Manera Pocket Wing Belt Overview

Jeff met up with Billy Ackerman from F-One on the beach at the KoGL Test Fest to take a look at the Manera Pocket Wing Belt, a combo harness and stowing pouch for the growing sport of parawinging. As riders progress in parawinging, they start to depower the parawing to surf without being pulled. It's fine to simply hold the collapsed parawing while on the wave, but it's so much better to be able to pack it away entirely and ride hands-free.

Manera Pocket Wing Belt Features

While other brands offer stowing pouches for parawings, Manera has taken a different approach with a side-entry system. One "handy" feature is that the belt is completely ambidextrous. The hook on the front can be flipped either way, allowing for a right-handed or left-handed stash depending on your preference.

Close-up of the back of the Manera pocket wing belt showing that it can be used right or left handed.

The belt comes in various sizes and serves a dual purpose. First and foremost, it is a harness. Even if your main intention isn't to stash a wing, it functions as a high-quality wing or parawing harness.

The Importance of a Harness

Jeff and Billy both recommend using a harness once you begin learning parawinging or winging. Using a harness line significantly increases your efficiency and upwind ability. It allows you to hold the power down more effectively and saves energy, which you can then use for carving while going downwind. It makes the entire experience a lot more enjoyable.

Billy demonstrates how the pocket belt works as a harness.

How to Pack the Wing

Billy demonstrates the three-part process to pack the wing into the belt while foiling on a wave. While it might look complex at first, it becomes very fluid once you understand the concept of how to pack it properly for a clean redeployment.

Step 1: Run your hand down the leading edge "A" lines to collapse the wing and bring the cells together as you put the bar into the loop on the side of the belt, using it as a handle to pull the harness around until you can reach the pocket on the back of it.

Billy demonstrates where to insert the bar handle on the belt.

Step 2: Now that your bar hand is free, you can insert the wing into the larger belt pocket cells-first. Gather up the rest of the wing, encasing the bridle inside the canopy so they don't tangle, and tuck that into the pocket as well. This ensures the wing is in the proper orientation inside the pocket.

Billy wraps the bridle lines inside the canopy before folding it into the belt pocket.

Step 3: Once the canopy is secured into the belt, Slide the bar into the outside pocket that's layered on top of the wing pocket.

Billy stows the bar in its own pocket on top of the parawing.

With the parawing tucked out of the way, the rider is ready to shred hands-free with the wing ready to re-deploy at a moment's notice.

The wing and bar stowed inside the belt.

Redeploying the Wing

The Manera belt's pocket design yields a high "redeploy rate," meaning the wing is less likely to tangle or be in the wrong orientation compared to a pouch when you pull it back out. The steps for a successful redeploy are simple:

Pull the bar out from the outside flap first. You can tuck the bar under your arm or hold it with one hand to keep it clear of the bridle lines. The key is to grab a leading edge cell near the wingtip. This ensures the canopy is in the correct orientation. As the rest of the wing drops free of the pocket, the canopy opens fully and effortlessly without the resistance or "bobbling" that happens when a wing is stuffed into a pouch haphazardly.

If you just roll the wing up and shove it in without following this method it won't redeploy as nicely, but with a little instruction and practice, the side-entry of the Manera Pocket Wing Belt provides an excellent solution for riders looking to stash their wing and focus on the foil.

Billy redeploys the wing from the pocket wing belt.