Recommendations on Parawing

StephenZ said..
I don't expect many alternatives to BRM for a while. It takes time to develop a product like this. To really get it right. Lots of testing and retesting trying lots of things. I don't think it's that easy. And each size needs to be fully tested to come up with a full quiver, to iron out the minor variations.

Greg is extraordinarily good at doing this, after years of doing this day-in and day-out. Very methodical and meticulous and with a very refined sense of what he's looking for and what sort of minor adjustment might iterate in the right direction. I don't think there is anyone better than him at this.

Secondly, he's entirely focused on it. The kite and wing design companies have designers who are working across product lines. They have to get a set of quivers of kites wings etc out every year. This is their main bread and butter, they can't abandon it to go all in on a niche product.

Thirdly, there is no better place to do this R&D than Maui. The place is a wind-machine, wind all year round for most of the day. And warm water and pleasant temperatures. That's what you need to really dial stuff in. Anyone doing their R&D from there is going to have a big advantage, and that's why so many people do. You don't have to wait a week for the next windy day to try something out, by which time you had forgotten what you've tested against.There's only a few places on earth with conditions as suitable, and they may not have the infrastructure. E.g. it may be difficult or expensive to get samples or prototypes sent over.

It's actually amazing that Greg managed to bring this to market without any leaked pics or videos beforehand. That does speak of the respect that the local riders have of designers doing R&D and protecting that. It would be much harder to keep development efforts a secret elsewhere. And by now, peoples eyes are peeled for it, so if anyone does it, it will get seen and posted. So there probably isn't that much of it happening. Lots of homebaked foil kite mods but not that much serious development.It also means also that just about any other manufacturer will only have started development after the BRM wing came out.

Anyone who goes to the effort of bringing such a product to market is going to want to get rewarded for their efforts. So pricing may come in cheaper than BRM, but not by that much, as we are already seeing with Ensis. Otherwise it's just not worth bothering. Gong of course will come in a lot cheaper, but they typically do. But they have pursued a different concept really.

By the time the alternatives do arrive, after a year or so, you can probably expect a V2 from BRM. In fact I'd say he's probably closer to a V2 than just about anyone else is to a V1. But he won't bring it out unless it's a step change. His moat on this one is bigger than people realise.If there are performance improvements to be be had, he's best positioned to take advantage.

For where we are now, the BRM parawing is truly amazing. It really is as good as you could expect. With the bridle mod it pulls upwind very well and is nice to fly. Of course it's constrained by its physical limitations. There's no way you can expect a wing with no solid physical structure to compare with one that does for low end. Or with a kite on long lines that can be flown through the air to generate power.

Anyway the long and short of it for the OP (sorry for the ramble) is you have the urge to try out parawinging (which of course you do) and you can afford it, just go get one. It's something new, a new learning curve, a challenge with big rewards to be had. Start with one size. Whatever regular wing size you will be well powered in your good wind days.