Sharing my experience - I don’t think it’s possible today, and I don’t think people are really doing it - even the best guys like Sam and Greg appear to be mowing the lawn at a single spot like Kanaha or Kuau (which is incredibly impressive). Next level down pro and semi-pro team riders are also doing the same thing.
I’m a competitive amateur who does ocean racing and medium sized dw paddle runs. One of the dw runs I am able to squeeze into a weeknight is to upwind from home up to an island ~4 miles dead upwind … which requires 12miles of upwind tacking on a 3M wing. Because the wind gradient changes, I only have about a 50% hit rate on launches making it to the island where I do the drybag packdown and ride back. (A wing any size larger I can’t pack down).
I bought a 4M BRM when they first came out, and sold it after 2 x 15 min sessions trying to accomplish a more elegant and streamlined upwind machine. It just was too sketchy, too difficult. However, 6 months went by and I found myself in LaVentana MX - and two parawing-brained friends were like - “We’re parawinging today, here’s your parawing - we’re going right now.” I did not have a paddle with me, or my downwind board, but I had my standard wingfoil setup. We drove 4 miles upwind, launched the wings on land, and the wade-out was on my good side. I popped up after about 60 sec, and while it was chaotic, got the wing stowed after another 60 seconds, and aced the run. No downwind board. No paddle. Just my 10lb 60L board, so easy to pump. It was a revelation. Nothing had changed except what I asked of the wing (upwind machine → downwind cheat code).
But now the wheels are turning again … and I want to see if I can eliminate wings from my life. I tried again yesterday to see if I could get offshore in 18g25kts, and while I can maintain slightly higher than a reach on my good side, it still feels soooooo weird to try and make it work on my switch stance.
I know it’s possible though … I was recently on Maui on a small foil, and 3.5M wing in 20kt wind. I came across who I think was Sam on the PocketWing (vProto?) - holy smokes. I was able to overtake him in my most aggressive upwind speed-demon wing race stance but it was an all out effort. So the proof is out there, but it doesn’t seem attainable to me today.
The GPS tracks i have checked all gave similar angles ,even comparing the double skin one vs BRM or Roger.I guess different rider skill, current,foil size and AR can be very difficult to factor.
But they all delivered around 5kt VMG.
So 1 hour of upwind parawinging gives you 5NM of DW run.
Not bad.
This tracks with my gut ometer readings. I feel like my BRM 5.1 goes upwind about as well as an average first or second gen wing. No where near what I can achieve on my Strike v3 which rockets upwind.
Did anyone see that video by a french retailer showing the F-One Plume Hybrid Parawing before it got set to private? I did only watch it briefly, wanted to go back with more time, but it got taken down.
So not sure how the retailer did explain its benefits, i might be wrong in my assmuptions.
But what i saw was a parawing with an inflatable LE.
Kind of a mix between a strutless kite and a parawing, Only a very small thin LE tube, no strut. LE with one front flagging handle like on a wing. Short lines like on a PW, bridles reduced a lot like on an inflatable LE kite.
Yes my first thought was too, this makes no sense for packing up when downwinding.
But. Now imagine this with a performance similar to a wing to actually replace it.
I guess this should flag wayy better, as the tube is so small you might even be able to deflate it on foil quite easily for longer runs and maybe reinflate on the water with a small pump if needed?
Would be less of a nightmare when crashing in the waves, you could fly it over the waves when paddling out etc…
Maybe not so dumb after all?
So interesting…How Balz keeps sayin: ‘What a time to be alive’.
I guess Patrice Guenolé is trying to achieve substituting wings with his double skin lowkites too.
Interesting. We’ll see how that will work out. Although i must admit i find the name lowkite rather uninspired…actually it shows an utter lack of common sense…how many places are there world wide where kiting is banned and winging is not…that name is a straight pass to all the nitpicking administration idiots whose favourite hobby is preventing every single citizen’s fun.
Sounds like an odd idea. The only way to improve efficiency with an inflatable structure would be to have at least 1 strut, which would make it terrible to flag / stow.
I think the dual skin makes more sense, especially 777’s version which also has a pulley’d bridle.
Other options would be FS Hybrid style dual skin LE and single skin body, or FS Peak style dual skin outer struts on each tip.
Watch some of the BRM videos, this idea was a step in the evolution to the Maliko parawing. They obviously decided it was not a big enough break though to bring to market. I would tend to agree as you can’t pack it away on the fly. Worst of both worlds honestly. Guess there may still be a market though for some. Basically competes with the gong dual skin pw designs for those that just want to cruise and don’t want to pack it away.
I think people are ignoring the segment of wing upwind → paddle downwind. There are lots of people who would still rather paddle downwind so if you can do that with a dual skin parawing that can rocket upwind as well as a wing you get the advantage of a smaller packdown and ability to redeploy at sea (at the cost of strapping a paddle to your backpack)
I get it, just grateful I live in such an easy location for dw. Glad I don’t need to do the rubegoldberg of dw runs. The gong dual skin kites look like a good option. Curious to see what F One is working on as well. I just think it’s a smaller market for the folks that need to DIY dw run.
there have been some pretty good upwind angels posted around the net from both BRM and Flow riders. Some claims from the more experienced they can even do better than a wing.
Unfortunately that’s probably a small minority (and I’m in it). Not interested in giving up the paddle but the idea of a much lighter backpack for the downwind is VERY appealing.
The other option which a friend just thoiught up would be to wing upwind with the 500 gram parawing in the Backpack. Then switch for the downwind. The weight won’t matter so much using the Pwing.
If you haven’t done it, packing a wing down at sea while rolling around in 2+ meter swell a Km offshore is an art form. Impossible to keep it dry and it ends up weighing triple. I don’t generally get seasick but this makes me come close as you have to look at what you’re doing, not the horizon
I like Rube Goldberg
Half a summer of just doing tunnel 4 runs in the Gorge could make one bored with the sport quickly. It was not at all surprising to see 25% of the DW tribe plunk down $1K on a BRM when Greg showed up at the Hatchery in August with a carload of parawings.
I tried to do a number of Viento > HR runs just to mix it up a bit but most were a pump fest. It’s really only great in the spring with higher current. Really gave me renewed respect for the pioneers paddling up pizza boxes five years ago.
So far the best I’ve seen is around 30° from a BRM rider, but I think the wind range that you can do that in is quite narrow as you have to be really juiced.
So if you have really consistent winds it could be good but if it’s more variable like a lot of us deal with it will be more of a challenge than with a wing.
i have been wrong about new stuff coming out so often in my life, snowboards, snowskates, powsurfers, kites, foils, wings etc etc… i try not to do that error again…it’s only 6 years seeing the pics of robby naish with that wing for the first time, thinking what a dumb idea…thank god i changed my mind shortly after and look where we are today…
Those double surface tips are going to be nice. They should float for a few seconds on the water, making the wing tips less likely to be a water scooping, heavy, pain in the ass.
