2014
The Olive Oil board is introduced in the market
1956 – THE STORY BEGINS
It all started with Delmar Conde, a Portuguese man born in 1956 and to many of us a true legend.
People who know Delmar, see him as the man who worked his fingers to the bone, representing values such as humility, positivity and consciousness throughout decades of passionate dedication to his shipyard.
Highly respected for being such a role model, he raised 3 kids together with his marvelous wife Maria. Two of them, Gil and Renato, are thriving in the elite of professional sailing.
In 2012 Gil Conde starts the roots of Flying Sardine, embracing the challenge of developing professional Kite Racing gear.
Gil CONDE
head of design
Due to his remarkable sailing career, Gil is well known for his highly technical skills. From concept to final product, he is able to do all of it on his own.
“Designing the finest products for the elite is like developing something for yourself, you can feel what works and what doesn’t.”
With the aim of developing an innovative solution for the kite industry, he uses his expertise in composites and yachting technology to release the first Formula Kiteboard: “Olive Oil”.
Soon he realizes that besides the boards, there is demand for a wide range of highly technical products. A proper development now needed the involvement of a rider to test and validate the gear.
Gil approaches pro rider Florian Trittel, since he would match the project’s needs.
With his Degree in Business Management and a 15-year long experience competing in the elite of sailing and kitesurfing, he could offer him a wide vision of how to set up the market approach.
“Convinced about that in order for someone to win, not necessarily another one has to lose, I’m here to try to create a positive impact in the widest of its sense.”
Florian Trittel
brand manager
Not long after the release of the “Olive Oil”, in 2014 the whole sport experiences an important shift to foiling. The foilboards would then as well become the Olympic equipment, so the project needed to be set up professionally.
2019 – DC PERFORMANCE
In 2019, DC Performance is established together with its first trademark: Flying Sardine.
DC Performance stands for “Delmar Conde Performance” and has been founded as a tribute to Delmar.
They manage to find their two missing pieces in the puzzle that would align with the family’s values and provide the ideal conditions to propel the brand to pioneer, innovate and perform on the highest level.
José SousA
r&d
José Sousa, with a Mechanical Engineering background, two obsolete knees and a curious mindset, finds the perfect non kiting conditions for joy and fulfillment in Flying Sardine. A Passionate Team. Committed to inspirational work. The Challenge? Embraced.
“Most of the world will make decisions by either guessing or using their gut. They will be either lucky or wrong.”
To complete the team, Tiago Neves was the missing piece. He is capable of designing, programming, being creative and creating media content almost at the same time.
Where others see problems, he sees challenges with solutions.
As an Electromechanical Engineer Tiago uses creativity to escape from the highly logical work routine. Having photography as a long term hobby, it seemed obvious that the he could unfold his talent in the marketing world.
“I believe that fear and growth cannot coexist – In order for one to prevail, the other one has to disappear.”
Tiago Neves
visual content creator
The atmosphere in the team has reached a point where working rather feels like hobby than duty.
We’ll make many mistakes, but we’ll try to never lose our way for too long. Promised.