frappes said..
I've spent several hours riding the new wings this week, sizes 2.7 and 3.4.
My biggest takeaway is that the new model gets really close to the feel of an inflatable wing. Depower and "sheet-and-go" are very intuitive and much less twitchy than on previous generations. They are stable enough that you can actually pump them to get on foil.
The effective wind ranges are phenomenal. Towards the end of one of my sessions on the 3.4m I was feeling a bit overpowered so I took out my 2.9m Maliko v1 and it was completely unmanageable. On the low end, the ability to pump the wing like an inflatable opens up a few more knots of usability.
The new handle is certainly goofy looking, but feels amazing once you get used to it. I echo Urgulls sentiment that it feels really good to ride toeside. The harness line is nice: it naturally wants to sit stowed against the bar out of the way and you can use your thumb to flip it out to slide onto your harness hook. However, I didn't even feel the need to use it much because the handle feels so comfortable. One great advantage of the handle is that it makes it 100% obvious which side is the front when you've got the wing bundled up. I would leave the D part of the handle exposed in my bundle when dousing, and then to redeploy, just grab the handle and let the wing fall and catch the wind. Really easy!
There are lots more lines to contend with, but I got the dousing technique dialed within a few tries and it wasn't a problem. I had 2 tangles in ~7 hours of riding that required a minute or two of work to separate. I definitely would prefer it if there were less lines, but the tradeoffs seem worth it to me.
As others have said, jibing is more work. The wing wants to drift back into the window during the jibe, so you need to be fast and deliberate to keep it flying. This wing does not pivot in place in the window like previous models. This my biggest gripe with these wings.
Overall, I think this is a big step in the right direction for parawing design. I purchased the 3.4m S3 to replace my 2.9m gen 1 wing, but am sticking with my gen 2 (4m kanaha, 2.3m Ka'a) wings in other sizes for now. I'm really excited to see what the next iterations look like on this design.
Adding a few more notes I forgot in my comment:
Upwind is good. Comparable to the Kanaha model. I was easily matching and exceeding angles with folks on inflatables.
Another gripe is comfort when one-handed flying with the back hand. There's not really any good place (that I could find) to place my hand to that gives just a bit of depower. Holding the bar just below the shovel handle sheets in too much, and doing a reverse grip on the shovel handle sheets out too much. One-handed with the front hand works okay because you can slide your hand through the handle comfortably to grab in the sweet spot.
Yesterday I flew a Kanaha all day and I was really missing the comfort and quality of life improvements of the S3. I am seriously reconsidering my assertion that it's not worth upgrading from the gen2 wings... BRM did a great job on this product!
