So I’ve been seeing a lot of different models of parawings from different brands. And I’m starting to think I can spot a v1 parawing, those that nobody really wants at the moment.
What I think are some clues a parawing is probably a v1 is:
All lines are the same colour. If you see a parawing in which the front and back lines are the same color, it’s a v1 for sure.
No “nylon rods” on the leading edge. I’m not so sure about this one, but the newer parawings seem to have those.
For v2-v3 I can think of one:
Leading edge is a different colour from the rest of the parawing. I think this is becoming a standard in newer parawings, to help with untangling.
I’m sure you can help me with more tips, what do you think?
I was thinking about the visual cues, but the performance is obviously really important. I didn’t know there were downwind-specific parawings, which ones are those?
Maybe you’re referring to double-skins as the upwind specifics, which are not that optimal for stowing, but newer parawings seem to be mostly single skins as far as I know.
This isn’t really a good way to think about parawings, for example the Flow D-Wing is a v1 but it has all these things you list and is a great parawing.
I also think that you are overthinking it. There is too much difference between brand. Some are good everywhere, a lot are better in one aspect, some are bad . But for sure the product keep getting better as time go by.
Inversely, Takoon Zenith parawing has color coded bridles, it has nylon rods in the leading edge, some color highlights on the leading edge. Ticking all of your boxes, yet, it flies like shit off the front lines, and as such, its upwind ability and depowerability is quite abysmal, making it one of the worst around.
Still kicking myself for trusting the brand reputation and believing they’d deliver something half decent.
It might then be the first model that this brand releases, but I wouldn’t put it into the “v1” category in this case. v1 would be the first basic parawings that hadn’t had the time to fix small mistakes.
Don’t you think it could be an aproximation, a rule of thumb? I would say a parawing with all the lines of the same colour is probably bad, from what I’ve read and seen online.
You are absolutely right. I was thinking it might work the other way around, a parawing that ticks all those boxes is not guaranteed to be good, but one that lacks all of them is probably bad ?
Gong, Five-O, Onkiteboarding, Ensis, Takoon, Born, Windmaster all had their first gen out too around the time. Most of these brands also had serious handicaps in the areas of wind range, depower, and stability.
In my mind, Five-O was the first to produce/market a stashible sail as the means to get onto foil for downwinding. That seemed like a paradigm shift that lead to the broader parawing market. I have no connection to BRM, but I have to imagine they were influenced by this concept and refined it much further. The vertical bar was another shift, but I think that was of a derivation of the control bar on a wing or a hybridization of wing/kite control vs something completely new.
Five-O I don’t count because it’s never gone upwind so to me it’s a different (and much more niche) product. The big development came from Horst Surgio doing upwind+downwind laps on his converted Flysurfer Peaks. BRM refined the concept (no idea if Greg was aware of what Horst had been doing for over a year or not) with the Maliko.
We should also give Borne Kites an honorable mention as well, as for years they’ve been trying to make this concept viable for inline skates and skateboards and there are videos of people trying (not very successfully) to use those Borne kites on foil before even Horst Surgio.
The rest of those had preorders out around that time but Flow had shipping products. Remember this is in response to the OP not considering the Flow D-Wing a V1.
Haha, been having this debate with a mate who recently bought a d-wing and refuses to accept it’s a gen 1. He is adamant we’re in the 3rd gen, about to move into 4th.
The thing is I don’t see the need for a rule of thumb. Even less one based on visual cues. Whats a v1 anyway. Its impossible to define it between brand.
I’ve ridden the BRM Maliko v1 for a year and with the updated Bridle and the updated bar, I’m sure its performance is not far from a lot of others brand v2 but still way less than the BRM v2. On the other hand, the first Gong we’re like what, v0.4?
Plus, after a year of parawinging, I dont find line colors matter. You get use to it and become an untanglement wizard !
Don’t get stuck in numbers !
Man, that should have been a hell of a learning curve ! Yikes !
The BRM Maliko with the bridle mod is one of the best values out there for pw. I personally prefer it over the pocket rocket.
And the push for different colored lines is such foil influencer trope. Line color does not help with detangling, just follow the lines off the bar starting with the a lines while under tension, super easy.