I had two sessions with the BRM parawing in Hood River.
The first was a lightish day with current opposing the wind. I have been kitefoiling and wingfoiling for quite a while and found it very easy to use/adjust to. Took out the 4m with my 60L Omen Flux and 1050cm2 front wing.
The wind wasn’t strong but it would have been very low effort to get up with my 4m inflatable wing. I was definitely on the edge but able to pump the board onto foil reliably and set a small upwind angle almost right from the first tack. Harness line was a MUST for me, wouldn’t have stayed up long without it. Super easy to hook in and fly with one hand, really enjoyed this aspect of it and the wing seemed a lot more stable less twitchy when hooked in, however, that’s probably due in a big part to my inexperience flying two handed.
Other takeaways were it was a lot more user friendly than I expected, but I definitely need a longer board for light wind, whereas, with the inflatable wing I’ve never felt the need for anything bigger than the 60L Flux. Didn’t have an chance to pack it down as the swell was super small and it was a challenge to make much progress up wind in the light conditions/current.
Next I got to try the 2.9m in proper conditions. Much easier to make progress upwind powered up (and helped by the typical HR current opposing wind setup). Take it with a grain of salt as this was only session number two but I’d say I could cover between 10-20% of the ground upwind as I would have with my 3m inflatable wing. I was on a 44L board (not by choice, rather due to water hand over) but managed to get up with some aggressive board pumping.
When I made it all the way upwind harness design made the packdown super easy and it was 100% incredible to be downwinding on my prone setup!
I’m defintely in on the parawing concept, will be adding the 1.9. 2.9, and probably 4.0 to my quiver for downwind and to keep working on the upwind/downwind concept.
I’m very optimistic that with a combination of skill improvement on my part and design tweaks the parawing concept will make upwind/downwind runs on mid-length boards the ultimate foil experience! At least in my case where coastline and life get in the way of coordinating many DW shuttles.
Thanks for this helpful post! I’m also trying to improve the upwind capabilities of the para wing and looking into using a harness to help. On downwind runs I find I don’t need a harness but I’ve only been able to manage going upwind a few hundred yards at this point due to challenges getting a good angle and being able to hold on while powered up. Of course a harness should help with this. I was wondering if there are is a certain brand or type of harness lines you prefer with the para? I would think that the elastic/bungee type of lines like the Ozone harness lines might pack away easier than other lines and help keep the line in the hook as the wing and handle are moved closer to the body while making adjustments. What type or brand of harness lines where you using and how well did they work for you? Thanks!
The one I used was just a spectra line Jim Stringfellow rigged up. Worked well enough but he was talking about the idea of a small loop on the bar and having a hook on a line attached to the harness which I think would be even better in terms of further reducing stuff attached to the bar.
Bungee would work too but the downside would be it would require a bit more to unhook. In practice I found as soon as I was hooked into the harness I was pretty much 100% one handed flying unlike an inflatable wing where I’m 90% two handed even with the harness. All this to say I don’t see myself pulling the parawing toward me at all once hooked in so a bungee wouldn’t provide any extra security but just make for a bit cleaner bar.
I was using the BRM harness which was really great, highly recommend getting that harness with the parawing, simple, clean, but well thought our and effective design.
I agree the harness works really well for stowing away the wing and glad to hear it worked well for you to hook into. Thanks so much for the info. I hope to see what Jim Stringfellow comes up with for a harness line. Yes, I find myself one handed when downwinding with it as well. It’s a nice feeling being more open with the arms and shoulders. Definitely another advantage over winging and mostly having the hands on the handles unless the wing is parked. I’m also working on a strap solution for having my paddle on a sling and getting it out after putting the wing away. On the smaller bay runs we mostly have here, I need the paddle for maintenance paddle strokes to keep things going.
Just use any old piece of rope. Or paracord and then run it through some cheap tubing from Home Depot. If you must buy a premade product then I would look at the DaKine Solo harness line like this.
Ozone neither confirm or deny their R&D on parawing but some very carefully chosen words and an edit seem to give me comfort that they are working on it
The X-Foils Podcast: Case #22 - Greg from BRM. The man behind The Parawing
In Case 22 of The X-Foils, I sit down with Greg from BoardRiding Maui (BRM) to discuss his latest product making huge waves in the foiling market—the Parawing. This wing is designed to give riders the purest wave-riding experience possible, to get on foil and the possibility to pack it away, and ride freely. Its captivating a wide foiling audience with its potential as we wonder what we could do with it.
We dive into how the Parawing works, what inspired its creation, and how it’s changing the game for foilers looking to connect with the waves and learning to DownWind in a whole new way if you have the right skills.
How great is it that every year we get a new Foil discipline to suck at and find new ways to have fun on foil that we did not expect.
We now have some EPIC X-Foils hats Buy now and thanks for the support!
Thanks Dylan. Great interview. Looking forward to following your journey with the Parawing. Have really been enjoying your podcasts.
Do you have the BRM wings now? Which size(s)? Still on the fence in the viability of the larger sizes. Just saw a good clip of the 5.1 in use and I think I would rather just get a bigger board and ride the 4m but interested to hear others experiences. I know I could make my 48l Omen work sooner with the 5 but that sure looks like a lot of canopy to manage.
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