A chap we'd been hoping to pin down for a while - we were lucky enough to do so in Slingshot's offices in Hood River. We escaped the heat of the day mooching round an air cooled office to end up sitting on a balcony in the shade, overlooking the entire event going on below us.

Fred is one of those foilers who you can spot a mile off. His kitefoil riding changed the game and it is very difficult not to notice his insane freeriding ability when he's on the water. Nowadays he's taken on a pretty sick role at Slingshot HQ in his home town, and runs us through his role and the brand through his eyes, along with what else he gets up to.

If you like what we're doing - check out buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast and become a member - its how we were able to fund this trip to America to bring you these great chats! All funds went towards flights, Uhaul rental and podcasting equipment

Please welcome Cynthia ‘Cynbad’ Brown onto the podcast. We got to sit down and chat with Cynthia while she was over from Hawaii and working on the Ozone stand at the AWSI show. She is an absolute whirlwind of a character, a legend in our sports, and has stories to keep us all listening for hours.

Competing in windsurfing in the 80’s through to pioneering hobby parachute downwinding now, she’s been a part of it all. The random fact that Laird Hamilton taught her to surf should say it all - you’re going to enjoy this one, even if you’ve not come across Cynthia before.

If you want more of this, check out - buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast

Our AWSI trip was funded by donations, we've got a stack of great episodes coming as a result and we'll need your sport to keep similar things coming in the future!

Check out Cynthia: @cynthiacynbadbrown

If you’re expecting a techy debrief into the products the boys at Code have been churning out, this isn’t the podcast for you. The brothers had been on the stand chatting tech all day and were knackered - if you’re after tech, check other peoples videos from the stands on the Youtube.

We put beers in their hands and chatted about everything else instead. What a great story these two have - spending all their life savings to start up something of their own and having the wildest year of their lives so far. Huge amounts of hype has been surrounding the brand since its inception, and it seems to be living up to it - they were in hot demand at the event, everyone wanted a go.

Another great episode we really enjoyed recording - one which would’ve been nigh on impossible to prize out of them if we’d had to organise something online. We’re loving how quickly you can build a rapport when you put a beer in someones hand and sit in the sunshine.

If you want more of this - check out buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast, which is how we’ve been lucky enough to get here and make it possible! Your support means we can do it all again in the future and bring you more of the best chats.

Check out Code products here:

https://codefoils.com/

One of the cool things about this trip we're finding is being able to stick microphones in interesting peoples faces anytime we're all sat around hanging out, and (hopefully) it not being weird.

Big Aussie Luke has been hanging out for us since the AWSI event finished, and we've had a couple mornings sat around in Kenny's garage shooting the shit. As always thats when the best stuff gets discussed and so we switched the coffee machine on and sat there a bit longer.

A properly split episode - half about Ken, winging, Mikeslab kit and board building, and half about Freddies 3rd SUP coach Luke and his downwind and prone journey.

Sitting down and doing these things face to face over a coffee/beer/burger is so much fun and is farrrrrrr easier to get guests relaxing sooner. We hope you enjoy!

An interview that's been in the works for a long time - the FoilDrive gang have been really supportive of what we do for a good while now (god knows why), so its been awesome to catch up with the team out here in AmeTrica.

This is exactly how we wanted interviews to take place at the event site - Mr FoilDrive himself, Paul Martin came wandering over to get some space from talking about serious business on the stand and sat down with us to chat shit about anything else BUT FoilDrive. Eventually he came back round to the company itself, and gave us the low down on the future for the brand and the products.

Your V2 unit is about to get MORE powerful - but is that all its cracked up to be?? Paul gives us a breakdown of where the units at currently and why he didn't release it more powerful straight away, and we were really impressed by this methodical answer. Likewise, there's a tonne of hugely innovative add on's coming. Have you ever wanted to control the FoilDrive with your mouth? Well soon you'll be able to!

Sit back and enjoy this little scoop. If you like what we're doing, the beer tokens are always appreciated to keep the cooler topped up while we're on this trip, or saved for hopefully future trips - buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast

There's been so much going on in such a short space of time here, its difficult to keep up with everything and we want our listeners to come along for the ride as much as possible. Its difficult to know how and when to release interviews and videos to you all in an orderly fashion!

Before we went into the actual event yesterday for the first live day, we sat in the car park and dissected some thoughts on our first couple of days being around the local area.

Pro riders and brand big Dawgs have been arriving in dribs and drabs over the last few days and they're now around every corner. There's definitely been different approaches to how they've spent their time since arriving as we had two nuclear days of wind prior to the event which is now completely lacking in wind.

We chat through who's stood out, why and the brands who have had the biggest presence. Foildrive dominance, the parawing chat and the sheer amount of disciplines on the water nowadays. Its a quick catch up before the interviews take precedence

we are having the most insane time so far - THANKYOU to everyone who made this possible by donating on the 'buymeacoffee' page.

In Hood River OFFICIAL now - at the Hatchery! We sit and process the first hours in America as we overlook the spot and chat nonsense with Wieger from Appletree.

We are prioritising the stocking of ice and beers in the cooler at all times so donations to buymeacoffee.com/gfpodcast are more important than ever to get the industry folk talking.

We're back, and we're off to America tomorrow!

All thanks to our listeners for supporting us on the BuymeaCoffee page - you've made this entire thing possible and we really appreciate it. We also definitely feel the pressure to provide some bitchin' content while were out there - and promise to muscle our way into as many interviews as possible while we're stateside!

Chris popped round this morning to discuss the extremely loose plans for our trip, but also to give more info on his own event in October that we're equally looking forward to - the Kernow Foil Classic.

Next you hear from us, we'll be in 'Murica.

For anyone who wasn't aware - the Olympics are currently in full flow in Paris, and we have a few friends over there right now that we were very keen to catch up with prior to the racing starting on Sunday 4th!

We've chatted to UK's Olympic Numero Uno female racer Ellie before in episode 56 for anyone that wants a bit more depth into her kite racing, as well as Olympic Coach Stevie (episode 65) who joins us today alongside the worlds top kite caddy and race commentator Jemima.

Its a short one, we didn't want to pile on the pressure or ask too many random questions while Ellies got her game face on!

I think you can watch all the racing via Discovery+ online app which is only £3.99 and you can cancel right after the 'Lympics.....

Lets go Formula Kite!!

Fuelled by; post-session stoke, pizza, and beer we enjoy a thorough breakdown of Mark Shinn's history whilst deviating away from the chronological timeline regularly along the way. It is a long podcast but every minute is worth listening to. There is plenty of legitimate discussion about equipment, manufacturing, the industry as a whole as well as downwinding/foiling technique and gear tips as well.

We talk about the origin of the Shinn brand and a little about why we've heard nothing from them in the past months. There will definietely be a part 2 for that part of the story as it is a big one!

Enjoy!