I also recommend hard over inflatable.
I have a 132L 7’6" x 19" x 6" gong hype inflatable. Riding it feels like I lose 30% of my foiling skills, but it fits into a hard sided golf bag - or a packed van on a road trip. I wouldn’t have it beyond travel, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Getting up is not bad due to the shape, but it’s 2x harder than a 145L 8’2"x23" AFS board - when riding 500sqcm foils.
Everybody is right here in recommending a big, long, hard board.
If you’re getting into parawinging, forget about using a small board or foil unless you have 20–30 knots of wind. Personally, I feel that parawinging is currently a step down compared to wing foiling, though the technology will likely improve in the future.
You can’t compare a wing to a parawing when on a wave or swell, either nothing in your hands or a huge wing. But I agree for flat water wing is best.
what is your setup in the waves? board, foil?
68lts 6’5 board, Surge 1010 wing, swell riding not breaking waves, I’m 82kgs
That is the difference, I never use a 1000 foil for winging. For light wind, I use an 800 foil; for stronger wind and breaking waves, I use a 700 or 750 foil. The board is 5.3, 60L. I can start riding easily at 10-14 kt gusts.
I like the parawing idea; it is so compact and nice for long swells. Maybe in the future I will change my mind, but at this moment, they are not good enough in my opinion.
I think the difference that i see is that there are wingers that like to do tricks and fly around fast and do spinny things. They will of course ride smaller narrower foils as i once did. They are just wingers.
Then there are wingers that are trying to learn to ride DW bumps. For this you need to use DW foils (larger foils) to give yourself time to learn no matter whether your winging or PW. I would say the wing will never allow you to progress from the very basics of bump riding so get on the parawing as soon as possible.
For waves it will depend on the waves and the type of foiling you wish to do. If powered up windsurf is your style then that is ok. If foiling waves is your intention then no question PW.
I have wing foiled since the very start of the sport and give me a PW in all circumstances every time including flat water spinny trick environment. I only wing now in 8 to 11 knots and still appreciate the ability to be foiling around. PW are more efficient, faster and more comfortable to ride over extended periods.
It all depends on the conditions. There are spots where wings have an advantage, and for sure there are conditions where PW makes way more sense. But there isn’t necessarily a need to use a huge wing. A 3.5 m2 wing in a fairly light winds could be enough. On a day like this for example we have so little wind close to the beach that a parawing would not work, yet with a wing you can ride almost to the beach, tack easily in super quiet wind, and repeat. With a PW one would need a much bigger board to be able to get going again, which would then likely require a bigger foil as well, to enjoy the super small waves.
Same day footage from my helmet cam:
I think only those who are competent at bothering and parawing can reply, otherwise you just don’t know.
What are you on about? Don’t worry @Airsails, I am competent enough. Parawinging is so easy, you just need to have the conditions where it really makes sense to pack the PW.
You need the 7.3m parawing. Same situation as you with the light winds.