In a freshen up for 2020, Female Focus is gone and replaced with Insight, still focussing on women but this time around the ladies in the industry who you might not have heard of but who are making big waves within the sport. LynDee Talmage is the marketing communications and content manager for Slingshot. Find out how she got there and what her role entails right here.

In a new series focusing on women in the industry we are moving away from pro riders in bikinis and are turning our attention to the women with stories to tell from behind the scenes of some of the world’s biggest kite companies. We’ll be shining the spotlight on someone talented every issue and hoping to inpsire more ladies to enter the arena!

Lyndee, we've been looking forward to this interview! Could you tell us a little bit about where your childhood and where you grew up?

Hey Jen, it's great to catch up! I've been living on the West Coast my whole life. I grew up in Portland, went to college in Seattle and then lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for quite some time. I moved to Hood River for the wind and to be close to all the sports that are important to me!

How did you end up chasing the wind to Hood River? What's the vibe like over there?

After visiting Hood River for a few summers to go kiteboarding in early 2000, it seemed like the right lifestyle fit; It's our little bubble! The culture of the town is extremely sports driven and when a person asks "what do you do?", they don't mean job, they mean sports! It is so nice to be minutes from the river, mountain or woods. The wind is crazy here, and some say if you can kiteboard here, you can kite anywhere!

When did you finally start kiteboarding, we heard rumours that you were a body-drag expert for years!

I joke that when I was married in 2000, I body-dragged around the world, but it wasn't until that chapter ended that I finally put a board on my feet! I've been fully kiteboarding for about five years now and progressing every session! In my job, I am around pro riders, kiteboarding videos and images all day. It is quite comical by the time I actually get on the water. I am a much better kiteboarder in my mind than in reality!

There aren't very many women in the kiteboarding industry that work behind the scenes, (not professional kiteboarders) why do you think it is still male-dominated industry?

I think the gear industry, in general, has always had a lot of testosterone. It's good to round out the energy and perspective in a room by having some gender diversity, and I think smart men realise this fact. More and more women are kiteboarding and hydrofoiling these days and thus becoming more knowledgeable about the products available. That will naturally, I believe, open doors to business opportunities for women.

You joined 7-Nation a couple of years ago; how did you end up there?

I started in the gear industry during the .com craze in the Bay Area. I worked for several eCommerce startups that focused around gear. When you work with startups, everyone fills several roles, and you acquire business acumen quickly. I was lucky enough to land with Dakine after living in Hood River for a while, and then it was a natural progression to join 7-Nation in June of 2017. I believe in fate, and my timing was really fortunate to slip my foot in the door at Slingshot.

Tell us about your role as Marketing Communications Manager at 7-Nation (Slingshot and Ride Engine) including the campaigns, planning, content management and branding.

Specifically, my role is Content Creation Management. It is a lot of herding of information, ideas, visual assets, and organizing dates. We have 5 sports categories now at Slingshot, so making sure all the launches run smoothly and everyone plays well together keeps me busy. My favourite part of this job is the customer/dealer facing opportunities. Design/SetUp and organizing shows such as AWSI, Surf Expo and beach events get me out of the office and on the front line to connect with our tribes and catch up on what is real.

What differentiates Slingshot from the other brands?

Each department here works very closely together. The great part of Slingshot is that your creative ideas in any department are always welcome. We span a lot of age generations, so innovation and collaboration are really inspiring.

What sort of relationship do you need to establish with the team and riders? How do you keep them motivated?

Our brand managers are the lifeblood at 7-Nation. These guys drive our sports categories as well as our team riders. Alex Fox is the kite brand manager, and Sam Light now manages our kite team riders, Fred Hope, Reed Brady and Chris Bobryk. My role with the team riders is basically a support role encouraging them to PLEASE take some time to document their crazy adventures and making sure they are all on current season products! Catching up with those guys is always a hoot when they come home and visit HQ.

What are the main day-to-day challenges you face at Slingshot?

I work with A LOT of smart people that daily have A LOT of great ideas. When all these ideas funnel down into the Marketing bucket, it can be challenging to translate how we bring them to other internal teams as well as our customers. We try to run everything through our brand narrative of being "Interesting not perfect, humans not heroes" but every once in a while, we can't help but believe that we have the BEST and most epic product on the market!

Who are some of the other women in the industry that deserve some recognition, in your opinion?

We have some amazingly strong women doing some great things in this industry. The number one behind the scenes female I know is Trina Saxe, our customer service manager. She knows almost every aspect of every product Slingshot and Ride Engine have made in the last ten years!

To get some street credit in this industry, it helps to be a pro-rider! Sensi Graves works closely with us on the Ride Engine projects, and Karolina Winkowska is our favourite female rider!

What changes have you seen, and would you like to see within the industry?

Although everyone is trying to innovate new features and products (wing surfing and hydrofoils), I believe the biggest and most impactful evolution is how a brand connects and relates with their specific customers. Everyone is building kites and boards and trying to be NEW, that gets redundant. People are smart, you need to create personal experiences and make them feel connected to your brand. Every employee at Slingshot walks the walk and uses our products. Being authentic and engaging customers on the beaches and out in the world goes a long way to build confidence and build community, and that is what is important in the long run.

Any upcoming news you'd like to share with us?

We believe in the right product at the right time! We are in the final planning stages for the release of our Phantasm carbon foil line that Tony and Jeff Logosz have been dialling in for quite a while.

Thank you, LynDee and all the best for 2020!

Thanks, Jen!

Videos

SLINGSHOT 2020 - KITE 2 RELEASE
RPM V12 - ITS GOTTA BE THE KITE - Slingshot Kiteboarding
Summer, We HOPE. - Slingshot Kiteboarding - Fred Hope
By Jen Tyler
Italian/Egyptian Jen Tyler grew up on the sandy beaches of the Red Sea and has been on the IKSURFMAG & Tonic Mag team since 2017.

Comments