The term gamechanger gets bandied around too often in foiling conversations, but seems like it might be deserving.This looks like it truly unlocks the promise of downwind winging.
I've had mixed success with DW sup foiling, making some good progress, but getting injured at the end of summer, and only now feeling like I can tentatively start paddling again. This was the final capitulation in getting a Foildrive. For DW, this comes with advantages, but no question, you can feel the heft, at least I can. So it will never be more than a DW tool for me (though really enjoying it for the surf).
Here in windy Cape Town, we have some epic DW conditions, but I feel like I'm still a long way from making the most of it with a paddle, especially on the Millers side, which is closer to where I live, and injuries and general body niggles have been a consistent theme.
BRM is a small lean operation, it's pretty much just Greg, no payroll, not much marketing, no team riders, not even much of a social media presence, mainly word of mouth. He definitely doesn't need to follow any regular release cycles, he only releases stuff that really moves the bar. So when he comes up with something totally new it's usually something special. This is not Greg hype it's just giving credit where it's due. Of course I'm partial to BRM, they've met my wind propulsion needs for most of the last 10 years, starting with the cloud C.5 kites. Greg doesn't care about top speeds, VMG upwind or jump height. He really cares most about simplicity, usability and freedom on the water. I still have a quiver of Ds and the W1 and W2 wings. I'm still very happy flying my W1's, they flutter a bit, but are still well behaved and enjoyable to fly 4 years later, much of it with intense usage. How many can say that of their floppy handle jellyfish 2020 wings? I still love my 2018 D kites, and though I don't kitefoil much, love it when I do.
I pulled the trigger on a 2.9m + the belt. That's definitely the money size here - I'm almost always on my 2.2 or 3, hardly ever use the 4 these days. $900+ USD seems pretty steep for a glorified hanky, and many will balk at the cost. I certainly did, but I justify it on the grounds that I haven't had to buy a wing in 3 years, the cloud wings have served me so well, the W2s are nowhere near needing a refresh. You're paying for the fact that it's a niche market and of course the dozens of prototypes and hours and hours of tweaking and tuning to finally bring a truly viable UW-DW product to market. Who can begrudge him the reward for that.
There's two ways this could go. Either it works great and it catches on like crazy. Then a bunch of others will copy what he's done and a bunch of new products will arrive, iteratively refine and improve and bring down costs (but in the meantime it's totally sold out for months, Greg makes limited size batches of things). Or not. As was the case with the strutless kites, they were the only thing of it's kind going for years, nobody tried or succeeded in copying for ages. Gong tried. In the end Slingshot finally brought out the UFOs (don't know if they are better, they are what Fred Hope rides, so can't be too bad) and also the single skin Peaks, which is what I would probably be riding by now if I still kitefoiled seriously. Also as is the case with Foildrive, for many years waiting for competition to arrive to bring down the price. It never arrived. In spite of the high price, they are the only game in town, you'd take a big risk to buy a foil assist from anyone but them. Either way I'm ok with it, I've seen enough to know that this is the future for me. DW Sup foiling is still a goal, but it's no longer the be-all-and-end-all.
With the inflatable strutless kites finally giving way for single skin peaks for the purest freeride kitefoiling experience, it's somehow fitting that inflatable wings go the same way for the purest and freest winging experience.
Sorry for the ramble!
