Hey folks,
I want to feed on your experience/knowledge/patience again.

Assuming closed sea conditions (Baltic) and a casual approach to (para)wingfoiling, what are working options for gliding on the smallest chop one can find ?

I am not ready to swap my beginner foil set yet but would gladly doom scroll in that direction.

Mast size , aspect ratio, span, what does matter ?

Thanks.

Fair enough,
I am around 70 kg,
I am riding in southern Fyn (Denmark, Baltic sea)
I am beginner to make it short.
My board: cabrinha swift 80L 5'10,
Foil: NKX 1900cm2 front wing on a 85 cm alu mast (typical beginner foil, maybe a bit oversized I guess)
My parawing are:
- 777pt skin 7.3m
- done frigate v1 3.5m
- element freefly 2.8 m
- and maybe soon ozone pocket rocket v1 5m.

I am mostly starting to wonder what foil systems to choose from, next (not now, but in medium term ).

You are riding in a lower wind and choppy area when you get more into the open. Your existing setup is heavy, low aspect and will not glide well. I would let others with more credibility chime in that know the area and para wing. I ride SAB foils. I can only comment on them. But for a newer guy on para winging, I would probably recommend the 1350 (1870cm2 / AR 9.75) with a 663 fuse / 370 tail and 75cm BB mast. Is the 1350 bigger than most use? Yes. But in the beginning you will be gliding. Once you get better with pumping, use it for your dock pump foiling beginner wing. Then move up to the new Blackbird FreeMove 1155 mono block system with fuse Black Bird size medium. You would eventually (not now) have 2 front wings (para "1155" /dock "1350"), a 663 / BB medium fuse and only need one stab (370). One mast is enough. That said, find what is available in your area and what others use. Try to get used gear. SAB does have a black friday event every year too. This information is just a general idea. There a plenty of guys in Sweden, Denmark and Germany that do it all the time that know exactly what to get.

Honestly, IMO, the forums are not the best place to ask a question like this. You really need to tap into local knowledge. Everyones location is different and things that work locally don't work globally.

Once you are actively parawinging and running into issues, the forums become a bit more useful. This is because you should be able to explain what your problem is at your local spot and why you or others might be struggling. That's when people with broader global knowledge can share experiences with how to give direction.

To answer your question: "Mast size, aspect ratio, span, what does matter?" Everything. Every single detail matters. The wind direction, your board, the tail, fuse, it all matters. Which is why nobody has completely figured out foiling yet!