Packing your wing
In this article we’ll discuss some techniques we use when packing parakites on the beach and some tips on how to store them at home.
Things to lookout for
Before we get started with the techniques it’s important to understand some of the factors that are important when packing and storing your wing.
Below are parts of a parakite written down. We describe how we do it with our Dune Rider Scrapers & Hoppers. If you have another brand parakite it can be different. Always check your manual for what’s best for your parakite.
Rods
Most parakites have rods in the leading edge that aren’t fragile as long as you don’t store them tightly in a certain shape for a long time.
Fabric
Same as the rods. As long as you don’t keep it tightly for a long time it won’t have any memory of you stuffing it in the bag.
Lines
For Kevlar lines it’s important to prevent sharp bends as this weakens the line. For dyneema lines this is less important.
Packing techniques we use on the beach
Before we get started we just want to say that there are a million ways to pack your glider and as long as you keep the things from the previous paragraph in mind there really isn’t a wrong way.
The methods here are just the ones we use because of their speed and ease of use.
1. Quickpack
We use this technique when we want to be really fast. Most often when there’s rain coming.
Upsides
- It’s really fast
- If you keep the risers connected to your harness you can immediately start flying again when you take it out of the bag.
Downsides
- It’s bigger than if you were to roll it up.
- If not done nicely there’s a big chance of tangles
How to do it
We’ve created a video on Instagram on how to do this technique. Watch the video here:
2. Rolling it from a mushroom/fieldpack
We normally use this technique when we are not going to use a wing anymore that day or are packing to go home.
This method is a lot smaller but takes a little bit longer than quickpacking the wing.
Upsides
- It’s less messy than quickpacking.
- Packs down smaller than quickpacking. Ideal for getting as many wings as possible in a backpack.
Downsides
- It’s more work than quickpacking.
- Unfolding the wing is also takes longer.
How to do it
We’ve created a video on Instagram on how to do this technique. Watch the video here:
Storing your wing at home
After you come back home from the beach it’s important you store your wing correctly.
If you don’t. The lifespan of your wing can become significantly less.
To maximize the lifespan of your glider do the following things:
1. Dry
Make sure your storage place is dry. If your glider is moist the lines and fabric will shrink.
If it’s still wet when it goes into storage there’s also a chance mold will grow on it.
So dry your glider before you store it if it got wet.
2. Loosely
As you read in this article the glider doesn’t like to be stored very tightly packed.
We try to store our gliders laid out with no hard folds in it.
This will prevent your rods from getting permanent bends in it and keep your fabric more crinkle free.
3. Dark
Keep it out of direct sunlight. UV is the big killer when it comes to our gliders.
4. External factors
Animals, warm water pipes, lamps, children and more. As you can imagine all of the above can cause damage to your glider.
As an example of damage that happened during storage.
In the images here you can see a friends Zeolite that got burned in storage because a lamp got too close and warm.
Final word
Thanks for reading this article! I hope you learned something.
We will try to continue making articles like this to share with the community.
If you have any topics you’d like us to talk about join our WhatsApp group and let us know! We’re always open for ideas!
This article is completely free but if you do want to support us checkout our soaring lessons or when you buy a Dune Rider Hopper use our code “paraglidingisfun”.
This code gives you a 10% discount on our lessons.
Thanks in advance!
See you in the air 🙂