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hilly said..

CH3MTR4IL5 said..
Its a shame that basically every description of a product now is AI generated, but it would be nice if businesses at least pretended they were doing some of their own work by checking what they cut and paste from ChatGPT.
mainbreakwatersports.com.au/smik-parawing/

"If you want, I can:
Further optimise this for Google product pages
Add meta titles and descriptions
Rewrite it for dealer websites or e-commerce listings
Adjust keyword density for a specific market or region":

Wtf are you talking about

Forgot to remove the bottom part of the generator:

Select to expand quote

Robert211 said..

hilly said..

CH3MTR4IL5 said..
Its a shame that basically every description of a product now is AI generated, but it would be nice if businesses at least pretended they were doing some of their own work by checking what they cut and paste from ChatGPT.
mainbreakwatersports.com.au/smik-parawing/

"If you want, I can:
Further optimise this for Google product pages
Add meta titles and descriptions
Rewrite it for dealer websites or e-commerce listings
Adjust keyword density for a specific market or region":

Wtf are you talking about

Forgot to remove the bottom part of the generator:

Ok thanks for clearing that up. I only looked at the photos

Select to expand quote

CH3MTR4IL5 said..
Its a shame that basically every description of a product now is AI generated, but it would be nice if businesses at least pretended they were doing some of their own work by checking what they cut and paste from ChatGPT.
mainbreakwatersports.com.au/smik-parawing/

"If you want, I can:
Further optimise this for Google product pages
Add meta titles and descriptions
Rewrite it for dealer websites or e-commerce listings
Adjust keyword density for a specific market or region":

Genuinly embarrassing.

Select to expand quote

maxpwr said..

CH3MTR4IL5 said..
Its a shame that basically every description of a product now is AI generated, but it would be nice if businesses at least pretended they were doing some of their own work by checking what they cut and paste from ChatGPT.
mainbreakwatersports.com.au/smik-parawing/

"If you want, I can:
Further optimise this for Google product pages
Add meta titles and descriptions
Rewrite it for dealer websites or e-commerce listings
Adjust keyword density for a specific market or region":

Genuinly embarrassing.

Jeez guy's a hard crowd. He runs a solo water sports business in a small regional town of Margaret River, cut him some slack. ?

If you want the Smik site, go here www.smiksup.com/about-1

He still needed to prompt and guide the AI for the description he felt worked to describe the wing the best. Don't see the problem myself - mainly because do the products actually work - if so - great.

Weird and counter productive aspect to bring up.

Anyone had theirs out on the water yet? Keen to pull the trigger (want to support more reasonable pricing like this) but would like to know it's not a total dud.

I got the 4.2m Smik para out for a brief session tonight. Very powered up in 25knots+. Handled it ok. Wing didn't do any crazy collapsing tricks. For me this feels like a good intro parawing to learn the sport. I've rigged up a harness now for next session on the weekend. Arms getting ripped off today. Happy with the purchase and might end up getting the 3.2m also. Buy two for the price of one. Someone with more experience in parawing can hopefully chime in a report on the pros and cons. Waiting for Gav's youtoob review.

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eppo said..
He still needed to prompt and guide the AI for the description he felt worked to describe the wing the best. Don't see the problem myself - mainly because do the products actually work - if so - great.

Weird and counter productive aspect to bring up.

No, it's bad and there's absolutely no reason to accept or normalize AI slop. Do you really want to read website text and have no idea whether it's factual? This is a small example but it's ruining the world in a lot of ways.

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maxpwr said..Do you really want to read website text and have no idea whether it's factual? This is a small example but it's ruining the world in a lot of ways.

You think by typing it yourself makes it factual, that is laughably naive. Ruining the world?? There are a few bigger problems out there than getting AI to save you some time.
How about you start a different thread rather than hijack this one to push your agenda down the throat of people interested in parawings.

Select to expand quote

baldy123 said..
I got the 4.2m Smik para out for a brief session tonight. Very powered up in 25knots+. Handled it ok. Wing didn't do any crazy collapsing tricks. For me this feels like a good intro parawing to learn the sport. I've rigged up a harness now for next session on the weekend. Arms getting ripped off today. Happy with the purchase and might end up getting the 3.2m also. Buy two for the price of one. Someone with more experience in parawing can hopefully chime in a report on the pros and cons. Waiting for Gav's youtoob review.

Geez you would have been well overpowered on the 4.2m yesterday. I was out on my 3m PT skin nicely powered up, that was around sunset and the wind had picked up to around 30 knots though. Good to hear the 4.2 smik was manageable in 25+ knots!

Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Select to expand quote

drc13 said..
Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Thanks for the report. Sounds promising. Agree regarding the pricing. I will definitely consider the 3.2 Smik Wang to go with my 4.3 Ozone PR.

Select to expand quote

DukeSilver said..

drc13 said..
Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Thanks for the report. Sounds promising. Agree regarding the pricing. I will definitely consider the 3.2 Smik Wang to go with my 4.3 Ozone PR.

I got to fly the 4.2 smik on the beach in light winds and for me the ozone flys a lot nicer. Limited test I know so take what you will from my limited experience with the smik.

Select to expand quote

AnyBoard said..

DukeSilver said..

drc13 said..
Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Thanks for the report. Sounds promising. Agree regarding the pricing. I will definitely consider the 3.2 Smik Wang to go with my 4.3 Ozone PR.

I got to fly the 4.2 smik on the beach in light winds and for me the ozone flys a lot nicer. Limited test I know so take what you will from my limited experience with the smik.

Horses for courses; the Pocket Rocket good upwind the Smik great low down power to get you up and going with light material for good stow.

Select to expand quote

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

DukeSilver said..

drc13 said..
Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Thanks for the report. Sounds promising. Agree regarding the pricing. I will definitely consider the 3.2 Smik Wang to go with my 4.3 Ozone PR.

I got to fly the 4.2 smik on the beach in light winds and for me the ozone flys a lot nicer. Limited test I know so take what you will from my limited experience with the smik.

Horses for courses; the Pocket Rocket good upwind the Smik great low down power to get you up and going with light material for good stow.

Is that your experience with the smik? Low down power?
Do you mean low down like in light wind or do you mean you can use a 3.5 in 20 knots instead of a 4.2?

The 4.3 pr feels much more powerful to me in light wind (under 15 knots).

Select to expand quote

AnyBoard said..

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

DukeSilver said..

drc13 said..
Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Thanks for the report. Sounds promising. Agree regarding the pricing. I will definitely consider the 3.2 Smik Wang to go with my 4.3 Ozone PR.

I got to fly the 4.2 smik on the beach in light winds and for me the ozone flys a lot nicer. Limited test I know so take what you will from my limited experience with the smik.

Horses for courses; the Pocket Rocket good upwind the Smik great low down power to get you up and going with light material for good stow.

Is that your experience with the smik? Low down power?
Do you mean low down like in light wind or do you mean you can use a 3.5 in 20 knots instead of a 4.2?

The 4.3 pr feels much more powerful to me in light wind (under 15 knots).

So you have ridden it? I was comparing with frigate 4m on the water.

Select to expand quote

AnyBoard said..

I got to fly the 4.2 smik on the beach in light winds and for me the ozone flys a lot nicer. Limited test I know so take what you will from my limited experience with the smik.

That's a smart approach. Unless you are doing back to back test under the same circumstances, a single experience like that is limited in utility.

I find that flying on land is also limited as the parawing behaves very differently when it is moving and it is being used (as opposed to an artifical test on land where you are not moving).

I have also found that they are extremely sensitive to wind conditions and flying on the beach under light or gusty or marginal wind will feel very different to flying it on the beach under optimal wind conditions.

I can only compare to the D wing from flow. Has more immediate initial grunt but can then fall back in the window (especially in marginal conditions) making it then harder to maintain your speed and consequentially get up on foil. Not an issue of course when you are well within its wind range.

The PR however has less initial grunt but its higher aspect (and superior flying characteristics overall) allows it to keep hunting the edge of the window - combine this with good board pumping technique and you tend to get up more successfully. Once up there is no comparison to not only its upwind angle but behaves far better at the top end of its range than the lower aspect D wing.

The bridle length and material used is definitely not ideal on the PR - that's just fact - but you adjust accordingly.

Anyhow food for thought. Lot of water to come under this para bridge.

Select to expand quote

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

DukeSilver said..

drc13 said..
Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Thanks for the report. Sounds promising. Agree regarding the pricing. I will definitely consider the 3.2 Smik Wang to go with my 4.3 Ozone PR.

I got to fly the 4.2 smik on the beach in light winds and for me the ozone flys a lot nicer. Limited test I know so take what you will from my limited experience with the smik.

Horses for courses; the Pocket Rocket good upwind the Smik great low down power to get you up and going with light material for good stow.

Is that your experience with the smik? Low down power?
Do you mean low down like in light wind or do you mean you can use a 3.5 in 20 knots instead of a 4.2?

The 4.3 pr feels much more powerful to me in light wind (under 15 knots).

So you have ridden it? I was comparing with frigate 4m on the water.

With the wind being light the smik did not encourage me to take it to the water based on its handling in these conditions. The wind was just enough in the little gusts to get my skinny backside out of the water on a 4.3 pr and there was no way the smik was going to do that. At the same time I also flew the power pack on the beach side by side while we all passed them around. Now the power pack had some feel that I would have loved to take out to the water but as it was a friends brand new wing I didn't feel right using it even though it was offered.

I know your on the heavy side and if you say it has good low end (4.2) then your probably referring to its performance on the low end in pretty good wind. Not its performance in light wind. That's all I wanted to clarify.

I hate that some of these pw are so expensive but the two dearest ones are better by a country mile if you are to use them for more than just towing into a bump and getting a shuttle back. These two brands know it and are charging accordingly in my opinion.

So hilly if you were getting both the Fone and the smik for free which would you be using? Honest question.

Select to expand quote

AnyBoard said..

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

DukeSilver said..

drc13 said..
Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Thanks for the report. Sounds promising. Agree regarding the pricing. I will definitely consider the 3.2 Smik Wang to go with my 4.3 Ozone PR.

I got to fly the 4.2 smik on the beach in light winds and for me the ozone flys a lot nicer. Limited test I know so take what you will from my limited experience with the smik.

Horses for courses; the Pocket Rocket good upwind the Smik great low down power to get you up and going with light material for good stow.

Is that your experience with the smik? Low down power?
Do you mean low down like in light wind or do you mean you can use a 3.5 in 20 knots instead of a 4.2?

The 4.3 pr feels much more powerful to me in light wind (under 15 knots).

So you have ridden it? I was comparing with frigate 4m on the water.

With the wind being light the smik did not encourage me to take it to the water based on its handling in these conditions. The wind was just enough in the little gusts to get my skinny backside out of the water on a 4.3 pr and there was no way the smik was going to do that. At the same time I also flew the power pack on the beach side by side while we all passed them around. Now the power pack had some feel that I would have loved to take out to the water but as it was a friends brand new wing I didn't feel right using it even though it was offered.

I know your on the heavy side and if you say it has good low end (4.2) then your probably referring to its performance on the low end in pretty good wind. Not its performance in light wind. That's all I wanted to clarify.

I hate that some of these pw are so expensive but the two dearest ones are better by a country mile if you are to use them for more than just towing into a bump and getting a shuttle back. These two brands know it and are charging accordingly in my opinion.

So hilly if you were getting both the Fone and the smik for free which would you be using? Honest question.

That's easy both

Fone has the edge if you want to go upwind which I do so probably the Frigate would get my vote. However there were about 4 Smiks out yesterday and they were all very inexperienced riders but they got up and went upwind. Jury is out until I get a ride on a production model.

Select to expand quote

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

hilly said..

AnyBoard said..

DukeSilver said..

drc13 said..
Ok we've suddenly gone from 0 to 3 smik parawings in the area. I gave my mates the heads-up on them all 3 decided to take a punt on them with me then it turned out the store didn't have enough stock for all of us so I let them have the first batch and hopefully mine will arrive soonish but got to see them on the water yesterday and handle one on the beach.

First impressions of the 4.2 and 5.2m

Both guys got going I was out on a 6m wing at the time which was slightly oversized (there was others out on 4.5 and 5.5m wings as well)

The parawing looked very stable in flight didn't seem to do anything weird in fact as one mate flew past me he yelled out "this thing is so stable!" his other pw in a 3.4m F-One Frigate.

Appearance wise I love them, sure they could probably be brighter for safety reasons but the white with orange accents looks great.

Handled the 4.2m on the beach and bar felt good, line length seemed good (also nice and bright coloured lines) the outside black lines don't seem to do much but guessing they may be for when things get overpowered??

Canopy material seemed nice and light and watched one of them relaunch after sinking it in the water and it seemed to take off again easily enough.

The only real issue I noticed was when stashing it via the A lines there was some pretty sharp bits on the line (mostly where the white stitching was), interestingly enough another mate had a 4.7m frigate up at the time and it had the same issue.

Now keeping in mind I haven't ridden this thing in the water at all yet so these are very very early impressions but so far so good and I really hope this becomes the new benchmark for pricing at the very least.

Thanks for the report. Sounds promising. Agree regarding the pricing. I will definitely consider the 3.2 Smik Wang to go with my 4.3 Ozone PR.

I got to fly the 4.2 smik on the beach in light winds and for me the ozone flys a lot nicer. Limited test I know so take what you will from my limited experience with the smik.

Horses for courses; the Pocket Rocket good upwind the Smik great low down power to get you up and going with light material for good stow.

Is that your experience with the smik? Low down power?
Do you mean low down like in light wind or do you mean you can use a 3.5 in 20 knots instead of a 4.2?

The 4.3 pr feels much more powerful to me in light wind (under 15 knots).

So you have ridden it? I was comparing with frigate 4m on the water.

With the wind being light the smik did not encourage me to take it to the water based on its handling in these conditions. The wind was just enough in the little gusts to get my skinny backside out of the water on a 4.3 pr and there was no way the smik was going to do that. At the same time I also flew the power pack on the beach side by side while we all passed them around. Now the power pack had some feel that I would have loved to take out to the water but as it was a friends brand new wing I didn't feel right using it even though it was offered.

I know your on the heavy side and if you say it has good low end (4.2) then your probably referring to its performance on the low end in pretty good wind. Not its performance in light wind. That's all I wanted to clarify.

I hate that some of these pw are so expensive but the two dearest ones are better by a country mile if you are to use them for more than just towing into a bump and getting a shuttle back. These two brands know it and are charging accordingly in my opinion.

So hilly if you were getting both the Fone and the smik for free which would you be using? Honest question.

That's easy both

Fone has the edge if you want to go upwind which I do so probably the Frigate would get my vote. However there were about 4 Smiks out yesterday and they were all very inexperienced riders but they got up and went upwind. Jury is out until I get a ride on a production model.

Nice

I've had a few more parawing sessions on the 4.2m and 3.2m Smik. Starting to get the hang of it and loving it for solo no shuttle sessions. Using an old windsurf harness line currently which I kinda like as I can grab the loop when riding switch with one hand on the loop and back hand on the bar. The stash and redeploy seems to work pretty good with the Smiks. Currently just using a tight rash vest and using the fat belly stash. I'm keen to explore the upwind potential of some other wings. These were my tracks from yesterday light 10-15knots on the 4.2m and HA880. Took 30 mins upwind to get 2km down. Riding upwind is very easy hooked in and cruising along nicely powered. The previous day I managed 4x2km laps in a 2 hour session.

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baldy123 said..
I've had a few more parawing sessions on the 4.2m and 3.2m Smik. Starting to get the hang of it and loving it for solo no shuttle sessions. Using an old windsurf harness line currently which I kinda like as I can grab the loop when riding switch with one hand on the loop and back hand on the bar. The stash and redeploy seems to work pretty good with the Smiks. Currently just using a tight rash vest and using the fat belly stash. I'm keen to explore the upwind potential of some other wings. These were my tracks from yesterday light 10-15knots on the 4.2m and HA880. Took 30 mins upwind to get 2km down. Riding upwind is very easy hooked in and cruising along nicely powered. The previous day I managed 4x2km laps in a 2 hour session.

Hey Baldy are you switching stance or riding toes side on those angles?

Frigate track for comparison

Toeside on the way out. Too lazy to switch stance that day. I found the 3m powered up cuts upwind easier than the 4m. I'll be keen to see what the triple seven hybrid wings or the new D-wing v2 can do for upwind performance.

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baldy123 said..
Toeside on the way out. Too lazy to switch stance that day. I found the 3m powered up cuts upwind easier than the 4m. I'll be keen to see what the triple seven hybrid wings or the new D-wing v2 can do for upwind performance.

Your angles will get better quickly I expect and the shuttle will look a lot less practical.

On the pocket rocket I typically have an included of 60 odd degrees and it gets better when I get the size ideal. That is switching stances of course. If I do two 3k tacks I will get close to 4k straight back down wind if I measure them. This is what you should expect on a wing also. So a 10 k loop has about 4 k of downwind for me. In wild wind variations or crazy sea state this can be less of course on both pw and wing. In time it is conservatively 18 minutes riding upwind for about 12 minutes surfing back. Good enough to sell my sup.

i don't think the hybrids will improve these angles by more than 2 or 3 degrees but they will hopefully offer those angles consistently over the big wind variations that come with wind over 20 knots.

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hilly said..
Frigate track for comparison

I am guessing very good toeside riding.

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AnyBoard said..I am guessing very good toeside riding.

Harness makes it easy.

anyone had the opp to compare 5 metre Smik with 5m PowerPack ?

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AnyBoard said..

baldy123 said..
Toeside on the way out. Too lazy to switch stance that day. I found the 3m powered up cuts upwind easier than the 4m. I'll be keen to see what the triple seven hybrid wings or the new D-wing v2 can do for upwind performance.

Your angles will get better quickly I expect and the shuttle will look a lot less practical.

On the pocket rocket I typically have an included of 60 odd degrees and it gets better when I get the size ideal. That is switching stances of course. If I do two 3k tacks I will get close to 4k straight back down wind if I measure them. This is what you should expect on a wing also. So a 10 k loop has about 4 k of downwind for me. In wild wind variations or crazy sea state this can be less of course on both pw and wing. In time it is conservatively 18 minutes riding upwind for about 12 minutes surfing back. Good enough to sell my sup.

i don't think the hybrids will improve these angles by more than 2 or 3 degrees but they will hopefully offer those angles consistently over the big wind variations that come with wind over 20 knots.

Unfortunately these sorts of calculations go completely out the window here in Perth due to the seaweed factor. Some days great totally clear can hammer upwind, some days upwinding is a real chore. What makes it worse is you never really know until you're out there. All us Perth foilers have our theories about seaweed but we can never properly predict it, plus it changes over the course of an afternoon. We do have a really active downwind scene though and easy logistics so generally much easier just to do a shuttle.