BRM s3 3.4m
Unifoil Agg130 + Quantum 14"
Short fuse
80T mast.
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Sick one 
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Great clip! Looked like awesome conditions. Love that the new parawings are making local laps not just possible but fun!
How are you liking that 3.4 S3? Love my 5.3 and just got the 3.4. They ride bigger than their size due to having higher projected area. Thinking the 3.4 is going to be my go to pw for days when it’s 15+. The ability to pump has me rethinking my board choice too. Might start looking for a semi sinker(-30) mid
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Loving the light jibby’ness of the 3.4m. Also loving the ability to be out in overpowering conditions, the more you sheet in on them rear lines, the more it just wants to honk upwind, so sick. You have the same sizes as me. I am debating trying to sell my kanaha 2.5 to get a 2.1m s3. But i do love the kanaha still for when its 30knots plus.
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Nice! How do you like the S3? Contemplating replacing my 5.5 frigate with a 5.3 BRM S3 but not sure it’s worth the money.
I’m not as a good rider as hmanfoil but I hope my review could help :
I’ll say that it depend in what wind range you plan to use it. I’ve been riding my S3 4,2m for a few weeks now and its a love/hate relationship depending on the wind strength.
When it’s in the upper range (60 L in the chart below), it is everything I could wish for. It rocket you upwind, you can pump the wing, it collapse easily, it pack small. Flying it is not a hassle, I don’t have to think about flying it.
When its on his lower range (90 L in the chart below), I am not in love with it. It required constant input to keep it in the air. And the input needed are not straight foward, you need to change hand position on the bar/handle and sometime pull on that little red line. Its a drag to try to keep the parawing in the air while trying to balance on the board. I am not sure what it is, maybe the weight of all the bridal but the parawing feel heavy it keep falling on the side of the wind windows or deep in it. In light wind, I like my Maliko v1 4m better because I don’t have to think about the parawing.
S3 wind range taken from the BRM website :
Based on my ability to fly confortably the parawing itself, the windrange on the 4,2 need to be 3-4 knots higher. I’m sure I’m not as good to fly the parawing as Greg, but to give you a reference point, I’ve been kiting for 20 years and parawinging since the Maliko v1.
YEWW !
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I got a 3 and 4 quest and then a 5.5 frigate as a session saver and get-me-back-to-shore-crutch in a backpack if the wind would die. Not too happy with the frigate since it’s packs like a smaller tent and the bar is just way too long. Sounds like for my use case it’d be better to simply replace the frigate with another quest?
Ive been using the 5m quest a lot, and really like it. Getting ~13-20 knots wind range out of it with a volume neutral board and and a 1000 sqcm foil at the bottom of the range (80kg). Lines are still very short and it packs nicely for its size.
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The S3 definitely needs more input in general and especially when underpowered. But in my experience so far it more than makes up for it with its performance.
The ability to pump helps significantly on the low end. It crushes upwind, practically begs to point higher. It builds power with apparent wind better than other parawings that I have experienced. When powered it’s sheet in and go just like a wing. It packs down even smaller than the last gen BRMs which is nuts. Add to all of that it has really low bar pressure, solving my hand fatigue issues I was dealing with after long sessions. I personally can’t see going back and it’s worth the extra steering input when taxiing into position to start.
I never used an harness on other parawings because I didn’t want anything on my bar and the sting fellow hook I had was inconvenient. However the S3 with the mono harness line is perfect. It disappears on the bar when not in use and it is perfectly balanced when hooked in.
As for the extra steering input I generally have found there to be a sweet spot involving twisting the bar to put more tension on the top A line which will stabilize the kite(not requiring constant tweaking). If you steer off just the rear lines while taxing it is hard to get a sweet spot and you end up constantly adjusting hunting for balance.
One down side to note of the S3 is the D handle is really optimized for two handed riding. Can do one handed rides for short periods or for dw runs but it’s best ridden two handed. Perhaps a traditional bar would solve this if that’s a big drawback. Personally ok with it as part of the trade off.
Hope this helps.
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Agree with every single point you made there. I too think the perfomrance upgrades substantially outweigh the requirement for more steering input in lighter conditions… I like the challenge. I have found the bar twisting method to work well with steering, but also just pulling on the relavant outer A lines to position it back to 12oclock when it dips down to the side in those light Taxi winds.
Again, you can ride it one handed but not for a prolonged time like a straight bar. But I ride in both stances, so i do very little one handed flying. I do have the straight bars on their way, and look forward to trying them! as well as the new vertical stash pouch and stringfellow hooks.
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Here is a demo of the 5.3m in max 10knots. At the end of the video shows how to do a light wind jibe by pulling on the A line to reposition the wing quicker so you can focus on the turn and pumping.
Using a 870cm2 foil, 70L board (75kg rider).
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