Ok I’m curious what kind of backpack would be good for this adventure. One with holes in the bottom? Or more of a stuff sack laundry backpack style thing? I’m interested in trying it as logistics in my area are not ideal. Has anyone tried it? What’s the scoop?
TYR triathalon mesh bag backpack is working really good for me. It’s 40L, $20 and fits a 4m wing well. I roll up wing inside out to have access to valve at end of rolling to close. Fold wing in half with leading edge down so if you fall in water it will drain. I’ve fallen many of times and it always drains and works well. I tried a dry bag and prefer this because whatever water i had on wing from deflate can drain vs being in my dry bag the entire time.
I’m also doing this due to logistics and being the only one in my winter area that DWs.
Tried a dry bag with a single wide strap but as mentioned, the wing will be soaked just from the pack down. I’ve been using a small lightweight backpack that I punched ten holes in the bottom of with the tip of a soldering iron. This can still end up weighing over 4Kg after falling in a few times and that’s with an old V1 3.5 strike which is 1.5Kg dry. Water finds it’s way into the folds and stays there. I don’t go unless it’s 3.5 or 2.5 which can start at 15Kn on the big board. Any less and there’s not enough wind swell within the ground swell.
In general it’s working well and there’s only been about one fail out of ten on average. Even then it’s possible to make remarkable speed back to your starting point even off foil.
Since getting the parawing though, I’ve at least temporarily given up on it.
Thank you!
Bonifacio, are you able to go upwind good enough to ditch the wing and the paddle?
Haven’t done one in awhile, but I used 3 strands of paracord with carbineers to tie the rolled up wing to the back of my PFD. Paddling up with a heavy wet wing makes things WAY harder!
I also want to note that its hard to get all the air out of the wing, so when you fall it’ll naturally float you face down if its attached to your back (aka don’t knock yourself out).
Bearing mind I’m at approx. session six on the PW… I’m not ready to give up on the paddle completely yet That said it’s what I’ll choose to do right now depending on conditions. The PW seems to require better quality, less gusty wind than a wing to go upwind well. Yesterday was the first time I was able to get well upwind (maybe 6km) and surf all the way back. I can only attribute that success to the reasonably steady wind of the right strength. Angles were roughly 2/3 of my old blown out V1 3.5 Strike but I still think either beats a car shuttle, around here anyway. Plus I have plenty of room for improvement based on the angles I’m seeing posted.
I had a similar idea to the pic Eriefoiler posted above but using two of the long velcro straps that come with F-one Strikes (bungee would also work). Then I could use the V4 3.5 Strike I have and get considerably better upwind angles. The downsides being that the V3 / V4 don’t pack up nearly as small and weigh more. There’s also more potential to pick up kilos of water in every fall and during the pack down process. You’ll want to keep pack down super simple in sketchy big seas while sitting a Km offshore. I even started to feel seasick once having to look at what I was doing and not the horizon
Can confirm sea sickness is inevitable with a packdown in waves