Dominic from Foil Drive has been putting g in a lot of time using the Foil Drive to fill in the gaps on the parawing learning curve . I also saw the Flitelab guys doing the same at Hood River . Great way to speed up
the learning process . ?feature=shared

I think this is too funny. The learning process is learning to get up. Once your up the rest is pretty easy. Just better to use an adequate board instead so at least you are learning the pumping on to foil technique that you can improve on as you shrink the board till you find your sweet spot.

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AnyBoard said..
I think this is too funny. The learning process is learning to get up. Once your up the rest is pretty easy. Just better to use an adequate board instead so at least you are learning the pumping on to foil technique that you can improve on as you shrink the board till you find your sweet spot.

Shhhhh, you're interrupting the Foil Drive ad. ;)

Been experimenting with combining FD with para like Dom. The biggest advantage I've found is using a smaller board and para than conditions would normally allow. Generally if I can keep the para in the air I can get foiling.
But
Experienced Parawingers only, definitely not a cheat code for beginners. Controlling the throttle and para at the same time takes practice.
No sinker boards unless you're super human.
Even if you can get up, upwind performance of a para isn't great in the light stuff.
Use a trigger guard, it's easy to bump the trigger at the wrong time and the prop will mince anything near it.
If you plan to run upwind and FD back a waterproof wet backpack is preferred. Falling means a packed exposed para sucks up a lot of water and can become quite heavy.

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CFL Foiler said..

AnyBoard said..
I think this is too funny. The learning process is learning to get up. Once your up the rest is pretty easy. Just better to use an adequate board instead so at least you are learning the pumping on to foil technique that you can improve on as you shrink the board till you find your sweet spot.

Shhhhh, you're interrupting the Foil Drive ad. ;)

I love my PW but the thought of having the stupid thing hanging above my head if I could afford a foildrive???? Maybe foil drivers are getting bored?

Jokingly call it crossing the streams. I love my FD but if I can be wind powered I never use the FD or even consider it. The weight and drag penalty is to high and as said above your just skipping over an important skill which is the start. For pw that's huge.

The use case of combining FD with PW is the ability to use smaller front wings, PW's and boards in stronger winds.
PW's have a small wind range, even the newer versions, this is further reduced when using small front wings and boards. The smaller the equipment you are using the more wind is required to get going, once up you often overpowered not only by PW size but also the higher apparent wind generated.
The FD cures this by providing the thrust to get up to foiling speed, something the PW just can't do.
I'm currently using the FD Slim due to it's relatively lightweight, only used for getting going, 6' x 82lts board and 996sqcm wing.

parawing was supposed to be a more minimalist version of winging. Now we are going maximalist. Pass.

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Velocicraptor said..
parawing was supposed to be a more minimalist version of winging. Now we are going maximalist. Pass.

Not really now you will now be able to use smaller boards , foils & Para plus the safety aspect to motor home if it all goes pear shaped.. The smallest Slim FD unit only weighs 3.7kg with battery and only 25mm thick. The axis board in the video is 4-11 & Adam Bennett's was assisted Para winging on the 4-2 Amp jet board with an 808 foil, What the video I put up doesn't show is you can flat water launch on the FD stand up then deploy the Para same goes for getting to the wind line. I'm just back from Hood River and the Para scene was mental it is so big and every major company is bringing out Para specific boards new Para's and all are heavily invested in the power assist market . It's not just Foil Drive it's Duotone , Flitelab , Lift assist & Manta and more are coming to market. With the addition of the mini pods the drag of the motor is gone. F-one , Duotone , Armstrong , AK , Slingshot , North , Axis , Code & even KT have an integrated mini pod mast. For sure there were plenty of crew ripping at Hood without any power assist but you'd be really surprised how many others were using it and it's pretty big in Europe ATM and growing fast.

I'm not here to flog Foil Drive I'm just showing you what's possible what's happening overseas. Motor out to the wind line , Para upwind as far as you want to go .Pack your Para up neat and dry , flat water start on the FD and DW home on a much smaller board and foil , quick touch of the trigger if you are going to come down off foil , no need to re-deploy . Wind drops gear failure just motor back to shore & no need to carry different size Para's as some do to suit wind conditions. and on top of all the it really does shorten the learning process. If you want to hate on it that's fine no skin off my nose . It's like when I showed Wing Dinging at it's inception , the knockers all said" they are inflatable pool toys , you'll never be able to use them in the surf and you'll never be able to jump them".......... mmmmmmm

I get you can use a small board and foil but the weight penalty voids any gains imho. As mentioned above the joy of pwing is simplicity and a light board when up on foil is a joy.

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hilly said..
I get you can use a small board and foil but the weight penalty voids any gains imho. As mentioned above the joy of pwing is simplicity and a light board when up on foil is a joy.

Agree.
And not trying to make fun of it. Just saying that it's not a replacement for the pure feeling of just being wind and swell powered. I was chatting with Dom and I was shocked to hear him say that he never parawings without the FD. Feels like you're missing some serious magic just to have a backup plan.

This seems like an extremely niche use case. This set up would only be beneficial if you have light winds, too light to get up on the Pwing and you want to do a foildrive downwinder but can't shuttle. If you can shuttle then just do a foil drive downwinder. If you have wind you'd be much better off with just the Pwing and no foil drive.

The addition of the foil drive, with the weight and drag of the prop and battery would totally negate any benefits of being on a smaller board or foil.

The vid of Dom riding doesn't look fun at all. He's basically just mowing the lawn and breaking it up with a bit of downwind pumping and finger blasting. He would have been much better off just wingfoiling. He could have had a lot more speed, power and performance equipment just using a regular wing.

Yeah for sure all good points and agree for mowing the lawn what's the point unless you're learning I suppose. I should have said this is aimed at upwind DW. Just like to add the small boards only weigh 3 kg not 6kg like some bigger boards so most of the weight of the FD is offset . There definitely is no replacing the freedom of the Para . For the way I'll be using it is to try and avoid the shuttle , you just tear up the battery to fast on the smaller FD punching upwind . I'll be motoring out to the wind line and para up wind 20 or 30k like Dom is doing now and DW with the Para packed away . I'm starting from scratch so let's see how my progression goes .

Wish I'd had my FD fitted yesterday. Conditions were crazy, was on my 2.9, 1250 span wing, big swells rolling through. The wind was up and down, needed the 2.9 and biggish front wing just to get going and then only in a gust. Once up, fully lit trying to pilot the big wing through the swells which were sometimes breaking.
Then once on the swells the big wing was too much, crazy speeds down the faces.
Next time I'm definitely having the FD fitted, could have got going on a 2mtr PW and 900sqcm wing, much more comfortable.

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Piros said..only weigh 3 kg not 6kg like some bigger boards so most of the weight of the FD is offset .

yeh nah FD max is 7kg at least and my 106l pwing board is under 5kg. Not many 3kg boards about.
Rode a 4 2 flitelab raw the other day fark that is light. But still almost 3kg.

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hilly said..

Piros said..only weigh 3 kg not 6kg like some bigger boards so most of the weight of the FD is offset .

yeh nah FD max is 7kg at least and my 106l pwing board is under 5kg. Not many 3kg boards about.
Rode a 4 2 flitelab raw the other day fark that is light. But still almost 3kg.

Rob was commenting on the Slim, not the Max, the Slim is all you need for pop ups.

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Piros said..
Dominic from Foil Drive has been putting g in a lot of time using the Foil Drive to fill in the gaps on the parawing learning curve . I also saw the Flitelab guys doing the same at Hood River . Great way to speed up
the learning process .

?feature=shared

How much and what's the warranty?

Equipment choice is so important. Fd might be making up for poor foil and board choices. If wind is light then you will want your bigger dw foil anyway. For me 900 eagle x and midlength board will get me up when there is barely enough wind to stay up with the parawing.
if the wind is stronger then the foils size drops and it's easier to get up with more bump assistance and good wind. fd seems to be a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Mid length board in the bumps feels close enough to how my prone feels in waves as it sort of scaled with foil size.

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AnyBoard said..
Equipment choice is so important. Fd might be making up for poor foil and board choices. If wind is light then you will want your bigger dw foil anyway. For me 900 eagle x and midlength board will get me up when there is barely enough wind to stay up with the parawing.
if the wind is stronger then the foils size drops and it's easier to get up with more bump assistance and good wind. fd seems to be a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Mid length board in the bumps feels close enough to how my prone feels in waves as it sort of scaled with foil size.

Not all of us are Kai Lenny or on the right side of 60yrs. Any help from a foil assist is much appreciated.

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airsail said..

AnyBoard said..
Equipment choice is so important. Fd might be making up for poor foil and board choices. If wind is light then you will want your bigger dw foil anyway. For me 900 eagle x and midlength board will get me up when there is barely enough wind to stay up with the parawing.
if the wind is stronger then the foils size drops and it's easier to get up with more bump assistance and good wind. fd seems to be a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Mid length board in the bumps feels close enough to how my prone feels in waves as it sort of scaled with foil size.

Not all of us are Kai Lenny or on the right side of 60yrs. Any help from a foil assist is much appreciated.

Have you tried a larger board? A neutral or +10 board should not take much effort to get on foil if you are on the right size pw. Sinkers on the other hand will require sizing up one or two sizes on the pw, making for a pretty tiring ride once up unless you are doing a dw run and packing away. Personally would choose a larger board over adding a FD to the mix. But different strokes for different folks, if your having fun then you're doing it right.

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airsail Rob was commenting on the Slim, not the Max, the Slim is all you need for pop ups.

Ah now I see the plan! Everyone needs a FD Slim to go with their FD Max

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airsail said..

AnyBoard said..
Equipment choice is so important. Fd might be making up for poor foil and board choices. If wind is light then you will want your bigger dw foil anyway. For me 900 eagle x and midlength board will get me up when there is barely enough wind to stay up with the parawing.
if the wind is stronger then the foils size drops and it's easier to get up with more bump assistance and good wind. fd seems to be a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Mid length board in the bumps feels close enough to how my prone feels in waves as it sort of scaled with foil size.

Not all of us are Kai Lenny or on the right side of 60yrs. Any help from a foil assist is much appreciated.

Hahahahah You picked it. 59 so i guess that qualifies for the right side of 60.

Seriously though in my experience the board must be +10l and not under 6 foot. This makes a massive difference to using the bumps to get up. Finally I would add that despite all the poor information out there all parawings aren't equal at getting up on the bottom end and only a few excel.


Hilly might be on to something there. The warehouse would be full of unloved slim units.

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AnyBoard said..

airsail said..

AnyBoard said..
Equipment choice is so important. Fd might be making up for poor foil and board choices. If wind is light then you will want your bigger dw foil anyway. For me 900 eagle x and midlength board will get me up when there is barely enough wind to stay up with the parawing.
if the wind is stronger then the foils size drops and it's easier to get up with more bump assistance and good wind. fd seems to be a solution for a problem that doesn't exist. Mid length board in the bumps feels close enough to how my prone feels in waves as it sort of scaled with foil size.

Not all of us are Kai Lenny or on the right side of 60yrs. Any help from a foil assist is much appreciated.

Hahahahah You picked it. 59 so i guess that qualifies for the right side of 60.

Seriously though in my experience the board must be +10l and not under 6 foot. This makes a massive difference to using the bumps to get up. Finally I would add that despite all the poor information out there all parawings aren't equal at getting up on the bottom end and only a few excel.


Hilly might be on to something there. The warehouse would be full of unloved slim units.

Duotone are about to drop their assist, it's got a waist mounted battery. It will be of no use for parawing due to tangles with the cable and battery pouch. But cheap Slim units will appear on the market as high end riders swap, picked my Slim unit up for not much more than a new parawing.