As I’m progressing in parawinging other foiling disciplines have opened up. The main one being dockstarting which I started to help dial in my pumping and increase my time on foil which would in turn help my parawinging progression. That leads me to light wind parawinging. Most here probably know the frustration of having a soaked parawing, just not enough of a gust or bump to take flight and then having to swim back ungrateful for the exercise.
When there is enough wind (10-12knots) my light wind parawinging sessions have been my most physically and technically demanding sessions. Like pumping one’s brains out to get on foil then try and find the perfect parawing trim and upwind angle to be as efficient as possible. Then gybing without the canopy collapsing or losing line tension etc..
For a 100kg rider my light wind sessions are on a dw board, PT skin 7.3 and code 1725s.
All the struggle, albeit very rewarding, makes me wonder about starting to kite foil.
Has anyone made the transition from parawinging to kitefoil for the light wind days? A marginal parawing session would be a moderately powered kitefoil session. Thoughts and experiences?
Kite foiling is a blast in light wind. Personally found the Flysurfer Peaks to be ideally suited to light wind ripping. They drift incredibly well. It’s definitely does not give you the freedom to ride any swell that a pw does but it’s super fun in 8-12 seabreeze conditions where pw will be a lot of work. If I were to get back into kite foiling I think it would be something I could jump with though like the FS Sonic. The peaks/hybrids are great at drifting but terrible for jumping.
I used to kite foil the Flysurfer Peak so this idea is still also on my mind a bit. I decided to pick up dock start and sup foil instead to have a chance to practice on light wind days. The main problem with kite foiling on light wind days is you can’t go downwind far without outrunning the kite, you’re limited to kite foil style riding, and this practice doesn’t carry over to downwind/surf in the same way that dock start and sup foil do. Even a tiny bit of dock start has improved my pump so much!
I love the Peaks for snow kiting. Getting 3000-5000m vertical a day of powder runs is just insane.
I went out for a light wind session last week 8-12knots. I turned up on the beach and two dudes had rigged their newly released flysurfer soul 4, 12m kites and were fixing lines.
I was on foil within 15mins of arriving with the setup mentioned above. Got two hours of riding in. I saw one of the kiters get on the water and then had a gear malfunction and his kite and harness flew 200m into some rocks. The other guy had found his kite too technical to fly and had a short session. This gave me pause to think.
Given the time saved setting up, no lines to deal with and that a new soul 4 12m costs €1800 minus bar (€700) makes maxing out lightwind parawing sessions much more appetising!
Time and energy resources are precious. Rather than investing in a new sport one could keep advancing in parawinging. The challenge will always be there I.e ride a smaller board, smaller foil to keep things interesting.
Did you guys learn on the Peaks though? I tried learning on them because that’s what I had available… it was really difficult I swapped to UFOs and had a much easier time.
If you could already kite you could go straight to a peak. If you were learning to kite no way I would recommend a peak. The hybrid looks like a great option though. Relaunch is pretty important if your learning to handle a kite.
to be honest, when your process is well dialed, with the bar staying attached to the kite at all times, and a consistent packing and unpacking, the setup time of a Peak is very little. Kite out of the bag, unroll and generously sand the trailing edge, unwind lines while walking upwind, one or two spins of the bar, hook in and hot launch. From leaving home 200m down the street to kite in the air in less than 8mn.
Parawing would arguably be slightly faster, but bigger heavier board would impact the walk, plus reaching the necessary depth for startup and the initial takeoff can take a bit longer than a powered bodydrag. (depends on the spot though).
10-13kts is pretty much now the only conditions where I still kitefoil, and I still love it. Kite seems to eliminate or reduce the harsh realities of physics that 100kgs+ riders are subject to.
If your local spots are kite friendly, that’s definitely worth it. There’s also lots of joy that comes from flying kites, and those skills will happily translate to snow, buggies, etc… so it’s not a bad time investment to make.
I came from kite foiling with Peaks and I don’t think I could ever go back. It’s just so restricting and then you have the swims when you mess up or the wind dies.
I’m a bit of an anomaly that I enjoy PW sessions in 9-10 knots. I think a big part of it is my foil choice though. At 75 kg I ride the Takoon Pump Pro 1750 w 50 stab and it’s so good.
I tried the 1725S in light wind with groundswell and while it’s super fun going with the wave it felt like a sea anchor trying to get upwind underpowered with it. Even compared to my Atlas 1340 which is also draggy it felt way draggier.
Even in 10 knots I can have fun on my Pump Pro 1750 with tiny bumps. Once it drops to 9 knots I can still ride fine but the upwind angle suffers to the point it’s annoying to try and go downwind. My biggest PW is a 4.7m Frigate v1 though. Looking to get a bigger one but haven’t found one I want yet.
Might be the case, or you have particular conditions, and great pumpfoiling skills and a desire to use them.
As a heavier rider, not sure how to extrapolate that size of foil… It would have to be a 5XL foil, slo mo, hard to turn,… it seems impossible and out of reach for me. Maybe I’m not at the same point on the foiling journey. I’d rather be on my smallest foil and there’s still some enjoyment for me in going at 2x wind speed along the coast. Maybe I’m not at the same point on the foiling journey to comprehend.
My light wind conditions are typically onshore sea breezes, with a bit of swell, not really suddenly disappearing and I’ve only had to swim once, and that was user error / gear failure (depower cleat releasing).
Anyway, I like the variety in the conditions, and having options to pick the activity of the day.
I swapped to UFOs and had a much easier time.