Parawing Review: Naish Morph with Ewan Jaspan

Video Transcript

TJ: Parawinging! It’s here, Ewan.
Ewan: Yeah, we’re on!
TJ: Oh my gosh. Naish is the first to the parawing party here at Big Winds. We just received the new Naish Morph 3 m and 4 m – a couple of the key sizes for us here in the Gorge. And Ewan actually had a chance to get out on the 4 m yesterday.
Ewan: Yeah I was on the 4 m for my first Gorge parawinging session. I kinda have been taking them around on winter travels, but it’s a whole other beast here in the Gorge. I think it’s definitely one of the places you’re gonna want a parawing.
TJ: Oh man, you guys had a lot to do with the design of this particular one based on a couple of models already on the market right now.
Ewan: Yes.
TJ: You’re kinda taking it to the next step – next level.
Ewan: Yeah, for sure. On Maui, where we’re all kinda based with R&D, we saw the birth of the sport there. So we’re early to be like this is something we want to get into. We got our hands on some of the really early ones, and put our ideas on. Matt, who is the main designer behind the parawing – he’s also a really high level paraglider. So that’s really good knowledge to bring over as well. His experience and all his hard work, and the team that we have – from Robby who has seen the birth of many sports – and the experience from the rest of the team. I think we’ve come out with a super strong product.
TJ: Cool. Maybe run through some things that make the Naish Morph parawing different than some others out there. Just start with the bar in your hand. It looks different.
Ewan: So the bar, we’ve got this pulley system which gives the wing really good range, and stability. We’ve tried with and without the pulleys, and lots of different bride configurations. And the pulley definitely gives it that range and stability to fly off the front lines, which is extremely important for your top-end control. Some of the earlier parawings you might have seen, um, if you hang off the front when you’re really powered you get the front collapsing, which is pretty hard to deal with, and hard to keep the foil balanced and hang off here on the front. One feature that I love about it is coming from a lot of kiting, and hating the depower line through the middle, is we’ve got a completely free bar here. Most parawings have the “B” lines coming through the middle here on a velcro, which kinda slides as well. But we’ve got a fully free bar, which is really nice to tack and jibe and maneuver, and stow it. And also it’s really nice to have the free grip – just simple, easy bar to use.
TJ: And coming off the bar we’ve got three different line placements. I love how you guys have them color coordinated.
Ewan: Yeah. So the red goes to the top, which matches the leading edge, which is also quite important. Orientation – especially when you’re getting it out of the water or redeploying the wing – orientation is so important. Knowing what’s up and where to throw it. Even if you’re just sitting in the water, and it’s kinda in a bit of a mess, which happens – especially when you’re learning – you kinda want to know which way to pull it out of the water and face it to launch it.
TJ: So the color coordination is brilliant. The red bridles being the leading edge. And the leading edge itself being red, so you know where to pull it and orientate it. Tell me a little bit about the structure here. These ribs have a something going on …
Ewan: Yeah, so the nylon ribs in there hold a bit of structure, and hold the profile of the leading edge. We also, as you were saying before, it keeps it quite organized, when you stow it.
TJ: Yeah, it like accordians together.
Ewan: So that’s really nice. Also holds a bit more structure over time as well, having it like that. So you know your wing will last longer and not blow out.
TJ: What about this material?
Ewan: The material is a really high-end, lightweight material – more than you would see in foil kites and paragliders than like a regular Teijin ripstop like you would see in kites.
TJ: So not the QuadTex used in the kites.
Ewan: We had that in early versions, and sure it’s going to hold up and last forever. But it’s going to pack down big, and it’s heavy. With these things lightweight is really important.
TJ: I mean, look at the 4 meter. It packs down so small. I love it. Now, you guys have a belt that comes with it?
Ewan: Yeah, we’ve got a belt that’s coming at the moment. It’s not here yet, obviously. But it’s in the works. That’s coming soon. For now, there’s many different ways you can stow it yourself. I’ve actually been using just a jacket that has a zip like a water jacket that’s made for kiting. I just stuff it in there. But we (Naish) will have a nice dedicated one coming soon.
TJ: Now, in terms of performance, what sets the Naish Morph apart from maybe those generation 1 parawings and pocket wings that we’ve seen the in the past. Like, give me some features that you felt yesterday when you were riding it that you guys are poud of.
Ewan: So the upwind ability I think is really really good. I think it’s market leading with the pulley and just the design and flex profile. So that really helps when you’re going upwind, and manage the gusts, and point it higher without getting the frontal collapses as well. And it’s a nice balance – some of the early parawings were low-apsect that maybe gets you a bit more up-and-go power but doesn’t drive upwind as well. And then the super high-aspect ones – sure they may rocket upwind but they’re really not powerful to get going.
TJ: Yeah we’ve seen that with kites, right?
Ewan: Yeah, so there’s a lot of stuff that you transfer over from the paraglider world to the winging world, which we have expertise in all those fields at Naish. So we kinda found a good balance of aspect ratio, draft position and depth and all that. So I think the upwind ability is great. It packs really easily and small. And the pack up is not just about how small it crunches up, but the bridle system, all the color coding, how manage it, how the bar is – it’s all that. Then the Morph – I think the wind range is really great. When I first rode gen 1 parawings, you either couldn’t get up on foil, or you could get up and you were overpowered.
TJ: It’s got like 4 knots of wind range.
Ewan: If that. So this one, it really helps if you just wanna get one size and get a much bigger usable range. And not to talk too much about other brands – but I know some people with the “white” ones have to have like four sizes in their quiver. If they want to go out in 15-25 knots, which isn’t even a big range, but every couple of knots they’re having to resize, resize, resize.
TJ: I had that experience …
Ewan: And you see guys going out with a parawing stuffed in here, a parawing stuffed in here, and parawing up there. So the Morph has a much bigger range, which is really useful.
TJ: Yeah, I was reading something about how that pulley system does something to the trailing edge where it like cuffs it and it actually lets it flare out so it expands that high-end wind range.
Ewan: It kinda helps with low-end power cupping/catching more, and also when you’re depowering it kinda helps keep the profile nicer – it keeps a stable platform so it doesn’t get unruly when you’re flying off the top here.
TJ: Awesome. Yeah, so pack down ability – pack small, better wind range, and better upwind ability. Those are the three things boxes we’re trying to check.
Ewan: So where’s the market now this is definitely the … it’s there. It’s at the top.
TJ: We’re so glad to have these in the shop. I can’t wait to try one. Can you talk about boards a little bit? Like, what you use?
Ewan: Yeah, let’s go through the boards. It’s definitely – the boards are an interesting one. And it’s something we’re still dialing in a little bit — especially yesterday was my first parawinging in fresh water. I noticed a lot more on the parawing the difference between salt water and fresh water – the buoyancy. I would actually say the thing that I was most excited about with parawinging was riding a prone board on a downwinder, which is like the dream. And I’ve done a few of those, but it was nuking wind, you just get up and stow it, and huge pumping swell and you’re out there on your prone board in the middle of the ocean just like, this is mental. But in reality, unless the conditions are perfect, you kinda want a little more float. Same as winging. You can get stranded on a sinker board. And the other thing is, you still – you can get up easiest if you go to a downwind board SUP. You’re gonna get the best low-end wind range. But I think something like this, which is our Naish Crossover Hover board that’s more of a midlength, still like floats well. I would – this is the 105. Personally I would take the 85 – I think that would be – 6’4″ 85 liters. I think for me that’s going to be the board. I’m always floating. Yesterday it was 10-22 knots. And in the 17-18 knots and below I was struggling to get my 50 liter board just to the surface. Once you can get the board to the surface, you can pump and use the swell to generate speed to get going. But you need a bit of wind to get going. You can’t pump a parawing quite as hard as a wing to get that initial grunt to get to the surface. I think a board that floats you, or is close to floating you – I’m 78 kg which is a 170-ish pounds – I think something just under your bodyweight in liters in kilos is probably a pretty good place to go.
TJ: That’s so cool. Like when we saw the birth of SUP foil, and we were trying to figure out boards, and then wing came around and there was no such thing as a wing board. We just used SUP foil boards. Now parawing is coming out and it’s like – what do we do? Do we do wing boards, midlength, crossover or downwind? It seems like anything is going to work.
Ewan: Anything works. And I’ve seen people kinda market boards as parawing boards. I think where wing boards are going was a bit more of the midlength – a bit more this kind of style, or the Naish Chimera style, which is longer narrower, which just helps with planing speed on the water to get going. I mean you can go with a much longer narrower board – like SUP foiling. The width being so narrow means you can lean the board over on turns and it feels like such a smaller board than what it is. It’s really width that’s more of a hinderance on foil than length, I would say. So … yeah. I’d say these – Naish Crossover Hover – are what’s going to become the style of parawing boards. Who knows what the future is. But for now I’d say something long and narrow, similar liters to your weight in Kilos would be great. It is actually – one thing I will say is – I found it a little easier to balance on the board on a parawing because you can fly the parawing with one hand at full power. Yeah, so to get up on your board you can use your free hand. On a traditional wing, to get any power in the wing, unless you’re on a boom wing, which is still a little hard to fly one handed – the parawing is so controllable one hand you can use your other hand to balance. So if you’re on that awkward weight – a lot of people find there’s that weight between a full sinker and a floating board that’s quite difficult. On the parawing that’s actually a perfect kind of size because you’ve got – from the get go a little bit of stability from the parawing with the power and forward movement. But you can go – I’ve always found a 65 liter winging is difficult for me. But for parawinging it’s a good thing.
TJ: There you have it folks. Ewan, I want you to get over to Maui. I know you’re headed over there tomorrow. You don’t have to wear your gloves. You’re back in the salt water flotation. And get yourself some parawinging action in over there. And come back to the Gorge because we are fired up on this new sport. You guys welcome to the future. Yes, one more new thing to add to the quiver. And boy, Naish – I think you guys hit the nail on the head. Nice work.
Ewan: Cheers.
TJ: Thanks for joining us. See you on the water!