I duno…my wings spend about 1000X as much time in the water as my kites did…. A hand wing is going to get as wet in one session as your peaks would in a whole year. I’ve also heard that the water repellency on the Pocket wing is one of the game changers compared to using a trainer kite.
I was just not the kid that accessorized his bike with playing cards in the spokes or other cool mods. More of a keep it simple guy.
If it works wet, being slightly less wet would not be worth the extra gear tweaking to me.
Yeah, I’m saying it’s not going to work if it’s wet. Maintaining that coating is going to be the difference between a useable wing and trash 3 months in.
5 Likes
Wonder if Flysurfer would look at this, seems obvious that they could build an incredible version of this if they got involved.
1 Like
OK. looks legit. i’m sold. Freedom. I have been one handing my slingwing lately and realizing the great benefit of having one arm free to open body up and slash. I am so over the disposable inflatables that are only good for 50 sessions. I have never bought so much ripstop nylon in my life. Steve seems genuinely fired up on these. He’s a pioneer that I decided to trust his opinions years ago. Thanks for posting!
5 Likes
I played with one today. There wasn’t enough wind to use it with a board, but I was using it both on dry land as well as wading out into the water and trying a few things wet.
It’s surprisingly really easy to fly, especially one-handed. I can move it up and down in the powerzone, move it overhead, steer it back and forth, and even sine it a little like I would a kite to generate power.
I didn’t really work out how to relaunch it from the water, as it tends to pool water very quickly in the lower cells. I did have luck with just bunching it back up and tossing it out to inflate. It doesn’t really feel any harder to fly when it’s fresh from a swim. Any residual water is shed within about 5 seconds.
I’m still not at the point where I’d prefer using one of these over a shuttle DW sup run, or just taking a wing out on my small board… but maybe after I try it on an actual run I might be tempted.
7 Likes
Yes, it’s a new category of foiling. Downwinding without the possibility of a few well placed paddle strokes or the drag of a luffed out inflatable will make you commit to pump only recovery.
The only advantage appears to be the potential to re-deploy which looks like it’ll take a fair bit of practice (I’ll stick w/ the paddle). As an upwind only tool it’s still clearly inferior to an inflatable aside from about a pound weight savings if you choose to pack it along back downwind. Won’t be a buyer in this round but will certainly keep a close eye on the learning process. Has potential 
1 Like
6m (for NE FL) just shipped. Frothing…
2 Likes
I went ahead and ordered the 4m as I often upwind on a wing, deflate, and throw into a backpack for the paddle back. However, crossing shipping lanes is a bit nerve wracking and so this as a complement (going far crosswind at the start of a maliko run, or staying in the 3rd avenue channel longer) or backup (paddle breaks?) is pretty appealing. I think it also opens up some interesting adventures like Crissy Field to Sherman in SF where you could much more easily switch between (para)-Winging, and paddling, making it less of an epic.
1 Like
I guess a double skinned one would be more efficient (so smaller), but more difficult to collapse and you couldn’t chuck n launch?
How would this compare with the five-o pocket wing?
Supposedly it goes upwind much better. If your use case doesn’t involve going upwind, I would go for the $400 cheaper option.
Pocket Wing should get credit for being first to market, but a few things kept me from buying it - the initial announcement-to-release waiting period, and the lack of clarity around whether it could go upwind or not.
Visually, the Parawing seems to be taking a much more similar scaled-down race-kite shape when flown, with the FAQ claiming it can be ridden upwind. Without a clear long video of tacking, or a Strava plot, or an example course (e.g. “A rider upwind from Kanaha to Hookipa, and paddled back”) it’s all a bit of an unknown to me so far.
It would be helpful for the paddle-segment to actually see someone that paddles ride around on this and provide their take as I don’t know that either designer was trying to do that. What I’ve heard from a friend who owns both is that the Pocket Wings can be difficult to use, and are prone to tangling.
After their first experience with the parawing, they are going to sell their brand new pocket wings at a loss. They said it was awesome, and while still tricky to use/stow, seemed much more promising for them coming from winging → down-winding.
2 Likes
Gen 1 vs Gen 2 is how a guy who owns both explained it to me. Sounds reasonable.
1 Like
The Parawing definitely looks more intuitive the. The pocket wing, but apparently Sam is about to release v2. Just the same I put my name on the wait list for the larger pocket wings and never heard anything.
The parawing is looking super promising, to the point where I am wonder if some might skip wing foiling and just get a parawing if there primary interest is a dw assist. Looks like the traction is pretty automatic, heck it’s even one handed. Where as first time wingers need to learn how to handle a wing and not try to point it where the wind does not want it to go.
I know there is a V2 of the Hawaii Five-Oh wings (like, LEI wings) coming out soon. I doubt there’d be a V2 of the pocket wing so soon - the first big batch of them just went out like 6 weeks ago.
If you already knew how to foil pretty well, perhaps you could skip winging and get straight into the parawing, although it’s hardly automatic steering - it’s like a wing but on a time delay. I think getting directly into parawinging with no foiling experience would be pretty tough.
They definitely go upwind, but there’s a lot of power to manage in them and just holding on one-handed is exhausting, it’s not as easy as an LEI wing. I watched a buddy yesterday zipping all over the place - he put in at the point at the Hatch, rode down to lower hatch, back up, he was very mobile. He even tacked the thing. He’s crazy talented in general, but it shows it’s possible.
Lots of folks here in the gorge experimenting with both right now. I didn’t personally have success with the pocket wings but many are. People are playing with parawings and figuring out the best combo of parawing-size and board-size to enable upwind travel, how to effectively use a harness, etc. Fun times!
2 Likes
I don’t think this could serve as a ‘skip the wing’ to learn dw easy. To me, the wing is a much easier way to learn to power one’s self into bumps and learn to read them. The parawing will be a nightmare for someone who doesn’t have significant skill in pumping and reading bumps. Relaunching the parawing over and over isn’t that fun compared to a wing! My first parawing session kinda sucked, mostly because I got stuck dw due to light winds and a wind shift. On the other hand, if I was going dw, it may have been a different experience not having to worry about getting back to the launch.
I’m approaching 2K miles tracked on foil according to my Waterspeed app.
2 Likes
I should have been more specific.
I am thinking of highly proficient prone foilers who have not picked up winging. Guys that are already doing runners. I think they could pick this up quicker than wingfoiling.
Easy to forget but there is a lot to learn in how to handle a wing. From what I have seen and I would defer to those that have tried it. This looks like it provides traction even one handed. Also looks like if it is windy it’s pretty straightforward to keep flying. So basically looks like a tow rope to help get on foil(simplifying of course).
From there I agree going dw is the way to go at first. Personally I would only be interested for dw assist but cool that going upwind is possible. BRM recommends a harnesses for upwind which makes sense since it looks pretty tiring to hold it while powered up. Guessing that fatigue goes way down when going dw just like a wing.
I want to do it all, I’ll take all the foil disciplines for 100 Alex.
3 Likes
Yeah I agree that could be doable for those folks!! It’s an exciting thing. Even if this iteration doesn’t quite get us there in the end, it feels like a lot of possibilities are opening up.
3 Likes