MidAtlanticFoil said..

Urgull said..
Alright, I had the chance to sail it.
PROS[/b]
Much better upwind angle compared to the KANAHA
Incredibly lightweight material. Shockingly thing.
Stiffer ride (less vibration)
Even easier to stash and pack. It felt so so nice
Even thinner lines (how do they do it?)
CONS[/b]
Trickier to jibe
Sizes over 4.5 are even[/i] trickier to jibe
The material is so light that if the tip touches the water, the shape collapses

I haven't tried it myself, but they say the 4.0 is really, really good.
The handle looks like a shovel?? guess it's a matter of tastes but I prefer simple stuff. But it pulls you upwind like a bull.

Can you comment on riding toeside with the D-Handle? I don't switch stance and kinda concerned. Hopefully I'll just be able to hook in and put my one hand just behind the harness point to control the sheet in/out.

It

MidAtlanticFoil said..

Urgull said..
Alright, I had the chance to sail it.
PROS[/b]
Much better upwind angle compared to the KANAHA
Incredibly lightweight material. Shockingly thing.
Stiffer ride (less vibration)
Even easier to stash and pack. It felt so so nice
Even thinner lines (how do they do it?)
CONS[/b]
Trickier to jibe
Sizes over 4.5 are even[/i] trickier to jibe
The material is so light that if the tip touches the water, the shape collapses

I haven't tried it myself, but they say the 4.0 is really, really good.
The handle looks like a shovel?? guess it's a matter of tastes but I prefer simple stuff. But it pulls you upwind like a bull.

Can you comment on riding toeside with the D-Handle? I don't switch stance and kinda concerned. Hopefully I'll just be able to hook in and put my one hand just behind the harness point to control the sheet in/out.

Oh, It actually felt better[/i] riding toe side than with the previous handles—in the sense that the shoulder and elbow positions feel more natural.
The 4.0 was really good, and again, the material felt lighter compared to the Maliko and the Kanaha.
The two main issues I see are:
How easily the wing collapses during jibes or if the tip touches the water (others testing bigger sizes mentioned the same).The handle is clearly bigger than before, and the line setup feels more complex.(The whole reason I’m into parawinging is the simplicity, so this is a big factor for me.)
For now, I’m sticking with the KANAHA and the F-One Frigate, and I’ll decide once other riders have put more solid mileage on the V3.

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.

Tacks look too easy:

www.instagram.com/reel/DX9puBYCY2M/?igsh=azlwMDdnenlhajJs

the ultra flat profile and all that bridling looks super low drag

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!

Had my first session with the 4.2 S3. Wind was too strong, so I started with the 3M Kanaha with the S3 in my pack. Wind dropped a hair so I got the S3 out and it ramped back up and I was littttt. Wind was gusting to 33mph and I hadn't sorted my reverse hook out quite yet. No bueno! It could handle the wind, but not being able to comfortably hook in was...physical, especially toeside. I ran in to swap out my 3M and bring the 4.5M Paia into the rotation.

Then the wind proceeded to see-saw over and over and I kept changing out between the Paia and S3. Extemely frustrating! I was riding a 635 Manta surf wing, so not super lifty, but the Paia was struggling to get me on foil - may have been the ripping flood tide making it difficult to get good laminar flow. I'd pop out the S3 and BAM - on foil with excess power to spare. I was hoping the 4.2M S3 would work through when the Paia could take over, but there was a gap.

I eventually figured out that I could hook the front of the handle and just use my one hand to manage the sheet in/out. This worked extremely well and I was able to ride toeside upwind in overpowered conditions.

It was a challenging session, but I was able to get some amazing DW runs with the Manta. Can't wait to try it within it's normal range!

Looking at Greg’s chart, I was way out of the 4.2Ms range. Thanks to the shovel handle I could still fly it and make it back upwind. Once I figured out the better harness hook placement it was even more manageable. In the lulls it felt really good!


Despite swapping to the Paia 3 or 4 times in the water, I didn’t have any tangles with the S3.

Bit wary of such a radical redesign of canopy, bridles, and bar - next iteration safer bet etc, esp with BRM prices- but Greg’s gloss on BRM website re how easy this wing is to keep aloft, and the handling in his Insta clips, does make the case for the 5.3 being a light wind beast. bit of a new space for BRM tbh, despite big Kanah. Maui ‘light wind’ etc
Coupla sessions on borrowed 777 Hybrid 5.7, and just dont have the patience [or the rotors, getting the 5.7 Hybrid aloft in 10-12 knots after a crash is hard on worn out shoulders] for that to be something i really wanna dump $$ on with very limited budget.
The work required to crank the 5.7 Hybrid up (almost) had me looking at cheap s/h 5.5m inflatables again - 8 knots and a friendly bump an youre up!But nah, loyal to the wang
be cool to hear any feedback on lofting 5.3 S3 in genuine 10-12 knots. Floater board of course.

MidAtlanticFoil said..
Here's a clip of the 4.2 in some very light conditions:

Wow!
biiig lifty foil and DW board doing lot of the heavy lifting, but impressive efficiency nonetheless.
ol mate makes it look so bloody easy

flowstate said..

MidAtlanticFoil said..
Here's a clip of the 4.2 in some very light conditions:

Wow!
biiig lifty foil and DW board doing lot of the heavy lifting, but impressive efficiency nonetheless.
ol mate makes it look so bloody easy

Yeah! Really impressive considering the wind range looked to be below Greg's range for his 90L 'Surf' wind chart for the 4.2M.

Got to try the 3.4 for a few hours today. Really good parawing. Trying to put together some notes on it. Any specific questions people have on it at the moment?

hilly said..

BWalnut said..
Got to try the 3.4 for a few hours today. Really good parawing. Trying to put together some notes on it. Any specific questions people have on it at the moment?

Back to back with PR V2?

I can do that chat when I get my 2.4 and 3.6 v2s. My buddy got the 2.7 and 3.4 S3 so the comparison will be readily available and size applicable.

BWalnut said..
Oh and for what it's worth, the #1 trait noticed from this session is the upwind speed is insane on the s3. 2-3mph faster than usual upwind while maintaining my normal 90 degree angle. Easily the fastest upwind parawing I've ever used.

Been hearing good things/the same from trustworthy sources who have been on one. Good upcoming forecast- hoping to get a demo in this week.

Can you try a standard 2 point windsurf loop? Connect to top center of D and just below the D as a rigid loop? Not sure when I will get to ride it again...