Parawing

   

For more information or discussion on Parawing give our staff a call on 03 9598 2867. We are putting in the time testing the gear and figuring out what works so you don't have to!

What is Parawing?

Parawing is a relatively new wind driven foil discipline. The parawing is a lightweight single skin air foil style kite. This is flown on lines usually between 1-2m in length and steered using a control bar. 

Using the parawing feels like a blend between a wing foil and a foil kite. With steering and sheeting controls very similar to winging and line tension management a little similar to kitesurfing.

F-one Frigate parawing

Why Parawing?

Parawinging has one major advantage over other wind driven sports: the ability to depower and stow the wing fully when riding. This allows you to drive upwind using the wing and then pack it down for wave riding and/or downwinders. A ‘stash’ can be accomplished by pulling the wing in, bunching it up and holding it in one hand (image below). A ‘stow’ can be accomplished by further packing the wing away into a bag or pouch contained in the harness or vest.

Rider with Stashed Parawing

Both techniques allow the rider to foil surf the swell with zero influence from the wind and unencumbered by the wing.

After riding downwind, the parawing can be re-launched while on foil allowing the rider to make upwind tacks and surf downwinders while not coming off foil throughout their session.

Who it suits?

Anyone who wants to have a pure wave riding experience using wind power to get on foil and generate swell can enjoy the sport. Due to the parawings ability to drive upwind and stash on a wave the sport works especially well for wingers who want a better wave riding experience and downwind paddlers who want to be able to get upwind and use smaller gear (board / foil) when riding.

Learning to parawing

Learning to parawing presents a challenge even for proficient wingers and foilers due to the decreased power delivery from the parawing requiring the majority of foil-starts needing excellent lower body pumping technique. When on foil, the parawing controls are similar to a wing but it can feel twitchy and accidentally oversteering is very easy when using wing techniques.

After getting onto the swell line, the stow and stash require a lot of attention and focus - it is advisable that the rider has experience with surf foiling and/or can wing foil on swell fully depowered (wing flagged out) under control for a decent amount of time before attempting the stash/stow.

Packdown efficiency & technique is important as line tangles are very easy to create which can make on-foil re-launch almost impossible.

Previous foil experience is almost essential when learning to parawing - the difficulty of the sport combined with the difficulty of learning to foil could be a very frustrating and slow process.

Good wing experience gives the best transition to parawinging but the learning curve can still be steep. 

Some foil kite understanding/theory can be helpful with developing skills in parawing although the controls are far more similar to a wing than a kite.

What gear?

Parawing:

Due to the current infancy of the sport there is a wide variation in parawing styles and usability. We have found the F-One frigate to be an exceptional market leader providing excellent stability and wind range for their size. They drive upwind very well and can pack down easily when on a wave. The wind range / size selector below gives a good indication of which size parawing to get.

Parawing size selector (from the F-one Frigate page)

When learning, the other option to consider could be the F-one Plume (pictured below). This is a parawing with an inflatable leading edge (similar to a no-strut kite for foiling). This design massively increases the stability, sheetability - giving much better strong-wind control - and early power to get onto foil. The trade-off is that it can't be stashed or stowed and re-launched while on foil.

F-one Plume

Board:

Mid-length boards suit parawinging very well with increased glide helping to get on foil. Positive volume over your weight of 10-20+L helps with stability and glide when starting out. Good examples of this type of board are:

• Duotone Skybrid

• Armstrong Midlength FG Foilboard

• F-one Rocket Wing Midlength

Armstrong Midlength FG Foilboard

Downwind boards are also good for learning to parawing if you already have one, although longer than strictly necessary for a dedicated parawing board.

Foil:

As with all foil sports going a little larger will give earlier lift and a more stable ride. For smaller swell, it is advised to go fairly high aspect - ideally A:R of 10+ - which will give better glide. Examples of foil options include:

• Duotone Glide 1100

• Armstrong HA 1080

• F-One Eagle 1090

Duotone glide

Harness:

While not essential to use a harness while parawinging it does make it significantly easier to go upwind and handle stronger winds without getting too tired. Avoid using steel hooks as on a windsurf or kitesurf harness as these can damage your board.

A Wing harness with a movable plastic hook works well for parawinging.

Leashes:

Board leashes are strongly advised to ensure that you dont get stranded in swell or weaponise your board to downwind riders when falling off.

Leashes to the parawing can be annoying when stowing/relaunching due to the potential for tangles to occur. They are not essential in lighter winds were letting go of the wing will cause it to fall out of the sky, in stronger winds a leash can save a long swim chasing the wing if you let go.

Safety gear:

Impact vests can be worn by preference as with wing foiling. Additional bouyancy and padding on crashes is rarely a bad thing!

Helmets are advisable espeically for beginners and when riding in larger breaking swell with a risk of getting tumbled in whitewater with your gear.

Stow belt / pocket:

For more advanced riders, stow belts / pockets can be used to pack the parawing fully away when riding downwind. There are lots of designs and styles coming out, we expect these options to take a while to develop into a recognised 'best' style.

The stow pockets are also very useful to stow the wing away if you need to paddle the board e.g if the wind drops out or you need to get out to a wind line.

Progression

As it is such a new sport we can expect to see rapid development of the gear used, especially the parawings. Already there are double skin options appearing which have better upwind performance and stability although they off-set this advantage by losing low end and stashabilty & being higher in price.

Foil front-wing development is so rapid and continuous that it is very likely that there will be new parawing focused options coming along also.

Due to the on-foil performance of air foil kites it is highly likely that a parawing race series will be developed which could out-perform the wing race classes.

For more information or discussion on Parawing give our staff a call on 03 9598 2867. We are putting in the time testing the gear and figuring out what works so you don't have to!