Ensis Roger Review | Is This the Ultimate Parawing for Your Kit?
Tucker just got off the water with the Ensis Roger parawing and... wait. Didn't we just have that Arctic blast? Wow, that's... dedication? Madness? A bit of both? Anyway, the pictures don't lie, and neither does Tucker. Here are his honest thoughts after a bit of a breezy, hectic session in the frigid Lake Michigan water.
Ensis Roger Features
The molded plastic bar is sturdy and has a nice oval-shaped grip that's very easy and comfortable to hold onto without sliding around. It gives you a good sense of where your hand is indexed on the bar, which is especially important to know on parawings. If you're overpowered, you'll want to grip a bit higher.
The big red ball in the center is the safety brake line. The bar isn't long enough to stall out the wing, so they designed this center line to fold the parawing in half and collapse it when you pull the safety. It's easy to reset by simply re-seating it by pulling the line back through. It's simple and effective.
The bridle design is unique among parafoils. There are no splits in the lines; a single line runs straight from the bridle anchor all the way out to the canopy. It's smooth and makes it less likely to tangle, and if you do get a tangle, it's that much easier to work out.
The lines that go to the leading edge are blue, while the rest are white. That side of the bar is blue as well. This makes it a no-brainer when you're gathering up your lines to relaunch the wing after riding with it tucked away.
The canopy colors aren't just there to be pretty, either. They actually give you a visual cue as to what's what. The leading edge is pink, and the right side wingtip is blue. This is a huge help when you're getting ready to toss the wing back out or if you get a bit washed about after a tumble into the waves. The rest of the canopy is a classy dark grey color.
The canopy material is 3x3 ripstop. It's not the lightest material out there, but these wings are made to be scrunched up and relaunched multiple times during a session, and Ensis did a great job of picking a material that will stand up to that and hold its shape and performance while still being quite light and easy to fly. It's durable and stiff enough to stand up to the constant yanking on the bridle attachment points and being eaten by waves.
In spite of being a little more robust than other canopy materials, it still packs down very small. Even if you're just wadding it into a ball to ride a wave unpowered, it's still tiny and gets out of your way. It's even smaller when you pack it carefully after a session or for travel.
Tucker's Review
Right now only the 3m is available, so as a heavier rider at 200 lbs Tucker could only go out on higher wind days, 20 knots or above. He was on a mid-length downwind board and a mid-size foil. Even though it was gusting up to 35-40 knots, he was completely comfortable and having a lot of fun. It had a wide wind range and the wing was well-behaved, controllable, and surprisingly stable for a parawing in those conditions.
Compared to other parawings, the bar pressure was a bit softer and didn't feel like it was trying to yank his arm off. It tended to slide forward in the wind window a bit easier, which gave it more range and easier upwind ability. Both of these characteristics made it easier to ride one-handed without a harness line.
While a harness line isn't necessary for this particular wing most of the time, Tucker tried a few and found that a hard harness line, a mono line, or a windsurf-style line worked best. The rope style tended to slide around too much and get up into the bridles since there's nothing on the bar to stop it from moving.
Tucker was really amped on the Ensis Roger and is looking forward to getting out this spring on the bigger sizes that are in the works.
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