I have been fascinated by the the new BRM Parawing but personally find the price a little high, especially by the time you get it to Australia. They are selling extremely well, so people are prepared to pay for a quality proven product. However, so as to not hijack the BRM topic, I thought that I would start this to show what else may work, and for downwinders, a small collapsible wing could be a game changer! So far, the only other alternative is the Born Kites SS4 and some modified trainer kites for kitesurfing, and I'm sure that many others will start appearing. For myself, I have spent a whole twenty bucks buying a 2 line, 2.5m foil stunt kite, and to my surprise, it actually flys really well!. I bought it off Temu at a sale price and it was delivered 8 days after ordering on-line and there is no way I could make a wing of this quality for this price. I flew it first just off the bridles tied to a old North bar, and straight away, I can see where rigging changes will make it fly alot better. I have it hanging from the garage roof and have separated all of the bridal lines, so the plan is to control it similar to a paraglider with A, B and C lines, but no brakes. Also, the bar is aligned with the chord of the wing, to enable upwind sailing. I honestly have no idea what I'm doing here, so it will be a ongoing experiment, but 20 years of kitesurfing, windsurfing and now winging hopefully helps! If you have seen something on the net or have ideas, please share it here.

-RSH

coastflyer said..
I see that that the new Born Wavestar 3 is AUD$734 plus postage from Germany. Lets the games begin!

Less 19% if you haven't removed the VAT

miamiwngr said..
I'm confused about the new born kite. He was all over the brm forum saying he had developed a new kite specifically for water/foiling. Then he releases yet another camcorder land boarding video

I'm guessing that he doesn't have suitable water near him, or he's not into water sports, so can't really test it at this stage. He is only taking pre-order ATM, so hopefully someone will try it on water with a foil soon. Cost of the 3m Wavestar is about 50% of the BRM wing landed here in Auz, so can't wait to see how they compare on water! The Born wing has alot less bridle lines than the BRM, so that could be a plus as well, so I don't think that these wings will replace inflateable wings any time soon! Similar to the early days of inflateable hand held wings, cheap Chinese copies will start to appear.

Looks like the new Wavestar is up and running with a water run video coming soon. From what I can see, it appears less complex than the BRM, and has a centre retrieval fine.

The shape of the Wavestar looks really good and for its size the lines stay short. The reverse relaunch was impressive.
At least if he gets some on water foiling footage it won't be some Maui based ?berfoiler who can paddle start a sinker.

In this video at the 7:00 minute mark Greg Drexler talks about the problems of using a foil kite for winging. Specifically they talk about the thin lines flapping about and tying themselves into knots when stowed. He also mentions using a harness for upwind riding.

Gong is now in the parawing game - www.facebook.com/groups/1241951093807137/permalink/1251227166212863/

Can someone please test a born kite on the water? The guy is clearly not a water guy but goes out of his way to prove something here:

MProject04 said..
Can someone please test a born kite on the water? The guy is clearly not a water guy but goes out of his way to prove something here:

Yeah, i am rooting for this guy,he was first on the concept by many years.
And his proto Wavestar kite seems to work fine in his vids.
But i need to see it get a dude on foil ,go upwind, jibe, redeploy on the run etc...
Maybe he has not much connection to the foil world, reasonably skilled testers, decent conditions?.

Interesting to see your progress, as I have been doing exactly the same thing by modifying a 2.5m stunt kite. What line setup / length have you settled on that works best? I have two 2.5m kites , new lines and a two line handle. Would be keen to see some more specs on the line set up.