Looking to pick up a parawing to mix up windy days here in San Diego. I’m an advanced winger and proner. Would like to learn parawing basics before picking up smaller wings for trips to hood river etc later this year. Our bay winds here are usually about 12-15knots. Tried a 5m Plume but really didn’t have the low end grunt for our local conditions. I was considering 5m pocket rocket, 5.5m frigate, 5m power pack. Thanks!
It’s more about board and foil in my opinion. My 5 Maliko & 4 KANAHA work about the same with my downwind board and dock start wing
Biggest combo I have at the moment is an army 75 midlength and UHA870. A downwind board and bigger UHA are likely in my future..
Here are some other options:
777 Skin 5.4m
777 Hybrid 5.7m
Flysurfer POW 5m
Flow v2 D-Wing 5.9m
Duotone Stash v2 5.6m
If possible, i would wait until April since more v2s are incoming
Bigger foil might be better option. Better Return-on-Fun imho
A downwind board is definitely a must have, otherwise you will struggle to get enough board speed in lighter winds. 15knots is my absolute minimum, yes you can sometimes get going in lighter but it is a struggle and things like gybe become difficult.
Keep the para dry, a big wet para just doesn’t fly in light winds. Can be really annoying, on the beach it’s flying fine but one error on the water and your session is over.
No complaints using my 5m PR. Really good fun. 14 knots, 90kg, 65L board, 850 foil.
Learn how to tack or do a handlepass gybe. Don’t try to do a normal gybe 
1 Like
So…at 65kg, with a 75L midlength, and a 1100 foil…wondering how low (PW size and/or windspeed) I could go…
PT skin 7.3 , so good that I ordered a second one. This is the one you need to replace your 6.5m hand wing. Have no problems using this it’s not too big. Only thing is don’t use it in 18-20kn, will get hard to control, but you can use it in low end 12kn.
1 Like
Tucker at MacKite suggested the 777 PT skin 5.5 or the Frigate to me when I was asking the same question. I wanted max low end, something packable that went upwind well and had a reasonable gap to my 4.3.
I will prob get the 777 but can’t find one in stock yet.
1 Like
You didn’t really say what your weight is which is critical along with local conditions but my experience is as below at 65kg and full wetsuit nearly always.
With a 75l 6’1” board my wind range for the Ozone Pocket rocket is 12 to 15 knots on a 3.6m. My Friend who is 88kg uses a 4.3 in the same conditions. We are always once size apart. We need the volume to wait for the gusts and then we are away. This is after plenty of practice.
If i ride 4.3m PR in the same conditions it just makes the starts a little more reliable on the 12 knot end.
Weight is a most important factor in low wind for any discipline. The difference from 100 kg total including , board wetsuit, and anything else on you is gonna need about 1.1 HP to get up on foil. Once up it drops to about .2 hp for just about any person on foil. To get a 70kg rider, with all the added weight is about .7hp. Now take into account 10 mph of wind or about 8.5 knots and picture how much harder 100kg of rider has to work to maybe get on foil….big maybe vs a skinny jeans model. No amount of sail, foil, or board is gonna get through that.
So the answer is a board, foil and parawing you can manage. It will the determine what you wind minimum is to start. Eve more simple answer is most humans need about 12 mph or 10 knots to enjoy. And that needs to be constant. So a para wing at 5m is a lot of unsupported material to wrestle especially when wet. I would stay below 5m and likely in the 4.5 to 4 meter range. Details are important.
1 more meter of sail ain’t gonna translate into more grunt in light wind. Good board pump technique us the real difference maker
1 Like
thanks for all the info. 75kg btw. Leaning towards a 4.7 frigate and hopefully thats enough for our conditions here in SD. I should have mentioned I have a 5m Plume and have been able to have fun with it a few times. Easy to jibe and tack when the wind is strong enough to support it. But it does seem to need about 17kts to get going and feel like it’s not just going to backwind constantly. Fun thing to play with but hoping the parawing will have better low end than the plume.
The Plume has no low end (I had the 4.2 &5m)
4m7 frigate has way more power, just need to pump the board vs a wing
We haven’t had good wind since I got my 777 P.T Skin 5.4m, but it packs as small as my Frigate 4m, the canopy is noticeably lighter (it will probably fly better in light wind) and I’m able to pull it in with a single pull. I’ve flown it on the beach and it looks and feels amazing, can’t wait to try it. I’ve tried the 4,7m Frigate and it was a lot harder to pack. Even though I think the Frigate is amazing, I think the P.T Skin has a lot of pros in the big sizes.
2 Likes