Received some detail on the Ensis wing from local distributor.
Initial size only 3m, range “10kt - 20kt for lighter riders and up to around 27kt for heavier riders”
Mid December availability.
It’s not cheap. Equivalent of 850 USD.
Guys I know who exclusively used them in the Gorge. They do what they claim to do and people who stick with it beyond the initial learning curve seem to really like them.
I think he’s just talking about trash-bags generally - not BornKite.
Only ones I’ve seen in the Gorge are the BRMs, and the Five-O (with a brief North appearance during AWSI).
I’ve used the BRMs as a downwind assist - was riding my 65L. I don’t think they’re a “cheat-code” to downwinding, you have to be good in the bumps to pack it away properly and stay on foil.
They’ve very uncomfortable to use in gusts and feels like your arms’ getting pulled out of the socket. Best to get up and riding asap then pack away. I’ll be getting some for next season - but certainly won’t fully replace a paddle for me.
As a recent convert to SUP foil downwind, it was great fun to watch the progression this past summer of about 15% of the “tribe” on the BRM. Interestingly none of them seem interested in going upwind whatsoever and that’s the only part that is actually of interest to me (then downwind of course) because my winter location makes car shuttling an epic. While I’ve seen some very talented foilers make the BRM go upwind it appears that it will take about twice as long+ as even a V1 Strike or equivalent (a v1 Strike 3.5 is 1.4Kg and packs up really small). Obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to both methods so until better upwind performance is proven in a parawing I’ll keep watching. Saw an interesting higher AR prototype the other day at Rufus so the future looks very interesting
That’s an interesting observation, @FoilGraham posted some GPS tracks on Parawing that show pretty poor angles, like 140 degree tacks vs my tracks at around 95 degree tacks on a wing. Different riders/spots/gear but still a big difference - run through a VMG calculation it agrees with your observation of 1/2 upwind VMG. assuming 12 knots board speed the Parawing gets about 4 knots vs 8 knots VMG on the wing at those angles
I’ve made a bunch of progress since my first post about upwind angles with BRM, mostly thanks to the upgraded bridal configuration. My last session yesterday I was getting pretty much the same angles as the wingers, maybe better? The current was running with the wind, so not ideal for measuring angles from GPS. I was also getting much longer DW runs than the wingers given the advantage of not dealing with the wing!
Here’s a cropped view of two runs yesterday. Starting at the top left, I gybe then depower on a second gybe and almost come off foil during pack away, then cruise for a few hundred yards, then pull out the bar and wing and redeploy and head upwind before repeating. Keep in mind that I’m not switching stance either, so toeside all the way headed away from the shore.
Gong sure looks like they are getting ready for product launch. Interestingly it looks like their “low kite” will have several models with different ARs and some that are double skin.
Personally want a compact powerful pocket wing that will get me on foil and pack alway easily for dw. But clearly it looks like the market for these new kites is going to be bigger than just dw.
Could see these competing directly with wings. Just like LEI vs foil kites, both have advantages. As a former FS peak rider I can say you learn to get used to the bridles pretty quickly once you see the benefits. I don’t think these will replace wings but I can see a lot people switching especially if Gong helps bring the cost down.
