Winds are often <10kts where I foil, so I have 0 parawings. However, I’m curious how useful they would be with a sup that’s setup with a keel for wing practice.
Is this a huge untapped market that could get more people into wind sports? It seems like a pretty low bar for entry, and potentially a lot of chill fun.
It seems to solve a lot of issues with wing sup such as collapsing and relaunching wings.
Has anyone tried this combination?
The man himself has done it with a longboard:
Assuming you meant to write <10kts.
Stick to inflatable hand wings for this use case.
I personally go out parawinging (with a foil) in 9 knots but it’s a challenge. You’ll do much better with a nice big 6.5m infatable wing.
I learned winging on an old windsurf board, and have put people on isups with wings. I’m trying to get people interested in foiling starting with a much easier setup.
The idea of not having to pump up a wing or deflate at your destination is a plus for parawings.
Wondering why you’d recommend a wing over a parawing for the sup. Are they that much harder?
I saw a 7m wing from 777, but it’s magenta / pink, which won’t work for me.
What size parawing / board are you using?
I’ve only just started working on parawing (a few land sessions) but I don’t see it working well in light wind. Without a frame, the canopy must be entirely supported by the wind. Contrast that with a LEI wing which you can hold in the proper position whether or not there is wind (at least until your arms give out). LEI wings are also better for light wind because you can size them up and expect better results. I’m sure that sizing up a parawing helps given the increased surface area, but it also results in increased weight which will work against it staying aloft.
My kids (7-10yo) have been enjoying flying my parawings on the beach, it’s quite intuitive for them to learn to fly. They have both done body drags down the beach and the older one tacked out and back in on my board successfully. We also sailed a kayak with a parawing, that was a hoot!
However, I don’t think they would be able to deal with a water re-launch. Once a parawing is down in the water it can be a crazy mess of lines and canopy and is a lot more complicated to relaunch than an inflatable wing.
It’s not about the SUP, more about the <10 knots wind. Parawings are easy to fly in 12+ knots but once the wind gets down below 10 knots they start to require a bit of skill to keep in the air. I can fly my D-Wings in about 6 knots but I’d hate to ask a beginner to try it.
Also once the parawing is in the water it can be tricky to get back in the air. Also parawings are not all the same in this regard. For example the D-Wing is much harder to coax out of the water in light wind that the Frigate.
The hot pink color is so the Coast Guard can find you when you blow offshore into oblivion.