That's rather interesting. Especially how the bar is attached front and rear.
I'd be interesting to see if they could replace the largest wing in a quiver.

Well I was excited about the pocket wing but now I'm extra excited the BRM parawing. It's actually a lot like what I had been imagining. It's got a proper leading edge like a foil kite which allows it to go upwind. It's got a bar/boom which I think is a lot more functional and simple than 2 handles. I like the bar running perpendicular to the wing to mimic the riding characteristics of a normal wing. It can be used with a harness and worth mentioning again it can actually go upwind properly! The pocket wing being downwind only certainly has a function but being able to actually go upwind properly and in fact cruise upwind with a harness could make this its own very functional genre of foiling.
Other interesting points are that it has a roughly similar wind range per m2 as a normal wing. Sizes between 1.8m to 6m so should be usable in a wide wind range. It can be used with any type of board, big or small, as long as the wind strength/ sail size/ board/ foil size ratio is right, same as wingfoiling. Longer more efficient boards would obviously make life a lot easier. Also getting going they advise you should keep the wing static, build up some board speed and pump the board up without a lot of input into the wing. The lack of pump ability of the wing could reduce its low end in comparison to a normal wing. I imagine getting going on one of these with a wingboard in 20+knots wouldn't be too difficult. Being able to water start with power in the wing, holding it in one hand and still having a free hand could possibly make things a little easier than a normal wing.

BRM Maui and its designer Greg drexler are certainly an interesting bunch. They've been in wind powered foiling longer than most brands and have been early innovaters. The strut less kites they make were really at the pinnacle of performance for freeride kite foiling. They were a niche product with very specific performance characteristics but possibly the best on the market for their intended purpose. So I feel BRM know a few things about design. They also seem like a pretty straight up non hype business. They don't even sell their products internationally so I am wondering if this will be available worldwide?
Definitely super excited about the collapsible pocket wing genre starting up. Will be interesting to see if any of the bigger players will have offerings during the coming months. It is "game changer" season afterall.

It does seem from the BRM website that they are now offering international shipping. That's a change from times past when they would only sell within the US, made buying a BRM kite difficult for anyone not in the US.

But at US$900 they ain't cheap.

I keep seeing "prawning" :-)

I could imagine using this to come back to shore in case my wing is lost or punctured while out at sea. The price would need to come down a lot though

boardsurfr said..

airsail said..
But at US$900 they ain't cheap.

That's putting it mildly, especially considering that $900 only gets you the 1.8 m. The 6.2 m is $1200. The difference to a directional toy kite that sells for less than $100 seems small - definitely too small to justify a 10-fold higher price.

Prices will come down for sure, as other brands come out with similar performing kit. BRM is due some ingenuity equity on the front end of the curve here, as hard as it is on the wallet.

By real people i meant the average Joe , but no offense meant to the pros who are seen in the promotionnel videos .
Of course we only get to see the positive side of that sail , i wonder how many times he tried to get up on foil and fell and got caught in mixed up lines ? Thats never shown . But don't get me wrong i'd love to have one , its the videos and promotionnel positive hype ( love to see the the raw footage of that video ) that exasperates me .

I'd love to see some GPS tracks that show a full upwind/downwind run with the parawing. Steep upwind angles would be nice. I am happy to see our sports continue to evolve. Like others, I'll keep holding on to my stupid old-fashioned wings and will wait for the price to come down considerably before considering parawinging as an option.

MidAtlanticFoil said..
Heard first hand account of watching Greg on his parawing and his brother on the wing cruising upwind at the same angles, so early reports are promising!

That's what I wanted to hear!

Looks great ! But another vid not showing on his first attempt to get on foil a continuous take-off, why ? Am i the only one to think he fell and got tangled up in the lines ?
Lets see vids of continuous take- offs like we do with our wings .
And again nothing against Brm its the way the vids only show the good side and not what could happen to a " real person " trying to use the sail .

This video shows Greg Drexler paddling out, throwing out the wing, starting off and riding around and all the rest.

boardridingmaui.com/cdn/shop/videos/c/vp/eb3bc618def84ee9acf02ecf622e01ae/eb3bc618def84ee9acf02ecf622e01ae.HD-1080p-7.2Mbps-33059091.mp4

Ultimately the proof will be in the number of people who buy these wings, and the number of manufacturers that bring out their own versions. Ozone, Flysurfer, Gin and now North all have access to single skin kites and paragliders and a pool of expertise to develop product.

Waterkooled said..
Looks great ! But another vid not showing on his first attempt to get on foil a continuous take-off, why ? Am i the only one to think he fell and got tangled up in the lines ?
Lets see vids of continuous take- offs like we do with our wings .
And again nothing against Brm its the way the vids only show the good side and not what could happen to a " real person " trying to use the sail .

The images show very thick sheathed lines. There's 9 A-lines and 6 B and 6 C-lines, each line splitting into 3 way gallery and the A-lines have a 4th line running back along the profile. I don't see any plastic stiffening rods. It looks heavily over-engineered.

Those thick lines are very stiff and tangle resistant. The fairly dense bridle system means the gaps between are quite small and reduce the chance of the wing passing through. Provided you keep the handle under control then the chance of a major tangle are reduced. One of the pleasures of winging is being able to sit on a board, take a break, sort out stuff.

I suspect I'm not alone in being able to make most wing and kite and foil things work. I'm pretty confident if Greg Drexler can make it work well enough to release a product then I should have no trouble doing it. (I am a little sceptical of the "cult of Greg" thing but that's a different issue.)

(PS parachute packing has simple techniques for ensuring lines are straight and not crossed, twisted or tangled. It would be easy enough to do that while sitting on a board out the back.)

My 4M arrives tomorrow and wind arrives the next day. I'll have some real life experiences to share from a weekend punters point of view soon enough.

Hey Mid! looking for your review! And thanks for getting before everybody all the toys i would like to have ??

Any winger that comes from a kiting background especially foil kites has to be apprehensive as personally I was not a big fan of foil kites kite foiling if you ever had your bridal tangle up which happens you know what I'm talking about however the parawing is on a much lesser degree and seems lines are thicker perhaps this helps avoid rats nest tangling kitemares?also the larger riders are going to need bigger 5m-6m wings so deploy and pack down on the fly degree of difficulty increases quite a bit on avoiding tangles all videos I've seen are 3m and below so the tangle concern is real hopefully this will be clarified shortly albeit great concept 100%