481 posts
Well, I haven't ridden an S3. I've ridden a Flow Dwing and BRM Paia. I can go upwind on the L1. But not as good as the Dwing which I feel matches my hand wings Fone strike.
It's close on the L1, but not as steep of an angle and much more work. Heavy bar pressure and leaning hard into the harness.
481 posts
It's all the money in your wallet weighing you down. You'll definitely be lighter/faster after buying that.
481 posts
BRM L1 6.5 review. Rode it twice in the light wind it was designed for. Topanga in Los Angeles. Today there were waves to ride too.
Thing is good. Riding a 60L board and I got up in 12-15 MPH wind consistently.
The thing just wants to fly. It get’s off the water easily. If you hold the D handle with 1 hand it just naturally goes to the 12 o’clock position and waits there for you. I would fall off and be in the water, just held onto the front of the d handle with one hand and it would patiently just float above me and help lift me back onto the board.
The thing is huge, but if you drag a wingtip going over chop, the wingtip just kind of bounces off the water. It doesn’t drag and throw you in the water like an inflatable hand wing would.
Jibing is the same as any other parawing. If you can keep tension in the lines, it’s no harder than others.
It sits deeper in the window which is why you get extra low end and grunt to get up. But that also means you will definitely need to hook in to drive it upwind. I figured out the angles a bit better today. So I would say it took me 2 sessions to figure out how to go upwind properly. It’ll probably get better too with more sessions.
The D handle also keeps the thing from tangling really well. I didn’t have a single tangle today. I was going with A line stows. You have to look at the handle to separate the A lines and gather both sides together since they are attached on each side of the D handle.
Redeploying wasn’t too bad. It’s so big you can’t just throw it out. You have to look for the blue marks on the leading edge and spread it out a bit to get some wind in the sail. I had quite a few stash, ride wave, successful redeploys today. That will get better with time too I’m sure.
So my only complaint is not really a complaint since I always hook in anyway. As long as you use a harness it’s a great parawing for our light wind wave spots.
Thanks go out to Frankie for grabbing a demo for us in LA. If anyone wants to try it, it’ll be floating around Malibu for awhile.
481 posts
For the river, I'm not sure you'll get the true benefit of the X series. The X series is all about hitting white water in waves. Controllable roll and reentry on airs.
Compared the the S you will lose glide. The S is the all around series from Code and hard to beat unless you're trying to specialize in one specific aspect.
481 posts
Riding til exhaustion is fine and good. But you need to also realize where you made the mistake. If you're not analyzing your drop off foil and what you could've done different each time, then you're not getting the benefit of riding til exhaustion.
Sounds to me like you're ready to change foils. If you're getting passed by groundswell that's moving too fast, maybe switch to a faster foil. If you're always pumping and overtaking bumps, then maybe switch to a larger foil. Video's look good to me. Nice riding.
A turn is as good as a pump.
