I have a love affair with my OR 3 “A” Glides - 3M, 4M, 5M
I have been using them since 2021, so I am in the 5th season riding them.
the 3M has 15-20 sessions
the 4M + 5M have 70-90 sessions each on them
They continue to perform at a high level
Relative to new wings, they have very little “grunt”, but that is fine for me.
Because the airframe is still stiff I can pump them up onto foil.
Once on foil, they ride. There are faster wings, more grunty wings, but flagged out and general riding, I love them.
The canopies are completely blown out, the yellow coating is flaking all over them, but the airframes are still stiff
I’ve rode other full Aluula or high tech material wings from several manufacturers. They are way more grunty (to be expected) and faster, but they lack the nimbleness of the OR.
What is nimbleness? My definition is light feeling and the wing goes where you want it to go.
I feel like the other wings I’ve tried are great for power, but they are always powered, which, for me, results in more management of the wing.
My 4M and 5M will likely have a catastrophic failure soon. I will have to replace them.
Has anyone had a similar experience with OR “A” and gone to a different brand they are satisfied with?
Is my experience with too much “grunt” something that I’ll just have to deal with given that any new wing will likely feel more grunty?
I had an OR glide quiver and agree they are excellent wings. I think one of the contributors to the nimbleness and lack of grunt with these wings is that they measure small. Ive heard they are at least 0.5m smaller than most other wings at any given size.
Yes, a new wing should feel gruntier because the canopy is more rigid, but grunt is more complicated than that and also depends on the stiffness of the airframe (stiff isn’t always good for grunt) and shape.
I went from OR Glides to Ozone Flux / Flow and now Im on Vayu. The Ozones rip upwind and ride pretty nice - particularly in the small sizes - but they can feel pretty big and heavy in the hand. The handles are super heavy and they have a really long strut compared to the OR. Very different wing to the OR. I am loving the Vayus (Aura III and Aura X2). Much more nimble feeling than the ozone. The X2 rips upwind almost as well as the Ozone Flux but feels so much lighter and luffs great. Not as light as the OR’s but still very nimble and a lot more grunt.
Is the allula.material today the same as the first gen allula? I have the 2022 duotone unit dlab and I used it only like 40 sessions and the yellow allula has gone white everywhere and is starting to rip apart in a lot of areas. It doesn’t seem as durable as normal material. I have replaced it with the 23 unit normal construction and I’m not feeling like it’s a huge difference better or worse.
I think that taking the Dynamo for a spin on your next trip to the Gorge will potentially be eye opening. I think the grunt you are getting is more related to AR than your bagged out feeling.
Light weight and neutral flight pattern IMO. The OR was and still is king here. The weight issue is so painfully dramatic and next to no one gets to experience this with their wings. The gen 2 Dynamo is better than the gen 1 but still not quite what OR had.
The new Aluula doesn’t have the same issues the earlier stuff did.
I’m testing this right now:
It’s an awesome wing, one of my favorites. Races upwind, embarrasses parawingers, nice low end (3.5m with silk 650 in 22kts today), no overpowered grunt issue. Superb handling in tacks. A dedicated winger would froth on these for years. However, when I compare it to the same size OR at 1475g vs the Vayu at 1950g (with boom) the weight throws off the nimbleness in the most aggressive swell riding scenarios. I hope I can get 1 more session on it with the soft handles which will drop the weight to 1800g to see if that makes the needed difference!
There’s also these guys:
The 3m surf looks closest to the 3m OR AA and 3.5m Vayu for dims. With handles it will clock in at 1600g which is putting it closest in weight. I’d really love to try one of these and expect it will be epic but can’t bring myself to pull the trigger on something I have never seen and can’t find any independent rider info on.
So, for you, I think it’s still OR!
Just need to confirm if there have been any changes made to the new version with the new owners but I have a feeling that’s the one you’ll love forever!
Interesting. I suspect you will find the the weight difference with the handles instead of boom have a negligible affect on handling. I would never go back to soft handles no matter the weight. I have ridden several wings which were light on the scales but felt clumsy in the air to the bulky profile at the tips & other design considerations. Just goes to show the incredibly subjective nature of our sport.