyle feel and performance that will also appeal to the aggressive freeride kiter that pushes boundaries. The Asylum outline is wider than your typical freeride board and features a template with a relatively straight rail in the middle with a lot of curve at the pulled in tips. The bottom shape mixes a subtle single concave with a single wide channel in the middle of the board and multiple channels exiting through the tips for a solid bottom shape. The most apparent feature of this board is its significant rocker that is progressive from tip to tip; while the Asylum is not the highest rocker board in the Slingshot line, it is a good idea to ride the board a size larger than your typical freeride board to get the same level of planing and glide for most riders. The Asylum felt lighter and more active compared to the models of past years which may be in part to a carbon stringer introduced into its wood core and carbon inserts. Slingshot this year downsized the fins from 2.0 to 1.75 to make the board feel faster and extra lively. Our first impression was that the Asylum went really well upwind with good tracking and had a fair amount of grip and edge control for a pro-level board. The channeling out the bottom gives you some extra grip and while the rocker slices through chop cleanly with no tip spray, the outline and rocker does require more rider attention to keep the edge stable from seesawing upwind. The Asylum likes aggressive riders ”” some of our testers may have found this board skatey and challenging, but with confident technique and heavier inputs this board promises to deliver riders the stability and control needed to handle bigger kites and more power for next-level caliber riding. The Asylum’s wood core with its carbon stringer delivers dense flex for really good load and pop, while the rail outline and extra width in the tail make loading and release easy, clean and super powerful for big amplitude on sent and unsent tricks. The Asylum offers a stiffer flex pattern that delivers for more aggressive technique, but it’s not so stiff that it makes every other type of riding uncomfortable and wake boots mandatory. Hard landings feel softer with the rocker breaking up the surface tension and the core can take bomb hole drops without deforming as you ride away. The Asylum comes off as a lighter weight version of a pro-freestyler board that has a bit more range and user-friendly attributes. Carving can be really fun with the higher rocker and pulled in tips, with the Asylum willing to flay some serious turns with good control at high speeds. Overall, the Asylum gives you the flavor of a tour caliber freestyle board with the usability and range that will appeal to more aggressive freeride kiters looking to step up their game.

The Asylum comes with three insert options that are mounted down the centerline of the board for adjusting stance width and was mated with the 2020 Dually pad and strap system that has undergone a complete redesign for this year. The footbed frame is completely new and offers a slightly wider range of duck stance adjustability. The cushy part of the pad is now built out of triple density foam layers. The top layer has a firm rubbery feel with concentric ribbed circles for good lateral traction and is combined with a softer base layer EVA that incorporates swappable foam inserts to dial in your personal heel firmness. You can choose between two options; as medium weight riders, we preferred the softer insert, while bigger riders might choose the more dense insert. The footstrap mounting points can move forward or back (like the previous version), shifting the strap’s position over your toes or more over your arch for perfect positioning. The new strap offers four Velcro adjustment points, all secured with a protective enclosure that makes it easy to adjust the strap to accommodate the contours of your arch. This year SS has softened the foam under the strap making it feel extra plush and grippy compared to years past. The footbed features a fair amount of contour around the heel and under the arch with a substantial toe bump that your toes can really sink into and with the concentric rubber grooves, you get a really solid locked-in feel that is also very plush and comfortable. The handle is a combination of plastic and rubber which makes it a little more forgiving if you get raked over your board during a wipeout. Overall, the new Dually pads and straps have received some great upgrades to materials and function with testers giving the redesigned system high marks for adjustability and comfort.


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