Frankieboy said..
I now have a few sessions on the 5.3, riding it underpowered, properly powered, and overpowered.
What I liked:[/b]
- It is very stable in flight, which seems normal given the number of bridles supporting the profile.
- The top-end range is good, but it pulls hard in the harness. I've read reports of people using it in 30-knot gusts, but I still have some doubts about that... At 22–23 knots, I was already maxed out with my 105 kg. The upside is that I'll be able to use it with a smaller board.
- It is very light on the bar. Most of the pull goes through the harness. It's the same feeling as kites with very light bar pressure that load the front lines.
- It pumps like a wing, and for me that's its biggest strength. It significantly improves the low-end range, and since I'm a heavier rider, that's crucial. I even managed to get up on foil while hooked into the harness just by pumping the board two or three times! I was genuinely impressed, properly powered but it was mind-blowing.
- The canopy cloth is incredibly thin and light, but since I don't fully pack the wing yet, that's not (yet) a major factor for me. At this stage, I still carry it by the leading edge with one hand.
What bothered me:[/b]
- The D-bar is not intuitive at all for me. It's great while riding, but for packing, redeploying, etc. it's not ideal. I prefer a regular bar, especially for redeploying or riding one-handed in switch stance, because I can place my hand exactly where I want. On the BRM, the sweet spot is located at the intersection with the "D", which makes things more complicated. I tested the wing with the bar from my Quest, but it doesn't fly as well, especially during gybes where it tends to fall to the opposite side. The D-bar has split A-lines, allowing you to steer and control the wing by pivoting it.
- The harness line: it's positioned right at the sweet spot, but you're forced to use one hand to hook in. I tried the Quest harness line, which is excellent, but it sits behind the sweet spot on the D-bar. As a result, you lose some depower and it's not ideal when riding switch.
- Water relaunch isn't easy. The wing tends to stick to the water, or rather, it easily folds into a ball once it crashes. You often need to get back onto the board before relaunching it. The Quest or the Frigate stay more spread out and relaunche easily, even when you're still in the water.
- The gybe, especially in the low end: sometimes the wing falls to the opposite side. That said, these were among my first sessions. What I later understood is that the wing needs to be kept high during the gybe, rather than into the middle of the window like you would with the Quest, for example. After that, and when properly powered, I was successful almost everytime. I still need to test this in lighter wind and try some downloop gybes.
I'm giving myself a few more sessions to get used to the D-bar and find a solution that makes the harness line easier to hook into. Any tips on that would be greatly appreciated.
The wing is definitely more technical to use than a Quest, but it is also clearly higher performing, with both improved low-end and top-end range. That's when riding it. For staching and redeploying it is not as good in my opinion.
For harness tips, I use a reverse hook (on a dyneema bungee line) with the shortest Brm harness line. It’s nice flying one handed and hooking in since the free hand can place the hook.
I’ve started to mess around with making an even shorter loop so I can use a longer reverse hook line and make hooking in even easier.
tip for one hand flying without harness, grab over the top of the D handle and wrap your fingers around the down facing part of the handle.
