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Sizes Available: 3, 6, 9, 12, 14m
Sizes Tested: 6, 9, 12m

Slingshot Says:

A NEW three-strut canopy design, lower aspect ratio and stubby, swept wingtips give it playfully quick steering and response with ginormous wind range and depower. The relaunch on this kite takes little more than the flick of a wrist, then sheet and go with super smooth power delivery. While our other kites gravitate toward a specific condition or discipline of riding, the RALLY GT is designed to be the golden child of our lineup – good at everything, bad at none.

Visit for more info: https://www.slingshotsports.com/Rally-GT-V1

Our Testers Say:

“Smooth like a sports car, fun all-around kite that your friends will want to try after watching you jump and carve like a pro.” // Kelly Grief

“Good quality build, predictable/slower turning with middle of the road boosting. Great starter kite with easy relaunch and excellent straightforward control bar.” // Brad Poulos

“Stable and hard to stall, this smooth lower aspect ratio kite delivers low-end grunt with slower turning speeds and heavier bar feedback.” // Pierce Martin

Meet Our Testers

TKB Says:

The Rally GT is an all-new freeride animal for 2020. Introduced as part of a plan to take Slingshot’s legendary Rally platform and split the delta kite’s traditional territory in half with the Rally GT, designers took the user-friendly freeride side for the new model while apportioning the performance big air freeride responsibilities to the all-new Raptor (read about that here).

The Rally GT is a low to medium aspect 3-strut kite that comes with 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 Rally GT comes with a single setting fixed front bridle that doesn’t use any pulleys to change the power angle of the kite. The front bridle attachment pigtails end in loops and the wingtip attachment point ends in knots. The wingtip offers three attachment options to adjust the kite’s feedback. The factory setting came connected to the attachment closest to the wingtip. You get less feedback towards the wingtip and more kite feedback as you move the setting forward. The airframe on the GT is robust with a thicker leading edge and solid sized struts; testers across the board noted the Rally’s seemingly bombproof build quality and durability.

While the Rally GT doesn’t borrow any of the delta DNA from the historical Rally platform it does offer well-rounded flight characteristics that are geared to be super user-friendly and reliable. The first thing we noticed about the Rally GT was its really good progressive sheeting/power delivery along the length of the bar’s throw. There’s this nice and intuitive power delivery from power to depower that offers the classic sheet-and-go feel, which is great for the casual kiter that wants power at their fingertips without having to focus too much attention on flying the kite. Testers across the board commented on the Rally GT’s generous pulling power that put power on demand at all times and the medium-plus bar pressure that gave rider’s a constant feel on the kite. The Rally GT’s canopy seemed to build power even when oversheeted making it more resistant to rider error and stalling. The Rally GT offers good steering response with middle of the road turning speed that yields a casual stable feeling that keeps this kite on the more dependable side. When it comes to lift and hangtime, the Rally GT offers fun but not explosive jumping performance that is geared to the casual freerider or progressing beginner. With good hangtime and medium steering speed the Rally GT is great for dialing in the basics of jumping and first tricks without getting well over your head. With decent drift and good stability, the Rally GT is a steady choice offering good power control that has no intention of delivering unwanted surprises or anything on the side of radical. When it comes to relaunch out of the water, the Rally GT has a very reliable and intuitive relaunch. With the kite nose down at the bottom of the window, you can pull on one side of the bar and the canopy begins to rotate quite easily and starts to taxi over to the edge of the window for a casual release into the air. If you pull more aggressively on a leader line then the Rally GT reacts a little bit faster and wants to launch deeper and faster in the bottom of the window. Overall, the medium aspect canopy offered up reliable relaunches that felt like you could recover the kite every time. The Rally GT is a well-rounded workhorse that feels super stable and offers dependable user-friendly power, steering and relaunch to the progression-oriented kiteboarder or beginner level foilboarding.

 

Our Slingshot kites came with both the Compstick Guardian or Compstick Sentinel control bars. Both of these bars are fixed length bars that are available 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 centerline safety depower, a spectra sheeting/throw line with sliding stopper, adjustable length throw, a 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 straightforward; 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. The Compstick is the only bar in our test that featured dual outside line OS handles with no adjustment for outside line length. 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, they also noted the grip was fairly dense with thin rubber ridges running along the handle that made for a very aggressive yet solid grip. The left side of the bar and the floats are a red color for very clear and obvious color-coding that is unmistakable.

The Compstick Guardian features single centerline safety depower, a spectra sheeting/throw line, a low V, a sliding stopper and below 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 kitesurfers. The bar design and other rigging are the same as the Compstick Sentinel (see above). If the advantages of below the bar tuning systems are lost on you, then check out the Compstick Sentinel.

Visit for more info on the bar: www.slingshotsports.com/slingshot-kite/slingshot-kite-bars


Want to view all our 2020 Freeride, Light Wind and Wingsurf Gear Reviews in one convenient digital guide? Get free access HERE. If you’re already a subscriber, thank you for your support! Log into your account to view our 2020 Freeride Gear Review Guide.