Gonna start some little prone dw sends soon. Done plenty of shore runners.
Zero wind sports background.
Honolulu area. Wind here is gusty, probably need a large wind window.
One car household, often carry foil gear on a cargo bike.
Will be mostly used as another option when the wind gets around 17mph+, maybe assist learning to DW, but not mandatory.
Iʻm worried if itʻs gonna be tough to learn on. I have no interested winging. I could see myself learning parawing down the road, but Iʻm in no rush.
I have a bunch of Code foils to work with: 850s, 960r, 1300s, 1725s. I have a Kalama Baracuda VP 110L SUP Iʻm planning to use. Iʻve also got a Quiver Killer 45L which is probably too small for this.
I’m an intermediate wing foiler and was also tempted by plume. Tried a 5m 3x now. Has absolutely zero low end. Need 20kts to get off the water for me when learning. Going to go straight to PW instead. Just not windy enough where I live to keep it.
I picked up a Plume for exactly what you plan, unfortunately not enough wind for me locally to use it very often. I am trying to learn using bigger parawings, but it’s slow going with not much wind to practice so still mostly rolling around on a skateboard with a big unwieldy wing flying around.
Pros: Doesn’t rip your arm off. Moves very easily in the wind and is intuitive to control.
Negatives: Requires a pump, doesn’t pack down and needs way more wind than you expect.
I’m also going to have to echo, go straight to a Quest (I’ve used both)
Accept learning on anything is going to suck for a little bit but it has much more potential to grow into as you get better.
Pro tip as someone who just got back from a trip to Hawaii and Hood River. The skyscrapers in Honolulu do a pretty good job of blocking the wind I had fun enough with my parawing near Kaimana but it was much better at Kailua. I did also parawing the north shore (pipeline) for the novelty but was surprised to find it’s actually had some awesome wind bumps/swell for decent DW sends.
I’ve got the 4m plume and at my 105kg (inc wetsuit) I need a good 25-30+ knots to get up. Anything less is an infuriating experience.
I save it for ease of use on the mega days. That means no line tangles, super easy to gybe and it rockets upwind. I have it deflated in my backpack with a small hand pump so when my PW’s get over powered I can stash them and pump it up on the water.
I demoed the quest this week and it’s by far the easiest parawing to learn on. If you are gonna learn PW go with the quest. If you regularly get 30+ knots go with the plume. I’ve also heard rumours that a plume v2 is coming out as well.
Thanks for the comments! Lots of Quest recommendations, so maybe thatʻs the way to go.
I have no problem with the suck. Learning to foil via prone taught me true suffering. Everything else in life seems respectively easy.
Yeah, the skyscrapers block a lot of the wind. Logistically, Iʻm only gonna get to Kailua and the NS occasionally. Everything between Hawaii Kai and Flys is on the table. Kaimanaʻs I can go daily on bike.
Is it realistic to think that once Iʻm competent with the Quest, Iʻd be able to do repeat Kaikoos runs using it to go back upwind?
Also, around 17-20mph+ is where I start to get real irritated proning. What size Quest should I be considering, the 4.0?
used a 5m plume for 20 minutes and what i noticed is that you had to let teh top of teh bar really drop forwards, letting the wing to start pulling. when holding the bar like any PW, it had zero low end but when i allowed the sail to go forward pretty much hanging from the back of the bar, it took off fine in 14 kt.
Out of interest why would you get a plume over a PW especially if it’s really windy? Surely that would be situation where you’d want something small you can pack away rather than have it lumbering around like a wing? Each to their own but I’ve never understood the attraction of the plume - initially I just thought it was a misguided attempt at a PW from F one but it seems to have its’ followers.
You will be able to go back up wind with the parawing. I don’t know if you will do repeat Kaikoos runs or more likely stay just around Diamond Head and ride waves there. For repeat Kaikoos runs you would probably need at least two parawings to deal with stronger wind upwind of Diamond Head and lighter wind below.
Aside from the fact it has problematic low end, I think I’m the target audience. I have only a casual integest in wind power. I have no experience with wind and it’s easy to learn. It upwinds very well and it has a huge wind range, good for Oahu as it’s gusty.
As many have said, the Quest also ticks all these boxes. It’s also got better low end, I can pack it down, and I’d go straight to learning how to parawing.
Sounds perfect mate, the beauty of the PW is you can loop the best bits of the run/bumps. Upwind angles on modern PW’s is really very good once you get the technique down (a harness helps a lot as well)
It will depend a bit on what size foil you rig, your weight and the board you use but in 17-20mph I’d be looking at the 4 or 4.5m in the Quest. Realistically though you’ll end up with a few different sizes (it’s good to take a spare out with you on a run)
I think the main quality of the Plume is the comfort in the top end. It’s very smooth feeling through the bar, shoots upwind, and you never feel like you’re getting overpowered, even without harness. More like, yeah, bring it on baby! I don’t know about the latest gen parawings, but I never really felt too comfortable on the top end of the PW when things start shaking (granted, I need more experience). That’s the use case for me for some alpine lakes where 25-40kts is pretty common. It’s just a super fun thing to ride.
I had fun enough with my parawing near Kaimana but it was much better at Kailua. I did also parawing the north shore (pipeline) for the novelty but was surprised to find it’s actually had some awesome wind bumps/swell for decent DW sends.