Retina said..






In my opinion.. Mast is not the same thing. If you want stiffness/thin you don't have any other alternative. However, numerous parawing options are available.
I can say that i would have considered acquired an Afterburner if it had been offered at a ok price.

zarb said..





But I can make exactly the same argument in reverse... "If you want a great upwind parawing but with the simplicity of a single skin, you don't have any other alternative. However, there are numerous mast options available".

I personally don't find a substantial difference between my old Code mast or my old Armstrong mast when I compare them to some of the newer FAR more expensive thinner &/or stiffer masts. Certainly not enough of a difference to pay $1500 more.

But I do find a big difference between the parawings I've tried (including the AB) - and certainly enough of a difference to pay $200-600 more.

meoweth said..
Had a session on the 6.5 afterburner today. I usually use the 777 pt skin 7.3 and i have also the 777 hybrids. The 6.5 felt almost exactly like the hybrids. I'm no expert on parawing, having around 7 months of expeirence, maybe total 20 sessions. I am not able to tack, I am getting my jibe rate up recently to like 75% on the 777 7.3m, but i am still not good at jibing in very light wind. I can stash it with one hand and ride waves, my redeploy rate is like almost 50%. I am getting alot better and starting to have more fun. Overall, Ive found myself using the pt skin more than the hybrids recently, because I dont need the extra upwind right now and I prefer having a higher success rate of jibe and overall better ease of use. I found that the hybrids are even harder to jibe and also they tend to stick to the water when they touch down and you lose it. So put simply, my skill level isnt at the point where I should be riding the hybrids. I absolutely love the 7.3 skin and i am making lots of progress. The 6.5 after burner felt exactly like the hybrids. I went from having like a 90% success rate of jibe on the pt skin yesterday, to less than 10% jibe rate today on the afterburner, the only 2 jibes i did was the behind the back jibe which is easier than the normal jibe i think sometimes. No matter what I did, I coldnt do a normal jibe with it, my normal jibe isnt very tehcnical, I just do it based on feeling, but with the skin, it just kinda works , especially if the wind is strong, and i feel like ive never learned the correct technique b/c i just wing it and it works most the time. The one jibe that I almost never miss is the toeside back to heelside jibe, it is so easy that it's almost impossible to mess up. Yep, the afterburner I was missing those jibes like crazy, i almost couldnt do one. As for the low end, it was what you'd expect for a 6.5, perhaps it woud be like a 6.0-6.2 if you counted it as a pt skin, but nothing to talk about there. The upwind was definitely better than the skin, im not sure if its the same as the hybrid or slightly worse. The high end was probably also similar to the hybrid, maybe a bit worse since its a single skin. But my impression overall is that the afterburner really feels like a hybrid more than a single skin, and it requires you to be really good and technical. For me it was just too advanced, but i'm sure if i was much better, than it could suit me. I just need more user firendliness and dont need the extra upwind or extra high-end compared to ease of use that I want.