013_Ken Adgate: Expert Parawing techniques, tips, hacks and modifications!

Season #1 May 25, 2025

In this episode we speak with Ken Adgate an Ozone ambassador and Mikeslab foils team rider. Wow, this episode is packed with so much information and sits at the top shelf for those seeking to learn new moves, riding tips, parawing mods… this list is long. Ken shares step by step brake-downs of fundamental moves like jibes, land drills and stowing, and keeps the good stuff coming with more advanced techniques like tacking, downloops, sinker starts.

I learned so much from Ken and I’m stoked he will be in Hood River during the same time I’ll be there! Looking to soak up as much as I can from his many years of riding and all his experience in wind sports. Looking forward to some epic session together!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:00)
Ken Adgate, now you have the parawinging bug. Welcome to the podcast. What are your views on ⁓ the freestyle discipline for parowing? Why do you think people are gravitating to the parowing?

Speaker 1 (00:08)
For me, no.

⁓ easy. The foils you could ride, the boards you could ride.

Speaker 2 (00:15)
Let's talk a little bit about technique. Tell us a little bit about your tacking. Do you have a sinker, water star technique? Also talk about when to initiate the download.

Speaker 1 (00:22)
So like I go in the trick with the extreme amount of speed, you bring it behind you and do that motion, pull the seat, the outside seat.

Speaker 2 (00:30)
I

think once that's dialed, that's gonna look really nice. Do you have any kind of land drills that you recommend people do?

Speaker 1 (00:35)
I think you can make huge strides playing around with it on land brand new out of box I cut and splice nine inches like the flows the flows have an amazing line I stiffen up my lines with that's a good hack I got tumbled in a wave and Felt the lines wrap around my feet be ready for it. I'm on the edge all the time. So

Speaker 2 (00:55)
I'd to be with you in Hood River, man.

Speaker 1 (00:57)
The there is going to be epic for you in

Daniel Paronetto (01:11)
Welcome to the lab rat foiler podcast. My name is Dan and today we have Ken Adgate. Ken is he's been involved in wind sports and board sports for a long, long time. Ken you've seen a lot of the wind sports and foil disciplines start from the very beginning. ⁓ and now you have the parawinging bug. So welcome to the podcast.

KEN ADGATE (01:32)
Thank you for having me.

Daniel Paronetto (01:34)
Ken, we're going to be talking about a lot of stuff. and we'd like to get a little bit of background on you before we get started, but Ken's also a board shaper and board designer. You can see in the background there, he has, ⁓ one of his shapes being done for Sinbad, which is pretty cool. We'll touch on that. ⁓ so we'll definitely double click on board design for parawinging think you have an interesting take on what you think is working, what's going to work for different disciplines within parawinging as well. So.

Ken, before we start diving deep into parawinging, I saw, I was just going through your Instagram feed and the very first thing I saw was you sending a ralley behind the boat. ⁓ Is that how you started in your board sports journey and wakeboarding?

KEN ADGATE (02:13)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, so we moved to Riavista when I was like 15, which is right next to a river. So my dad got a boat and then every day after work we would convince him to take us out and we'd go wakeboarding until dark almost every single night. So me and my brother grew up wakeboarding every single night. So yeah, yeah, it's a great background, water background to go into kiteboarding for sure.

Daniel Paronetto (02:36)
It's a good one.

Yeah. Is that how you progressed? started with wakeboarding. How did you get into foiling?

KEN ADGATE (02:48)
⁓ So there was a lot of days I'd sit on a sit in a dry wetsuit on the beach just like watching these guys go out Mike and and Vlad and a couple of local guys that were foiling and and at first I was like, that's that's lame I'm like I'll never do that and then it got to a point where I was sitting on and I only rode boots back then so you need probably 18 miles an hour at least to even have fun even with a 12 meter Vegas so

Daniel Paronetto (03:11)
Mmm. Mmm.

KEN ADGATE (03:15)
I was sitting there and like, God, I got to try this. mean, they're at least on the water. So that's what that kind of what got me going into the foiling. And then it got to a point where they were they're like doing laps around me. I'm like, OK, well, I want to get good enough for if I do line up with them, I don't look like a kook. So ⁓ and then it just became competitive like everything else in my life.

Daniel Paronetto (03:37)
Yeah, how was that progression from kiteboarding into kite? Foiling was the first one? Kitefoiling, is that where you started?

KEN ADGATE (03:43)
Yeah, kite foiling. So I bought a sword two from Johnny Heineken out of all people, which I didn't know who he was at the time. So that's funny. ⁓ And then, just ⁓ went out there and was was riding. I did want to buy a Mikeslab after meeting him, but he's just like, kid, you're not you're not ready for it. So ⁓ so that was another goal is to get good enough for he would consider me someone he would sell it to. So money was no wasn't something that he was interested in back then. It was all about getting the foils to the

Daniel Paronetto (03:57)
Mm.

Nice. Yep.

KEN ADGATE (04:13)
the to the top riders. So I wanted to be in that category. so

Daniel Paronetto (04:17)
Nice.

I have a very similar background coming from like just doing wakeboard work, like wake style, kiting into kite foiling. I remember when I first started kite foiling after that, I think I touched the twin tip maybe three or four times. I just got completely sucked into it. ⁓ and, then winging and then proning and then all these different disciplines. but tell us a little bit about your, ⁓

journey after that. you did kite foiling, obviously then wing foiling came on and did you catch onto that pretty quick?

KEN ADGATE (04:50)
I thought it was stupid. looked at, I don't know, I don't know. Our buddy Billy Eckman, I have to give him a shout out because without Billy here, none of us would probably be winging at least as early as we were because he kind of showed me the light when I was riding in Dillon, which is a good wave spot. It was terrible when I was on a strapless surfboard, just kind of mowing the lawn.

Daniel Paronetto (04:53)
Why do we do that?

Mmm.

KEN ADGATE (05:17)
and he was just ripping on waves just and it was terrible gusty nasty wind and he was just he was just flagging out and riding these sets and I'm like okay I want to get good enough just to be in that situation and then I'll stick with kiting still and ⁓ yeah it just became one of those things where it just it became funner and funner and as you get better you just get motivated to to get better so that's basic that's basically where it went and

Daniel Paronetto (05:38)
Hmm. Yeah. A hundred percent. dude. It's so similar

to myself as well. We have this, the, this little pushback at first, cause it looks horrible, but then you understand like what it opens up for you in water, in the water and time that you can do something in the water. That's going to be more enjoyable than like you said, maybe just having a surfboard and the kite. And, and for me right now, it's just maximizing whatever's good on the day. You know, if it's a.

a winging day, great. If it's a good kite foiling day, great. Have fun with everything.

KEN ADGATE (06:12)
Yeah, and that's the same thing I think too, is I'm a condition rider. So if it's flat and it's windy, I'll go strapless or forward. Or if it's like super glassy behind our islands, I'll go on boots still. ⁓ So it's just condition based. So it's funny, like what's your favorite thing to do? I'm like, well, name the day and the location. So.

Daniel Paronetto (06:19)
Hmm.

Yeah, yeah,

give us the conditions and then we'll go from there. Yeah, I love that man.

KEN ADGATE (06:34)
Yeah, and then the

the parawing was the same thing with Billy. Billy got me and me and all of the local guys in the parawing. We thought it was the dumbest thing. And ⁓ and he's trying it on a sinker board and just struggling. And he just he did it all over again because he was the first guy winging and he was struggling on a sinker board with old gear. And then he did the and then he did the parawing of like, my God, this is terrible. And then

Daniel Paronetto (06:47)
Yeah.

Hmm. ⁓

KEN ADGATE (06:58)
I saw some stuff in Maui and I'm like, okay, I got to at least learn this because I think in Hood River, it's just going to be absolutely epic. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (07:01)
Yeah.

100%.

When were you in Maui that you saw it?

KEN ADGATE (07:09)
what it was when Greg first introduced it so Yeah, I think so and then I basically was gonna go up to him beg him to buy one and I'm like man I'm going home. It's that's not the conditions for it So I I basically beg Cynbad to ask him if I could buy one direct and then so I'll have one when I go back to Maui Which he was kind enough to do and I had in Maui and I had a great time

Daniel Paronetto (07:13)
Yeah, around September last year or something.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (07:36)
wasn't proficient at it and didn't definitely didn't have the right board for the for the sport. So then I came back and it was just like I told Johnny I was like we got to start making some parowing boards. So that's where that's where we've been and where we're going. So.

Daniel Paronetto (07:46)
Nice.

Yeah, a hundred percent, man. tell us, tell us a little bit about that initial contact with the parawing. think a lot of people are starting their journey now. ⁓ you said you might've been on the wrong board. What board did you start on?

KEN ADGATE (08:03)
I started on a wingboard, so it was a 410 by 19, probably 43 liters, I can't remember, 45 liters. Super small, you can make it work in Maui just because it's so windy, but it's not ideal. And then I built a parawing board for the next time I went back, and that was a 73 liter 511 by 19, 73 liters, and that was...

Daniel Paronetto (08:05)
Mm.

Yeah, small.

Hmm.

Nice.

KEN ADGATE (08:28)
That was pretty money.

Daniel Paronetto (08:30)
Yep.

KEN ADGATE (08:30)
A little bit big for winging, so I went back and made a 5'8 1/2 by 18 1/2 that's what I've been riding lately and that one I really like the size for my weight which is 180 so I'm like 80 something kilos. So it's kind of a perfect, a little bit of a sinker but planes really good. So no that's 62, 63. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (08:36)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Is that still 70 something liters that one 62? Yeah. Nice.

And have you felt that the, because 18 wide is pretty narrow still for a board. Um, why are you choosing to go so narrow? Do you feel like it, it just gives you that progression, uh, projection on the water and still stable enough?

KEN ADGATE (09:10)
Yeah, the other thing I've been noticing, I don't mind it. Some people like the offset of foot placement where they have a little more leverage on the rails. That's kind of why I've added quite a bit of deck concave is to give you some more input on your feet with not being so ⁓ angled on your front foot and back foot offset wise. So that's why I've been doing that. ⁓ For me, I'm riding

Daniel Paronetto (09:17)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (09:36)
like 80 mast, 77 to 80 mast. having more narrow board, can really pitch it over and really get aggressive with the foil and then you have zero rail interference. So that's another thing. But I do think the skinnier, longer shape, I find that it planes the fastest for me personally, but it could be different with other people.

Daniel Paronetto (09:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've been, I have a one to one weight to volume ratio board as well. So it's an 85 liter board, 5' 11 by 18. I enjoy that a lot. I can get up on pretty much any wind on that at the moment, like 15 knots, 14 knots on the right parawing I can get up, but I just ordered a new board because I wanted something thinner. That's like over six inches of thickness. And I think it's just too much. You feel a little disconnected from the board.

So now I'm going 5'8 by 20, 65 liters, just to really reduce that thickness. But now I'm like, that, you know, as soon as you lock in a board with a shaper, you're like, shit, I think I needed it a little bit, a little bit net less wide than that, whatever.

KEN ADGATE (10:44)
Yeah, what I did to offset that is I did a cockpit design so you can keep the side profile nice and kind of good looking in a way. It's not so thick and chunky. And then you could give yourself a little bit of a ⁓ raised deck ⁓ as far as the nose location and the tail location. And then it kind of gives you a nice footprint on the up slope on your front foot and up slope on your back foot. So you kind of know exactly where you're at on the board when you're when you're kind of moving around strapless, especially.

Daniel Paronetto (10:54)
Mmm.

That's interesting.

KEN ADGATE (11:14)
So it

kind of gives you a reference ⁓ all the time because you got a kick front kick rear kick for your front and back foot. And then, and then I have a deck concave, which gives you your input on where you're at standing on the, on the rails of the board. So, ⁓ and then I usually did. So I usually do a half inch deck concave and then an inch and a quarter of, of basically a cockpit. So, so figure it's an inch and three quarters ⁓ off of

Daniel Paronetto (11:20)
Mm-hmm.

That's pretty cool.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (11:43)
a seven inch block of foam. So it gets you a little bit more direct connection to the foil. So you feel a little bit, I don't know, it just feels a little bit nicer under your feet.

Daniel Paronetto (11:45)
That's awesome.

Yeah, what are your views on the volume distribution on the board? Do you carry a little bit more volume on the nose or you don't want that nose too high so it's not that draggy? know, the tail dragging on the water is really tough for parawinging.

KEN ADGATE (12:11)
So my designs are a little bit different than most. I run a lot of rocker. So the closest boards I would say to my style of system would be Frank's boards in Maui. He runs a lot of rocker, front rocker, just a continuous rocker. A lot of them have a rocker, a slow rocker, and then kind of a flat section, and then it has a tiny tail kick, if any. Mine have a lot of tail kick, like there's probably...

Daniel Paronetto (12:16)
Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (12:37)
two and a half inches behind the box of tail kick and then about five and three quarters of rocker in front of the box. So a decent amount, I mean it's kind of like a banana bottom. I find that it might not be the best for planing but you're gonna get everything.

Daniel Paronetto (12:40)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (12:59)
After that, you're gonna get, the touch sounds are gonna be amazing. The pumping is gonna be amazing. The rebound off the water is gonna be really good for those slow speeds, stall out speeds to pop it back up in foil. And then obviously tail interference, you're not gonna have any because it's going up, it's rocking up, right? Plus it's turning into that V-hole in the rear. So your rail clearance when you're turning, even though you have a lot of tail behind your back foot, it's not gonna affect you at all.

Daniel Paronetto (13:01)
Mm.

Interesting.

Yep.

That's awesome. That's the first time I'm hearing about that. Like a little bit more of an amplified rocker design for the boards. Cause everybody's like flat rocker as much as you can for that, you know, planing. ⁓ do you find that a kind of like, let's just call it a banana shape rocker. does it change the mast angle, the angle of attack of the mass, depending on where you are on the deck, I found a little bit tricky. Like sometimes they have a smaller sweet spot than boards that are flat.

Do you find that as well or do you find that's not a real issue? Or what does it give you? What's the benefit actually?

KEN ADGATE (13:59)
Yeah,

the benefit is you can control your deck angle much easier. ⁓ You don't have to change your thickness of your rocker to make your front portion of your rocker by your front foot thicker to give you some deck angle.

Daniel Paronetto (14:14)
Mm.

KEN ADGATE (14:15)
So that's the other thing about my boards that really no one's doing besides maybe F1. They're adding some deck rocker they call it, or I call it. So what I do is I take an inclinometer and zero it out on my mast or my tracks. And then I'll take a straight edge of where your front and back foot would be and then put the inclinometer there. And then we're finding like a 2.2 to 2.6 degree deck angle.

Daniel Paronetto (14:37)
Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (14:45)
in relationship to the ⁓ mass mount is a very comfortable ⁓ angle of attack versus zero. ⁓

Daniel Paronetto (14:52)
Yeah, it's interesting. I had

a downwind board that had that. and I found it a little bit tricky and I think it's more because of the size of the board as well. I think it would work. It works very well on a small board. can see how it can benefit on the small board, but on an eight foot board, I think it becomes too much of an angle. And I found the sweet spot of that board so hard to find. Um, but I can see this working on something like five, five to even a six.

five you know like that range would work really well.

KEN ADGATE (15:22)
Yeah.

I would say so until I saw Frank's boards. ⁓ If you notice Frank's boards, they're one of the most popular boards on Maui right now. think he's kind of... ⁓ He has an amazing design and most of the high-end riders when they try them, like, man, thing's... There's something special about it. I mean, the... Not a lot of people have tried it, especially manufacturers, so...

Daniel Paronetto (15:29)
Mmm.

Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (15:49)
you kind of can't knock it until you try it and everybody that's tried his boards have not said one thing bad about it taking off slow or feeling draggy or anything. So there might be something there for to at least dabble with and see if it works.

Daniel Paronetto (16:04)
Look, ⁓

let's talk about boards for people that are getting into the sport now. ⁓ There's probably, I think, three disciplines of the sport that are kind of obvious right now. People getting into with a downwind board, something really big. People getting into the sport with a midi. And then people getting into the sport, maybe just with a wing board, you know, like a squared shape board. Can you talk a little bit about a board shape that you find ideal for parawinging?

⁓ for P I know it's hard because it could be anything. ⁓ it's condition based.

KEN ADGATE (16:36)
Yeah, it's condition based condition condition

condition based for one and then talent level for two. But I mean, if you're in a winning situation, you can get away with a lot of choices. mean, Maui, Maui, you can get away with a sinker board all the way to I think a sinker board to a five, eight to five, ten board is kind of all you need in Maui or Hood River. If it's your main discipline and that's all you're going to do. Yeah, you could probably have you're probably going to have to have

Daniel Paronetto (16:43)
Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (17:06)
one or two or even three board quiver. ⁓ But if you're kind of like us where you ride the conditions and you're not gonna go parawinging in flat water and be bored as hell. So it all depends. Yeah, I mean, for me personally, I'm fairly talented. So I would say I still want a board that when I'm trying to be really aggressive on the swell, I don't have to worry about falling. I'm not stressing to get up again.

Daniel Paronetto (17:08)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

KEN ADGATE (17:35)
I'm going to be in the 62 to 68 range leader wise and a 5'8 to 5'11 board is still very fun, playful. So for me, I mean, that's it. For an intermediate guy, I would say, yeah, a 70, 80 leader probably would be the call. Maybe like a 6'0, 6'4, maybe a, I mean, even a downwind board would be good just to.

Daniel Paronetto (17:38)
yet.

Mmm.

KEN ADGATE (18:00)
hop on and be able to get up and at least get the characteristics and get your drives and tacks down, get the pack down correct and then just have fun instead of struggling out there. So start something bigger like you said in the past podcasts and then work your way down.

Daniel Paronetto (18:05)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think that's right. I can see myself with the three quiver board. ⁓ this midi that we talked about, ⁓ prop probably getting something that I can sup with as well, maybe around like low seven, just a seven, ⁓ or a six eight, something like that, that I can subsurf with, for really low wind. If I want to do that. ⁓ and then let's get your take on this as well, but I do want to get into a little bit of freestyle with the parawing. I know it's not meant for it.

But I can see myself having fun, like just jumping off the back of a wave and just sending a back three or something like that. Bringing it back to wake style. What are your views on the freestyle discipline for parawinging?

KEN ADGATE (19:02)
For me, no. ⁓ The only thing I want to do with Parawing is do laps at the hatchery and roof is just basically pack it away. My goal is to pack it away a hundred times a session and just do laps and just be proning the whole time and just basically like McFlowy. mean, ⁓ he's a style that I'm definitely going to try to emulate when I get up to hood. ⁓

Daniel Paronetto (19:15)
Hmm.

Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (19:29)
Something like that, that's why I want to learn to parawing and be really efficient when I go up there. I'm just going to be keyed and ready to go. ⁓ But yeah, watching Balsmuller and those guys, I mean, it's fun to watch, but it's definitely not me.

Daniel Paronetto (19:33)
Mm-hmm.

Fun to watch.

Look, I, yeah, I, just want to try everything at the moment. I feel like a hundred percent look, if I, and I say, I want to try these things, but then when I'm out in the water and I see a bump, I'm like, screw this man. I'm just going to ride these bumps. You know, like it's hard to get away from being able to prone or go down winding for kilometers with a prone board, you know, size. That's just amazing. And then that's what the parowing is for I think. And that's where it shines, but, ⁓ you're going to be in hood rev this year as well.

KEN ADGATE (19:59)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yep, July. Yep. And you're going to be there as well, hopefully, Nice.

Daniel Paronetto (20:17)
July, sick. Yeah, I'm gonna go

14th to the 31st. Yeah, there's gonna be a big crew there, man. Cynbad's going, you're going. Yeah, yeah. I spoke with Keith from KT, he's gonna be there. Yeah, as well, he's gonna bring some of his mid-links for people to try, but.

KEN ADGATE (20:26)
yeah. The Mike's Lab Mafia.

nice, nice.

Daniel Paronetto (20:42)
Tell us a little bit about hood, man. I, it's going to be my first season. I've never been the last two years I've been like, I need to go. And then my lead block, you know, lined up in July this year. I'm like, come on, I have to make it happen.

KEN ADGATE (20:54)
It's a must. It's a must. Like Maui's a must. That's a must. ⁓ It's the people there are amazing. The scenery is so beautiful. Fresh water ⁓ and the wind is is gusty. But man, for winging and para winging, it's nothing's better. mean, you just you I mean, just watch McFlowy videos and it's just like you can just imagine that's almost an everyday thing in July. So.

Daniel Paronetto (21:09)
Mmm.

god.

KEN ADGATE (21:19)
It's pretty epic. ⁓ But I mean, the people though, my God, it's so awesome. You're around people that are like us. They're just jonesing to be out in the nature and everybody's in a positive mood. Like when Freddie and Liam came from, where are they from? England, yeah, UK. I mean, you could just tell that they were just having the time of their lives. So it's one of those places that, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's one of those places that you just,

Daniel Paronetto (21:23)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm. You okay? Yeah.

The U-Hauler.

KEN ADGATE (21:49)
Yeah, the people you're around makes it awesome.

Daniel Paronetto (21:54)
I can't wait, man. I think for me, I'm just going to rent a van and just do the whole van thing and maybe go up the mountain during the nights and just get a cooler air and just come back during the day, have something to do shuttles with.

KEN ADGATE (21:59)
Yep.

Yeah.

We're going to be camping out with our van too, me and my wife. ⁓ we basically on East days when the East winds are blowing or out East at Rufus or something, ⁓ you'll be with the whole crew. So we'll tell you when to go out there. But ⁓ man, it's awesome. You camp out there. There's a couple of cool campgrounds. You camp at Rufus, but it's just dusty and sandy. But across the river, a little bit up the way, there's a nice grassy campground. ⁓ But man.

Daniel Paronetto (22:18)
Mm-hmm.

yet.

KEN ADGATE (22:35)
you're gonna have a blast. It's so fun. And then if you mountain bike, yeah sorry, if you mountain bike, it's some of the best mountain biking in the world too. Or just do it in the morning. Yeah, that's what I do. I wake up in the morning and then I go for a bike ride and then we have big breakfast and then hit the water until dark.

Daniel Paronetto (22:36)
I can't wait. Do you think that... No, go ahead.

That's awesome. If we get a down day or something, just... Yeah. What?

Nice. When, what time does the wind kick in there? Is that a kind of an 11 o'clock thing or just blast through the whole day?

KEN ADGATE (23:02)
It's

funny, up or towards the coast, it will be blowing earlier. So it'll be blowing in the morning, but Rufus and ⁓ those places are in the afternoon. And then the hatcheries like starts up at around 10, 11. So, but you definitely want to get there early on parking spots because all the windsurfers are out, dark 30, soon as the winds popped, they'll be all out there. So.

Daniel Paronetto (23:08)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

KEN ADGATE (23:27)
And then and then the winging crew comes and then the the Kiders come and then yeah, it's it's fun. It's chaotic It's a chaotic fun for sure ⁓ if you're if you're really good and and ⁓ and ⁓ I Don't know experience I guess you would say you you fill in your element But man, I feel bad for if I was like an intermediate guy I'd be just like it like crawled in a ball like trying not to get hit by somebody ⁓

Daniel Paronetto (23:36)
Yeah.

It's like, ⁓ god. Yeah, how busy does it get there? Roofers

would be packed. ⁓

KEN ADGATE (23:57)
No, so Rufus, you could go up upwind and go to like the wall and there's plenty of ways you get out of the way of some Rufus. Now on at the hatchery though, it's it's it's showtime. It's like, yeah, you want to get out of the way. You're not at it. You're not there. So.

Daniel Paronetto (24:04)
Mm.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, you

just blast through and people are just like you're going downwind. People have an awareness that you're coming and they just let you through. It's kind of like, you know, people are doing backflips on top of you. What's the deal?

KEN ADGATE (24:24)
Not really. Yeah,

you better be able to maneuver away from them. about that? You're playing defense.

Daniel Paronetto (24:32)
Yeah, well, I guess the windsurfers,

⁓ they'll always just stay their course. That's everywhere in the world.

KEN ADGATE (24:38)
They'll be on

their line and they'll purposely try to veer at you. But there's a lot of cool windsurfers up there. At first they were like hating on all the wingers and then we kind of became, all right, we're here together, let's make this work. there's a lot of really cool windsurfers up there that I've met that I really like.

Daniel Paronetto (24:42)
Yeah.

Yeah.

man, I'm really looking forward to it and I don't even know what to expect. Like I hear all these stories and you know, you see these, these like photos of, know, when it's really big, it's like overhead bumps and then you're just like going down when just screaming basically off. just, the stock level will be very high. ⁓ cool man. Look, I, yeah, we'll definitely touch base, when we get there and we'll get some sessions on, ⁓ so, but what do you think? Like, I think a lot of the people there will be on Parawings this year.

KEN ADGATE (25:14)
Yeah.

yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (25:28)
⁓ and why you think people are gravitating to the parawing these days, ⁓ for downwinding versus a, a sup paddle approach.

KEN ADGATE (25:37)
easy. mean, the gear, the gear, the foils you could ride, the boards you could ride. ⁓ For me and like Johnny and the guys that could go up wind really well with them, we're not looking to hop in somebody's van or truck and drive up the up and do a.

Daniel Paronetto (25:39)
Mm.

KEN ADGATE (25:54)
15 minute run. Yeah, a 15 minute run. I mean, we're going to be out there for four or five hours. So we're just going to do laps. And I think that was a big change versus Sam's wing. I bought all of Sam's wings, but it was kind of one of those things you get up, you're on the proper gear, but then you're shuttling back. And I just didn't want, I didn't want to do that. So we started, well, I did it once or twice, but Johnny did it quite a bit where he would basically wing up.

Daniel Paronetto (25:55)
The shadows. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

KEN ADGATE (26:22)
pack it down, put it in a dry bag and then hit the run down. Still paddling, but he was doing laps, doing that and just not having to get rides because he was in the same boat. He's like, I'm not going to be on the road trying to get a ride, which is really easy there. But if you like your gear and you're really particular about your foils, you're not doing that. So, oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (26:36)
Mmm.

Yeah, things get damaged along the way.

Yeah, it is tough and you're not going to be putting things on board bags. You're to have to chase people up for the bag afterwards. It's a bit of a nightmare. ⁓ and I had that question because one of the things that I'm doing these days, I'm not doing long downwinders anymore. go, we, I live in a Bay. So the Bay here has little pockets of really good spots where the bumps pick up a little bit in, you know, a 10 kilometer run. So.

KEN ADGATE (26:51)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (27:09)
We used to just aim for those spots and you you hit it as you go by, but you keep going on the paddle. You don't stop and paddle back up or anything like that. So now with the parawing, I just parked my car there and I just do these laps of this high performing area and she's like thinking about turns and everything. just, your progression level is just skyrockets when you start doing that stuff. And my idea for hood is exactly what you said. Like try to avoid these.

the shuttling and the time you waste shuttling and go up wind and because the current's going against the wind as well, is it even easier to do those upwards? Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (27:44)
⁓ super easy to go

upwind. If you can't go upwind, you can basically sit on your board and you'll go ebb upwind. It's super easy. It's ⁓ such an amazing spot. ⁓ I'm jonesing. I can't wait.

Daniel Paronetto (27:55)
Just have a snack on the way up.

All right. I, you sold me already. There's nothing else that I want to do apart from down, up, down winders and hood river, ⁓ and avoid the shuttling. let's talk a little bit about technique. you, ⁓ you said you've tried everything under the sun and when it comes to boards, you tried the sinker boards. you, what would, do you have a sinker starting water star technique that you can talk us through or something like that, that could help people that want to really like downsize their board to that sinker size?

KEN ADGATE (28:31)
⁓

Yeah, mean the way I do it, ⁓ it's a semi-sinker is I'll basically fly it with one hand and then as soon as I get a little bit of forward momentum, get the board on the surface kind of planing a little bit, I'll just take my spare hand and help me get go from knees to standing and then usually it's just boom boom and you're up and riding. So I kind of weigh on

I don't kind of just slog there and kind of just like wait for the wind. I kind of just look for a gust line and if I see a nice little gust line coming, then I'm prepared and I usually couple little jerks with the the parawing I'm up and going. So a board that planes really nice is a huge advantage, especially in gusty situations.

Daniel Paronetto (29:14)
I love what you said there about, you know, and this is where I think your experience in board, wind sports in general is like, just brushed through it and you didn't even notice, but like, just looking back to look at the surface of the water, look where the gusts are coming, timing, you know, you're, you're get up at the right time. think people that are starting and don't have that much experience in wind sports, they just miss those little details that are almost intuitive to you. Right. ⁓ what are your.

like main tips for people who are starting parawinging, because, in, in, in, think a lot of people starting parawinging will be coming from a different foiling discipline. It's not going to be their first thing in foiling, but people that are coming from winging, for example, what are the things that you brought from winging into parawinging that kind of helped you in that journey?

KEN ADGATE (30:03)
I mean they could go back to their beginning days where they're on a bigger board and bigger foil and going out on proper days where they're not on super light days and you kind of just go winging again, start from day one and it's very similar. just the pumping technique, you don't have it anyways as an intermediate winger, then it's not going to be huge difference on pumping but when you get used to pumping with your lower body and upper body,

Daniel Paronetto (30:12)
Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (30:31)
then you just lose that upper body motion. You gotta have to use a little bit more lower end and kind of bear off a little bit more and then kind of use a little bit of surface bumps to get you that forward momentum to get you that basically drive to get you foiling. ⁓ But yeah, mean, basically just go back to square one and... ⁓

Daniel Paronetto (30:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (30:53)
Bigger setup would help. And obviously being on windy days, I you could pretty much be, I would say for the beginning, you'd want to be, if you're riding a three six wing, then go out on a four three ⁓ pocket wing. Yeah, and then you know you're gonna have a proper, usually it's the same ratio, then you know you're gonna have enough to get up and not struggle so much.

Daniel Paronetto (31:09)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And I, it's nice to talk a little bit about that. ⁓ you know, comparing the wing, the sizes of a wing versus a para wing, I think at least half a size up from your wing, ⁓ to start off is, is good. And then I think you can match it one to one later on, because, ⁓ once you size up too much, you'll get up easier, but then once you're on foil, it becomes a little bit too much because, you know, the wind range is a little bit tighter. ⁓ but you get so much better. Like I noticed today going out on.

three back in the day was a little bit of a struggle, but today, you know, you, you become very like sensitive with your pumping to the point where you're just getting that enough speed. And I read the water, like a little, like a skate pump track and try to use every little, you know, chop on the water to my benefit. Um, and you get good at that. You get sensitive with your pumping technique, knowing when to actually go start going up, win versus going down when too much, those things will come. Right.

KEN ADGATE (32:04)
Yeah.

And the other thing I found that is useful is, let's say a port, if you're going left foot forward and the swell's working against you, like if the bumps are working against you, then it's probably gonna be easier to flip over to starboard and go right foot forward and at least you have the swells benefiting you as far as getting going and getting planning faster. Sometimes the swells are fighting you one way, one direction versus the other, so that could help too, yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (32:26)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

depending on your sport, you might just have to start switch or toe side, you know, either, either can work. ⁓

KEN ADGATE (32:46)
Yep. And starting

toe sign is fairly easy because you can hold the wing with one hand. So sometimes that's not a bad idea. My buddy Billy, that's how he gets up every time, is just one hand and then he starts opposite.

Daniel Paronetto (32:51)
Mmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. You've been writing a few different para wings. ⁓ What have you tried?

KEN ADGATE (33:07)
The BRM, Greg was nice enough to sell me one last year when he introduced it and then I got the Flow because I heard some good things about it and I thought it was probably the top wing ⁓ for a while. think it's just, Greg's is the best for packing down. I still think it's one of the best and funnest to ride in waves in Maui. ⁓ But I think the Flow just kind of brought it to another level as far as stability and then be able to tack it much easier.

Daniel Paronetto (33:33)
Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (33:36)
Stowing away is a little more difficult, but the performance of it went up and then just got the ⁓ Ozone's lately and that just stepped it up another game changer level a little bit more higher aspect goes up wind extremely well is probably the easiest one to tack out of all the wings or out of all the pair wings I've tried by far so ⁓ and then Stowing it is a little bit different like you'll there's six front a lines

Daniel Paronetto (33:47)
Mm-hmm.

Nice.

KEN ADGATE (34:04)
And if you grab the four front A lines and you work them in that way, it'll accordion. And then you basically just do that. And then you could just have, you could basically just flag it out with that, or you could fold it over on itself and then stow it away. ⁓ So it's a little bit different. You could depower it, which is cool, fully lit up. So like you could see Kyle Lenny's video when he's going down jaws, he just grabs those four front A's and he's fully powered. That day I was at, ⁓

Daniel Paronetto (34:04)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (34:34)
Pier one and it was blowing probably 25 to 30. So it was it was a lit up day and I think that was a three meters on so just to show you that you could fully depower in the power range ⁓ Is you can't do that with pretty much almost any paraling? I don't think it's very difficult It would be very difficult, but the ozone is kind of accordion and then it and then the nice thing about it comes in and then you can you could grab the quarter you can grab all the ⁓

Daniel Paronetto (34:50)
It would be, you would have to muscle it. Yeah.

Mmm.

KEN ADGATE (35:01)
the battens and just put them in your one hand and then you can kind of fold it up nice and neat. just different style.

Daniel Paronetto (35:02)
Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Lots of things to touch on there. Like you mentioned that the ozone goes upwind really well. What makes, what makes a power wing go upwind wealth in your opinion?

KEN ADGATE (35:14)
Mm-hmm.

I mean the higher aspect really helps I think. It's not so like Sam's wings back in the day were just basically a parachute. So as soon as you kind of give them some higher aspect look, I think that helps a lot. Having the A-lines being pretty structured with it, which Ozone does well, they have a lot of the the battens to hold the structure of the leading edge, really helps the performance of them.

Daniel Paronetto (35:21)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (35:47)
They don't depower as well because of that, but ⁓ they do really get overpowered though. I've been in a really overpowered in Maui and they're fine.

Daniel Paronetto (35:55)
Yeah. Do you think what's the low end like, is there a compromise in the low end a little bit or like, and I know you, you, your technique is pretty good now. ⁓ but in comparison to say something that's a little bit less high aspect than that.

KEN ADGATE (36:09)
I would say that the BRM's are pretty grunty. For size wise, they're probably the most grunty-est ones. But they're still very good. mean, the three meter ozone is still, the cell is pretty big. if you compare it to a BRM, I would say the three is more like a 3.6 in a BRM sizes. So.

Daniel Paronetto (36:12)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (36:35)
I don't know. It does really well. I think people are going to be pretty happy with it. I'm excited to try a couple other brands. think Fly Surfers is probably going to be pretty good.

Daniel Paronetto (36:42)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I'm keen to try something

with some, like a bridle system just to see what's, what's, you know, what's the deal there and if it really gives you that benefit.

KEN ADGATE (36:48)
Yeah. And I

saw Nash's bunch of prototypes on Maui and they're kind of like, ooh, man. And then what they just introduced looks good. So I have to give Ewan Jaspan a props. It definitely looks good. So I'm excited to try that one. I mean, if Ewan likes it, I'm sure it's good.

Daniel Paronetto (36:57)
Yeah.

It looks good. Yep.

Yeah

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that one as well. think he's going to send one down to test the four meter. And I heard that like, even though the bridle system, like you would think that it kind of gets in the way when you're stowing is very close to the bar. So you can't really feel it. I think if they were set up in a way where it's a little bit further in the lines and you kind of have to grab it after the bar, you might feel it a little bit more, but no one has been really talking ⁓ about that in a ⁓ negative way. ⁓

KEN ADGATE (37:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (37:41)
Tell us a little bit about your tacking. ⁓ You said that the ozone is also really good for tacking. What makes it good to drive up wind?

KEN ADGATE (37:51)
I think it's the steering side of it. I think it steers really well. and you kind of feel it a little bit more than most pair of wings. You could kind of feel where it's at in the window. So that helps a lot. And then when it goes to 12 o'clock, it doesn't have a crazy amount of lift, which is a good thing, because that transition is pretty difficult. And then when it gets to the other side, it's not like diving down into the water is aggressive as some other brands.

Daniel Paronetto (37:54)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (38:20)
I just found it was pretty easy. It was like two times to try it it was just like, okay, it was like an automatic thing. ⁓ And then as far as jibing it, ⁓ Tom actually showed me a cool technique is just pull the C, the outside C line and then just kind of give it a little yank when you're doing your jibes. I got to a point now where I don't even do that. I kind of do a down loop, like the kiting days, because I out run it anyways by doing the jibes so fast. So I ended up just down looping it.

Daniel Paronetto (38:24)
Mm-hmm.

Nice.

Mm-hmm.

Do you down loop like with that really like the arm movement of like flying it through?

KEN ADGATE (38:54)
Yeah, so basically

the same as the Johnny Jive is you bring it behind you and do that motion and just drive it behind you and whip it out in front of you.

Daniel Paronetto (39:06)
Talk a little bit more about that because I think those things come very intuitively for you because you kite, right? So as soon as you see the power wing, you're like, right, let's down loop. Like tell people what down looping is. And I think it's important to also talk about when to initiate the down loop. Do you start going down wind first and then do it? Do you start throwing it and then cut down wind? Because those things really affect just like in the kite, you know how.

KEN ADGATE (39:18)
Yeah.

Throwing it

before for sure because you want to keep it in the window. So by down looping it, when you get it back here, as soon as it gets in the power position, it's going to want to power up and drive through the window. And as it's driving through the window, you're tacking or you're jiving. So it's creating power, but you're also going towards it so you're not slacking the lines. So that's basically what a down loop helps you do is not outrun the kite or wing or parawing.

Daniel Paronetto (39:59)
Yeah. And I think that's one of the biggest

problems where people are learning how to jibe is they probably just put the pair wing up to 12. They go down wind and then they just wear it in their head. ⁓ and I think also just not doing that turn with it at 12 helps a lot. you just hit the brake lines, have it in front of you and just have it pitch in front of you, helps as well. But I think the beauty of seeing someone.

KEN ADGATE (40:07)
Yeah.

Yep.

Daniel Paronetto (40:25)
ride is like how they fly the parawing, just like a kite. You see someone riding the kite and they're just saying the kite over, you know, it's fine. But then you see someone down loop, you see someone do a tack. You're like, wow. Okay. There's a little bit of elegance to it. Um, which I still haven't cracked. Like my, my tacks are a little inconsistent still. And my heel side one is just not there yet. I don't know why, like it's the easiest one for me in the kite and in the parawing, happens very fast.

KEN ADGATE (40:36)
Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (40:51)
And like you said, sometimes the parawing goes onto the other side. ⁓ the one, the side you're going to ride out too quick and then you just fall on your back. maybe talk us through a little bit your, like your technique to tack and how you learned it. know you took two times to learn, but.

KEN ADGATE (41:07)
⁓ So I always don't use a cell as any reference as far as power to do it.

I will go into a transition, any transition, enough to know that if nothing was in my hand, I could complete the transition and still come out 30 yards downwind or 30 yards after. So like I go on the trick with an extreme amount of speed, as much speed as I possibly can, and then I initiate it. And if I get it to a point where it's at 12 o'clock and I really depower it so there's nothing in the sail, the biggest thing is just don't cause any drag. So I try to get it in a position where it's not causing any drag and just continue the transition. ⁓

Daniel Paronetto (41:31)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (41:45)
had nothing in my hands and that that it just depends a lot of times no it's not hovering so like I'll bear off go downwind and then I'll take both hands and I'll throw it up and then as soon as it gets to a point I'll start that that tack position quick and then I'll throw I'll let go with that backhand I'll throw it down and then sometimes I just let it down loop out

Daniel Paronetto (41:47)
and that position is really just hovering on top of you.

KEN ADGATE (42:10)
because I'm going so aggressive at it, it'll just want to continue to roll, so down loop out, out of attack, just to keep the parawing in the power position at all times. So you'll never slack the lines.

Daniel Paronetto (42:10)
Hmm.

Yeah, I like that.

Yeah. And I think the

biggest tip there is just haul ass into it. Isn't it? The more speed is seriously like, it's a little bit counterintuitive because people like they go into it a little bit hesitant and they just brush off all the speed. then obviously you're to touch down and, ⁓ it's not ideal. So I think the best tip there is just to have that confidence in your speed. And then just really, once you're doing the turn up when committing to it, ⁓ and really trying to point back where you want to go and not.

KEN ADGATE (42:29)
Yeah, Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (42:53)
much up when I think a lot of people just stop midway and lose themselves there. Same as winging.

KEN ADGATE (42:58)
Same as winging, mean when you're learning

to tack or learning to jibe and winging, you go into it when you're learning super slow because you're just not comfortable. And once you get comfortable just going fast in the stuff, it just gives you so much more time. And the other thing is pumping, like practice kind of just doing little slow pumps, any jibe or any tack, just get that.

Daniel Paronetto (43:14)
Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (43:20)
just get that flow going with your lower body that it'll just give you that extra two or three seconds that it'll help you make every tack and every jibe.

Daniel Paronetto (43:26)
Mm-hmm.

I've, I've been practicing, ⁓ on land a lot, what you just mentioned of going into the tack and once the pair of wings on the other side, and I know where I'm coming from, let it do that loop and just finish it on a loop. So you have that extra boost and I haven't landed one yet, but I think once that style, that's going to look really nice tack into down loop, boom, straight speed off of it. you gotten those consistent yet?

KEN ADGATE (43:57)
No, we have terrible conditions for periwane here. ⁓ the days that we have, me and Johnny were out a couple of weeks ago and he was doing them. I'm like, I'll shoot you, can't let him one up me. So I was doing them and I found them pretty easy to just throw it a little harder and it just wants to continue to loop. ⁓

is after you throw it, you just twist your wrist a little bit, it just wants to continue that motion of another 180. So it's not, it's...

Daniel Paronetto (44:25)
Mm-hmm. I think that's going to look really good.

KEN ADGATE (44:28)
It's good. Yeah. And I think going off a little bank swell kind of gets you in a more of a lean position and it just lets you rotate it a little bit quicker too. You can throw it across the window a little bit quicker. Same as winging. It's just a little bit less control as far as the position of the wing is not as direct as a a like a cut or

Daniel Paronetto (44:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (44:54)
a ⁓ for a wing just a regular wing so yeah especially with hard handles yeah

Daniel Paronetto (44:57)
Yeah, the boom. Yeah. Yeah,

no, a hundred percent. think, and you, like a lot of people, when you start powering, like I like to just do land drills. as soon as I get to the beach, I just take the three meter out just to feel the wind. And I spent like five minutes just mucking around with it just to remind my body of how things go and then get that muscle memory down. do you have any kind of land drills that you recommend people doing? I think, you know,

when you're learning how to kite gosh you like the first two days are just on land and people expect a lot from the parawing without doing anything on land.

KEN ADGATE (45:27)
Yeah.

I think if you're really comfortable with the one wheel, I think you can make huge strides with learning with with playing around with it on land being me and Sinbad were doing in her front yard and just kind of working on handle passes and and back loops and front loops and just and you get really comfortable because you could power it up. You could basically put yourself in the same position you can on the water with the one wheel and then you could kind of get in those powered positions so you feel what it's going to feel like when you come when you go into attack when you're powering into the wind with the one wheel. So I

Daniel Paronetto (45:36)
Hmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

That's cool.

KEN ADGATE (46:01)
Not a lot of people have the one-wheel skills to do that plus have that but if you want to bring your level to the I mean get your level a lot faster going ⁓ Then yeah, that would be a huge advantage I mean a skateboard would be another one just to play with it so you can know how to depower it and and Really understand when you're out running it what what it's gonna do. So But yeah

Daniel Paronetto (46:23)
Yeah, look, for,

I mean, a lot of people are scared of skateboarding. Like they don't have a skateboard or they, they, they, I, and then you can get hurt. you can, like skateboard can hurt you. Um, but like take everything out of the equation. Just walk on the beach with it. Just walk up and down, walk downwind. Um, and you will start to feel a little bit of these things that, that you're talking about. Um, and yeah, for me, I, I do that. I I'll do the tack and I'll do those loops and like,

KEN ADGATE (46:29)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (46:50)
need to get I need to get it. And then, you know, it's in my head and then I just start throwing in the water and it definitely helps a lot. No, never. Is it good? No. No, actually, yeah, no, no, I haven't. I've been on an electric skateboard, but not that. ⁓ God, yeah, I don't want to break my arm the first day and then not fucking be able to do any foiling. Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (46:55)
Have you tried a one wheel or no? No. Okay. You've never been on a one wheel? ⁓

Alright, we'll get you on one in Hood River. They're amazing.

We'll put you on grass or sand.

Daniel Paronetto (47:19)
No, I definitely want to try everything. And if it helps, man, I'm, yeah, I'm down. ⁓ Stowing versus wadding, when do you stow? When do you just hold it in your hand? Tell us a little bit about how you think about stowing and wadding.

KEN ADGATE (47:36)
I like to stow every single time. my goal is to get proficient at it so it's 80 % deploy ratio, whatever. yeah, like I'm right around 50 % right now. And I want to get it to where it... Because that's what I plan on doing in Hood River. I just want to do laps. So I want to be able to get to a point where even if I deploy it it's a mess, work it out while I'm on a swell and still do it. But my goal is to stash it, spin it around.

Daniel Paronetto (47:39)
Really?

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (48:05)
to my back and have nothing in my hands, use my hands as pumping and turning techniques just like you're proning. And then just be, yeah, just ripping. So that's my goal.

Daniel Paronetto (48:11)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, look,

I like where you're going with this because I was shining a little bit away from stowing it all the time, just because it's very easy and very comfortable just to hold it in your hand. But when you're doing turns, there's drag there. You know, it does, it does get in the way as well. And if you just hold it in your hand for long enough, it will start to tangle. Lines will start going to the backside of the parawing and it does, it does like, it's not great. ⁓

Tell us a little bit about your stowing technique. You mentioned it before, but just take us through step by step. What are you doing? Where are you collecting the canopy and where you're folding things?

KEN ADGATE (48:51)
Yeah, so Ozone's different technique than most other ones, but like I was saying, you slide your hand up the front four A-lines, there's six, so just the front four, it accordions, right? And then I take the bar, throw it under my armpit, and then I have both hands work with, and then I'll basically take it and fold it in half, and then I'll kind of just work it in kind of a ball, stow it in my stow pouch.

Daniel Paronetto (49:00)
Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (49:16)
and then I'll stick the bar and sometimes just stick it in the belt ⁓ portion and then spin it around and then I'm free. And then the same technique when I spin it around, grab the bar out, put the bar in my armpit, grab it, of shake it out with both hands and then get it ready to deploy and then I'll toss it out and then grab the bar as I'm tossing it out, grab the bar with the other hand and kind of work it out until I'm run out of foil speed.

Daniel Paronetto (49:20)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And when you, so once you run the lines on the front four lines, when you fold it in half, your, the, intention there is to keep all the lines inside the canopy.

KEN ADGATE (49:57)
It's tough. That's probably what I need to get better at and that's probably why I have a 50 % chances of deploying it correctly. But yeah, mean, a perfect situation, you could take the lines and put them inside the middle and then fold it. The one thing bad about, not to rag on ozone, but the lines...

Daniel Paronetto (49:58)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (50:19)
I actually coated my lines with a fabric glue. So I took fabric glue and I've coated all my lines to stiffen them up like the flows. The Flows have an amazing line that is ⁓ like stiff and kind of, yeah, the Ozones, unfortunately, they're kind of like a wore out.

Daniel Paronetto (50:23)
⁓ Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's a little thicker.

KEN ADGATE (50:38)
kite line. Like after a while they could almost knot on themselves if they get loose and they get tight real quick. So I found myself in a way, there's a couple times I threw it out and they knotted on themselves. So I stiffened up my lines with Elmer's fabric glue and it made a world of difference. And the other thing I did is I, brand new out of box, I cut and spliced nine inches shorter lines. So.

Daniel Paronetto (50:39)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

That's a good hack.

Is just that

for so you can get to the canopy a little bit easier? Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (51:07)
Yeah, yeah,

and deploying it's easier because everything's not as messy. So.

Daniel Paronetto (51:12)
Hmm. Look, ⁓ people underestimate

how important the line lengths are in these parawings and they go for a big parawing because they think they're going to get up. the bigger parawings have longer lines. And if you are a person with, know, an arm span, that's not that wide, you're to struggle to really be able to pull all the lines and touch the canopy. It's really important to be able to touch the canopy in that one motion.

KEN ADGATE (51:17)
Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (51:36)
⁓ especially the leading edge. if you can't get to the leading edge, you'll have to do a second thing to pull it in and it, you know, it'll always want to pick up like launch again. do you, what, so you, how much did you take out of the lines? That's huge.

KEN ADGATE (51:50)
Nine inches. that's

a huge amount. So I took it out of the 3, the 3.6 and the 4.3. The 2.4 I left alone because you can't take that much out before it starts to split into other different bridles. So I'm going leave the 2.4 alone. The other thing I did is I think it comes with a 15 or 16 inch bar and I changed them all to 12 inch bars except the 4.3. So the cool thing is that you have a smaller bar, you could stow it away easier with the smaller bar.

Daniel Paronetto (51:56)
Yeah.

Hmm.

KEN ADGATE (52:17)
It's lighter. So I Don't know. I'm messing with it. It's like kite foil race days I mean you start messing with settings and you kind of trick it and see what's better I think it's I've already tried to hook a and C to B hook up in the middle like basically Greg's doing it. Yeah, I Did it didn't work. So Well, it's it felt spongy and goofy. So the response was not correct. So I need to play with it more. That's all

Daniel Paronetto (52:19)
Hmm.

Yeah, we were texting about that. Did you finish that? It didn't work.

Yeah, I like that idea because I think it cleans up the bar so much and ultimately I think the perfect setup would be something that you would have the bar, maybe the B is connected to the A and the C, but then having the ability to move the B lines further down in the bar to further de-power the power wing would be ideal. But ⁓ yeah, I've been thinking about a little cleat system like we have in kiting where you can just

KEN ADGATE (52:48)
It'll work.

It does.

Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (53:15)
pull it in and somehow move that pivoting, that pivot point of the B lines down. Don't know. ⁓ I'm still mucking around with my little ⁓ modifications myself, but I did like that one that I sent you the photo of, but I'm a little bit bummed it didn't work. I was going to try that online.

KEN ADGATE (53:34)
Yeah.

What's your idea of a harness line? What's your preference?

Daniel Paronetto (53:39)
I don't use a harness at all. No, I don't. I just ride it unhooked all the time. And I think now I'm at the point where I'm comfortable like riding for two hours like that. And it doesn't make me that tired. ⁓ and that's just going upwind and downwind. And when I'm doing that, I'm not going to be going upwind for five kilometers. I'll go upwind for maybe a K and then down and I'll just do those laps. I feel like it's, it's fine. And look, the flow goes upwind really well.

KEN ADGATE (53:41)
No? Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (54:07)
So it's not a real issue. If it's overpowered, I can really just ride it on the front lines. ⁓ it accepts that really well. And if I'm super overpowered, that's when I put the B lines down, you know, halfway from where it is. And if it's, know, if I need everything, I'll just put it all the way down, but it only, it, it'll only give you like a three or 5%, you know, D power. It's not that much. ⁓ but it just helps you relieve that tension on your arms. ⁓

Upwind angles are pretty good. I sometimes I switch foot, sometimes I don't. like sometimes I just, I'm just lazy and just go toe side. and they're, they're all right. Like my switch upwind is not that great either. I just have to do it. I'm just lazy with that stuff. Like it's something that I didn't do in winging when I started, I always was going toe side and I'm like, I should have done it because now the more I ride toe side.

harder it is to go switch. And that's just something I need to work on. But what do you do with your harness? You're into the harness and because I think also when you're stowing, there's an extra little line there. So it's a little tangling hazard.

KEN ADGATE (55:06)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, stowing is

correct. Yeah, the one thing I do like a lot is the ride engine chest harness. So you have the hook basically up here. So so it prevents the hook being involved when you deploy it down by your waist.

Daniel Paronetto (55:28)
OK.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (55:34)
So

that gets rid of that. And then also your stow belt is nice and clean. It doesn't have any extra hooks or anything for the lines to get caught on. So I'm really liking it. And then having it hooked up here, ⁓ I find when you're going upwind, you want the parawing right on the water. Literally the trailing edge or the leading edge could be right on the water, working its way on the water as you're going upwind. And when you get overpowered, it reacts better when it's super low too.

Daniel Paronetto (55:41)
Nice.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I agree.

KEN ADGATE (56:02)
versus having

it little bit high. And it seems like you really have to pull the A's to really kind of depower it so you don't get yanked off the board. So you can really load up, like kiting days, can kind of hook an edge and just lean back and relax, even overpowered. So I find having it hooked up here, you could run the parawing parallel to the water and you could go upwind extremely well.

Daniel Paronetto (56:15)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

What's,

what's the feeling because I like the one thing that I didn't like too much about the hook is that if I am overpowered, it would kind of get me off that edge or off the rail, right? Just calling it a rail, but it's not a rail because it was too low and I felt like my waist was just going up and I couldn't really lean as much as I wanted. So yeah, that's cool. I never tried that.

KEN ADGATE (56:38)
Yeah.

That's why the chest harness will help a lot. So that's why all

the wing racers use it. Yeah, the right engine one's nice because of the weight. It weighs nothing. It has a backpack, water-like pouch in the back, like a ⁓ backpack. And that's why I cut my bar to 12 inches too, because it'll fit an extra parawing in the back. So that's another big advantage is having two pair of wings on you.

Daniel Paronetto (56:51)
Interesting. So it's the ride engine one.

Yeah.

Perfect.

So it's just a vest kind of thing.

KEN ADGATE (57:16)
Yeah, it's like a you have to look it up But it's it's basically just it has it has a strap that goes here and strap comes up underneath from your from your lats area and then just a hook here and then it has like a backpack that'll support like a 13 inch bar and And at least a parawing so and a water pouch or if you want to put your cell phone or whatever in there So it's a really cool design if anything. It would be cool to have like a pouch here For like a blue Bluetooth player would or anything on a safe phone, whatever

Daniel Paronetto (57:19)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Perfect.

Mm-hmm.

Ooh, little

music out there. Yep.

KEN ADGATE (57:46)
So yeah, was hoping Ride Engine

would hit me up and I would help them design a para wing design. Yeah. Yep.

Daniel Paronetto (57:52)
Well, there's still time, man. There's a lot of new stuff coming out.

what, ⁓ so are you using the, the ozone belt? That's to me, that looks like the best belt in the market at the moment. I think the other ones that came out probably a little bit too small. You end up just like having to shove that thing in. And then like you say, you know, your, your ability to have a good relaunch, I think goes a little bit down because you're just jamming stuff in there. What's the ozone one like?

KEN ADGATE (58:01)
Yeah.

⁓ So, Sinbad helped design the Ozone one. I have Sinbad's first version and it was amazing. I think it's still one of the best designs. ⁓ The Ozone's material side is far better as far as the elastic side of it and then the size of the pouch and how it's made. mean, Ozone makes extremely good stuff. So, I think the Ozone has probably the best pouch system for sure.

Daniel Paronetto (58:24)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (58:39)
⁓ But yeah, Sinbad did a killer design with that and she talked to the team and they listened to her and yeah, they made a great product. So I think a lot of people are going to be stoked on it.

Daniel Paronetto (58:49)
Does it have a belt clip and all that stuff with it? I think.

KEN ADGATE (58:51)
Yeah, belt

clip and then it has a hook that you can put on the belt clip so if you're into that lower hook area. But I just took mine off and I'm using it as a stow.

Daniel Paronetto (58:56)
Mm-hmm.

Sorry, that's my dog. ⁓

Yeah, look, I think that's one thing that still needs a little bit of improvement. I'm still finding that I want to have something that is even quicker than the ozone one. ⁓ Something that like, cause I tried it under the rashie. Just a sec. Wraith! Wraith.

KEN ADGATE (59:22)
This is

Daniel Paronetto (59:29)
I love that dog. the, found it like just when I was starting, just chucking it under the rashie was good, but then obviously because you're putting it from underneath, just falls down and you know, you start pumping and it goes away. Um, but yeah, I, um, I do feel like there's a little potential for other ideas to come out. Um, I saw the North Ranger, which I have one and I'm testing the North Ranger.

KEN ADGATE (59:42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Daniel Paronetto (59:55)
Really interesting power wing as well. Very different from the flow. Very different from, ⁓ other things that I've tried. ⁓ it has a bag, like a backpack, but it's super small and to stow it and, and, know, fold it properly on the fly and chuck it in there. I almost don't feel like it's an option. I think it's something that you can have with you if you want to swap pair wings on the water and do it slowly. But I'm still after that one solution where it's like, you know, boom in your hand and just.

KEN ADGATE (1:00:11)
That's it. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (1:00:24)
Chuck it somewhere, somehow. ⁓ but I don't know. Someone will come up with something soon.

KEN ADGATE (1:00:30)
Yeah, yeah, there's all kinds of ideas. mean, it's just going to keep growing. It's going to be pretty cool. And then F1 just decided to make one, so that's pretty cool.

Daniel Paronetto (1:00:38)
yeah. So I saw that, I didn't see any belts with it yet, but, that one looks very much like the flow, just looking at the overall shape and, ⁓ bridal configuration. It's, very close to the flow. So I'm imagining it's going to be a similar kind of thing. I think if you're not launching now a parawing that has that innate stability in it, ⁓ you're going to be a little bit behind, like you need that stability.

to be able to write the front lines and make it a little bit user friendly because I think, you you coming from a kiting background, you know how to fly it. You can fly a BRM V1 and always have that little tension on the rear. So you don't, you know, go over that point where it starts to collapse. ⁓ What do you think, like the designs will look like in the future? How do you think the sport will grow in that regard?

KEN ADGATE (1:01:27)
I think it's going to be racing eventually, honestly. I really do. think they're going to turn them into doubleskins and they're going to do a racing with them. Who knows if it'll overtake the wing racing, but the capability of hydrodynamics and everything and drag, they're going to be better. So I hope they don't. I really hope they don't.

Daniel Paronetto (1:01:29)
⁓ no, don't say that.

Hmm... They are... I feel like I can go up. Look...

KEN ADGATE (1:01:56)
I mean, they're already starting to race them in Europe. I'm like, no guys. ⁓

Daniel Paronetto (1:01:58)
Yeah, I saw that.

Yeah, look, it's exposure to the sport and I think it will, like there will be these different disciplines. Like there will be people doing backflips. There will be people racing them. But ultimately, if there is a version where it's packable for what we want to do, I don't care. Like do whatever you want with it. ⁓ I agree that the beauty of the parowing is when it's not flying, is when you have it in the belt and you're doing what you want to do, which is just go downwind and surf. So.

KEN ADGATE (1:02:18)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (1:02:31)
⁓ yeah, I, I, I like what, ⁓ they did there just because it's an event. It's something new and whatever it'll, it'll go into whatever it has to go to. ⁓ let's talk a little bit.

KEN ADGATE (1:02:44)
What brand do you think will make the devil skin first? ⁓ Ansus, really?

Daniel Paronetto (1:02:49)
Starts with E.

⁓ look, I think they will have, I think that their V2, ⁓ will come out. The fours, the fives, those bigger sizes are coming out now. ⁓ but I think for next year, they will have a racing one. Yeah. I think flow will have a racing one. ⁓ I don't know, Gong, Gong will have something of everything half price. So.

KEN ADGATE (1:03:00)
Okay.

I should

save all my R1s because it'll eventually get to the 15 meter race lines.

Daniel Paronetto (1:03:18)
Do you know?

I know. Do you know what I think though? Like if you're a winger and you know, you've capped out on your winging and then you know, you're a little bit, you're stalled in your progression, you'll go to parawinging and then you'll kind of reach that point where you're doing everything and then like what's next? People will get into kiting because they will be like, what if we had 50 meter lines on this? That would be pretty cool. And I think it will go full circle. People will get back into kiting. Yeah, because kiting is sick, man.

KEN ADGATE (1:03:36)
Yeah

Yeah, yeah. I hope so. I hope so.

Yeah, I hope so. I was reading something that is kite foiling dead or something like that or as far as the strapless like Fred Hope style. And I mean, there's nothing better on a light wind day just to go out and rip around. So I don't know. I don't know. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (1:03:47)
I love it.

Yeah, aw man.

It's the best.

And what he does man, I wish he got into parawinging because I can't even imagine what that guy would do. Is he?

KEN ADGATE (1:04:08)
⁓ he's getting into it. We were just... Yeah,

⁓ yeah. He'll be full force in Hood, for sure.

Daniel Paronetto (1:04:15)
my, he's gonna be chucking like varials

or something weird strapless trick with it.

KEN ADGATE (1:04:20)
He

was just here. He's kind of more of a free rider. So I think he's going to be on our style where he's going to just want to rip, whips well. But it was his birthday on Saturday. So we were in the city celebrating with him. So no, he's debating on moving to San Francisco, but I don't think people know that. But yeah, he's he debating. I think he kind of wants to try to do different scenes. So it'd be fun to have him around.

Daniel Paronetto (1:04:24)
Cool. Yeah.

Does he live in California as well?

Yeah.

Absolutely, man. He's a, he's one of the people that I really look up to. Like everything that whenever he posts something that's quite fully related, I'm like, what are you doing? You know, it's.

KEN ADGATE (1:04:52)
He's a great

Photoshopper for sure.

Daniel Paronetto (1:04:57)
Moving right along, tell us a little bit about your boards,

man. What do you have in the background there?

KEN ADGATE (1:05:05)
So I'm working on Sinbad's board, so that's a fresh cut from a block that I leave at the dealership. So I'm gonna probably go 5'7 by 19'63, 64 liters. She has a bright idea of jumping, appareling, and she wants to get it on photo and you know, she wants to look hot and sexy in the air. So I gotta do magenta and pink and teal, a little bit of teal.

Daniel Paronetto (1:05:09)
Nice.

Mm-hmm.

Yep, nice.

I'm a sucker for that. Those colors are my color. Look at that. Look at that little logo. I'm pink, man. I'm a pink boy.

KEN ADGATE (1:05:35)
You

Yeah,

so yeah, she wants to look good jumping, so I think I'm gonna have to make her a showstopper.

Daniel Paronetto (1:05:46)
Nice. What are the boards ⁓ that you're building in Parawing and what are people asking you for?

KEN ADGATE (1:05:52)
⁓ I do it as a hobby. so if yeah, no one's usually asking so you say I'll be like, I'll make you one kind of thing. So ⁓ but I just made one for Johnny. think we did a five eleven by nineteen and a quarter. ⁓ It was like eighty three liters. I think he wanted a little bit. I know he wanted a little bit bigger to go explore out the Golden Gate, which is a little bit more advanced and be in a position where he could slog it all the way home. So.

Daniel Paronetto (1:05:54)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Yeah,

right.

KEN ADGATE (1:06:20)
So he wanted something a little bigger. I wish he didn't, because I think he's gonna be in Hood River probably for three months and he's gonna probably want something smaller. So I'll probably end up making another one or leaving one of mine with him and making one when I come back.

Daniel Paronetto (1:06:29)
Yeah.

Nice. So your boards are just for mates at this point in time. If I want to get a board or if anyone here wants to get a board and they're like, Hey, can you want to do a board? They'll be like, no mate. ⁓

KEN ADGATE (1:06:38)
Yeah.

I know that Danielle is trying to get me to make her another Olympic board and she goes, I need another board. I'm like, no, that means you need another three boards. I'm like, I know how it works. Yeah. I need a quiver. So that'll probably be my next project when, I don't know, probably the next month or so.

Daniel Paronetto (1:06:50)
Alright.

You're exactly quiver. ⁓

Nice.

Who does the graphics on your boards? They look freaking beautiful. Nice.

KEN ADGATE (1:07:09)
My wife, yeah,

so I used to do them myself and then she's really good with the color scheme. So I just buy every single color pigment that is available and she'll sit in here and mix and match and draw it up on her cricket, or not cricket, but whatever she has on her. So yeah, she's coming up with some really cool designs and they stand out. So she's super happy. It kind of gives her something to get excited about.

Daniel Paronetto (1:07:21)
Hmm.

Yep, that's beautiful man.

KEN ADGATE (1:07:38)
⁓ Anytime. No, she just, you know, just likes dabbling with stuff like that. Yeah. So, so yeah, it's pretty cool. She brushes it on everything. So I tell the shapers, like I'll talk to like Keith, Teboul and a couple other people like who did the graph? It's on my wife and like, she did this with epoxy? And I'm like, I'm like, yeah, like, like that's what I'm like, I'm like, I mean, so.

Daniel Paronetto (1:07:39)
Is she a graphic designer?

talented.

Yeah. Yeah, damn.

Yeah, she, ⁓ it's beautiful.

It's beautiful. ⁓ before we go, let's just mention safety. know it's a little boring, but people getting into parawinging might get themselves in some hairy situations out there if they're not prepared for it. anything that you would recommend or like, have you ever had any hairy situations with the parawing yet?

KEN ADGATE (1:08:07)
Thanks. Thanks.

Not yet. ⁓ I got tumbled in a wave and felt the lines wrap around my feet and thank goodness they didn't. But that would be probably the scariest situation I would be in is in Maui is being on the outside set and not be able to get away from the wave and get tumbled and then have that thing with you. The best thing to do is toss that thing away. it sinks, so what? It's not you going to be sinking. ⁓ But as far as exploring and stuff, don't go farther than you could swim.

Daniel Paronetto (1:08:33)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (1:08:58)
I mean, that or just a note, know your surroundings, know your exit points. I really think that carrying an extra parawing or carrying an extra something is going to be smart. And that's why I'm hoping RideEngine will make something that you could stow an extra parawing. let's say, go out on proper days. mean, don't go out on days that you're launching a 5.3 parawing.

and then you don't have a backup, go out on a proper day where you're going out on a three, six parawing and you're carrying a five, four parawing as a backup kind of thing. So that's what I would say. And then obviously telling people where you're at and possibly carrying the radio.

Daniel Paronetto (1:09:29)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think those are all good tips. ⁓ you know, ⁓ person, personal location beacon and wouldn't hurt as well. If you're doing downwind runs, they're around 300 bucks, but like well worth the investment because, ⁓ we had situations down here in the coast where we had to activate it. ⁓ two guys were riding a little bit close and one of them fell. And I think the board just picked up like the foil, picked up the board and got the guy in the head and he got knocked out. so for rescue, like full chopper rescue kind of situation, but.

⁓ without it, they would have been in a really bad situation and it's a small thing. Carry it with you in your vest or anywhere. It's fine. Comms are really important. Like you said, share your location with someone. most of us have, have a group or something like that that we're part of just chuck it in the group that you're going out. I don't really wear a helmet myself, but until the day that the thing hits me in the head and then I'm to wear a helmet every day, which is stupid to say, but.

KEN ADGATE (1:10:14)
Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (1:10:37)
⁓ I don't know. I haven't found something good because I don't like my ears being covered. I, it just throws my balance off. ⁓ but yeah, I think for wave riding a hundred percent, man, like a little kite knife. think the, the Ozen one comes with a kite knife.

KEN ADGATE (1:10:42)
Yeah.

Yes, it does,

Daniel Paronetto (1:10:55)
Yeah, I think that's a really smart thing because in a wave situation, if you do get tangled in that thing, man, I, that's not a good place to be. And I fell once head first on the parawing and it felt like an octopus just like landed on my face. So, ⁓ not a bad thing to have that option as well. and wave riding, man. ⁓ anything you want to talk about wave riding, because that's the ultimate for me going into like big swell and, and riding the parawing.

KEN ADGATE (1:11:07)
Yeah. Yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (1:11:23)
You know, and just being your own toe device really out there is where it's at for me. Well, you can say a little bit about, ⁓ parawinging in the waves.

KEN ADGATE (1:11:32)
Kind of like what Steve Tobis said, mean, is go out to the outside, pack it away before you get into the actual set, ⁓ and then just enjoy the...

the journey to the set. you have to pump a little bit to keep it up with the wave, at least you have it out of your hand, have it nice stowed away and you can enjoy the ride once you get to proper section. ⁓ That's my goal when I go to Maui. I go to the outside and try to pack it away on the outside brake and then when it re-brakes on the second form, you're stowed away and then you get the final form towards the beach. yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (1:11:45)
Mmm.

It's, ⁓ it's the, that's why I think like most of us want to do is just get the biggest wave out there or ride downwind. yeah, I, I go every now and then to the coast, but I don't live in the coast, but that's when I think people can really put themselves in a bad situation if they're not really ready for it. ⁓ getting a few sets on the head with that thing close to you is not great.

KEN ADGATE (1:12:24)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, know that you can't outrun the wave. It's very difficult with the pairwing. You can't generate power like you can on the wing. ⁓ So it would be hard to escape from it like you can when you're winging. ⁓ And then doing transitions is a lot slower. So you've got to take that into account. So when you try to run away from it, you want to do a jibe or something, it's going to take you a lot longer to do it.

Daniel Paronetto (1:12:37)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

KEN ADGATE (1:12:50)
it's just not gonna flow like you can with the wing. So ⁓ yeah, you gotta plan everything out. Just kind of project what's coming at you and project what's gonna happen and be ready for it.

Daniel Paronetto (1:13:00)
Yeah.

And if you're really like in that zone where you're taking a few in the head, again, the wing, you could just pop it up and you're out. You can just drag yourself out of there with the parawing. It's not going to be like that. It's going to take a little bit longer for you to launch it in the water. ⁓ Good tips, man. Anything else you want to touch on Ken?

KEN ADGATE (1:13:18)
I don't think so. ⁓ mean just the foils it'd be interesting to see what size you're going to bring for a hood.

Daniel Paronetto (1:13:25)
Yeah. So I spoke with you and about it and I think I'm like the, the 980 is what I'm going to be writing there most days. 980 S I don't have any of the R series, um, in the code range. just like to ride the, the S series, which is a 9.5, 9.6 aspect ratio. So I'll take the seven 20, the eight 50, the 980 and I'll take the 1130. If it's, you know, a little bit lighter. Um, he told me that.

ups like he's been upsizing his foil sizes a little bit because he thinks he can just push down on the foil a little bit more on the turns and he's not really feeling that he's, like getting a detriment because the foils are bigger. ⁓ I'm going to be riding an extra small fuse as well. So there'll be plenty of turning there. It's 80. Yeah. I'm, I'm on the 80 for everything these days. I don't even like even kiting. should be on an 85.

KEN ADGATE (1:14:08)
What size mask? Okay, that's money.

Daniel Paronetto (1:14:18)
I just chucked the 80 on because I don't want to spend money on another mast.

KEN ADGATE (1:14:21)
Once you get used to the 80, it's pretty fun. I mean, it's a lot more playful. You're closer to the power zone of the swell, so you can generate power much easier. I don't know. I'm starting to love the 82. I was a 96 person forever. And then I went down to the 86, and then I just recently switched to the 80 a couple of months ago, and I've been riding it pretty much every single time I go out there. Even winging it, I'm really enjoying it.

Daniel Paronetto (1:14:25)
Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, do you write it for Kitey as well?

KEN ADGATE (1:14:49)
No, I still ride the 96 for kiting.

Daniel Paronetto (1:14:52)
Yeah, cutting you do need a little, little more, especially cause you just, you

just banking too much and then just breach.

KEN ADGATE (1:14:57)
Yeah, and I'm riding a 540 foil, so it's a race foil. it's, it doesn't really, I mean, it would do okay with the short mass, but I would breach way too easily. The speeds I'm, yeah, the speeds I'd be going, it's just, it wouldn't be worth it. Oh shoot, I mean, it's all fast. I mean, they're race foils, so I'm constantly, I'm on the edge all the time, so.

Daniel Paronetto (1:15:06)
Mike's lab? ⁓

What speeds are you going to?

Yeah.

Do you ride the ozone? you on a, what kites do you ride?

KEN ADGATE (1:15:23)
So I have the Chrono 7 meter that's a really fun playful kite and then I just got the new Enduro Ultra X's the Lula versions. my god that thing I actually look forward to kiting every single time there's proper winds because that kite is freaking magical. It is really really good. ⁓ The weight ⁓ it could fly in like nothing so it's really good for light wind. I could probably fly it at lighter than a Chrono so that's that'll tell you how good it does in light wind.

Daniel Paronetto (1:15:27)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Bye.

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

KEN ADGATE (1:15:53)
And then the power it generates in the turn is pretty epic versus the Chrono. In Chrono, really have to play with it as far as stalling out the back line to swing it across the window low to create the same kind of power that you can on just looping it with the Enduro. So yeah, I'm really enjoying the Enduro. It is very, very good kite.

Daniel Paronetto (1:16:04)
Mm-hmm.

Nice.

I was

thinking about getting like something different, like a Mach 1 just to do some boost and like have a big air, like really huge air time and like to just board offs.

KEN ADGATE (1:16:27)
Mach one is who made by who? Mach one. Mach one? ⁓ you're saying the new, the new, new full kite. okay, okay. ⁓ That, have you tried the edges? The edges is, ⁓ I guess it matters what style you like, but the edges will give you that nice boost and then you could still be able to loop it. It's a little bit more safety in the lighter winds because when it goes down you can still get it back kind of.

Daniel Paronetto (1:16:29)
I ozone.

Nah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. ⁓

KEN ADGATE (1:16:55)
going back up but ⁓ the foil kites, I if you're really comfortable with foil kite, yeah there's nothing better than a foil kite. They're so fun to ride.

Daniel Paronetto (1:17:02)
Yeah, I just want that hang time and just ⁓ to do, I mean, I've been riding the boxers for years now and they're great and they're fun. ⁓ but I just want to have something different now in that 15 knot range where, you know, I can still boost and do, do whatever. ⁓ what size, what the hang time went.

KEN ADGATE (1:17:17)
The

hang time, mean the R1 race kites probably are the best. I mean, that's what you see Jamie Oberbeck ride is the race kite. So he does some pretty crazy things with those things. Well, you can probably get it cheap now. I mean, all the guys that can afford that stuff will be getting all rid of their last year version, which was still amazing. So yeah, so.

Daniel Paronetto (1:17:23)
Yeah.

They're too expensive,

Yeah, that's fine for me. What size should I

look for for like? Yeah.

KEN ADGATE (1:17:46)
recommend for 15 knots? ⁓

Probably 11 meter. yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (1:17:52)
Yeah, they have a good range though, don't they? can really stretch

that.

KEN ADGATE (1:17:55)
13 is my favorite size out of all of them. They turn the best, it has the best power range. I say the 13, I could compete with any 15 on the water as far as racing. And it just has really good just overall performance. So 13 with 12 to 13 meter lines, 15 meters being the longest, I think would be a money size for that. I mean, probably eight knots to 20 knots. You could probably get away with, so.

Daniel Paronetto (1:18:21)
Nice.

And that's the Enduro. Sorry, R1.

KEN ADGATE (1:18:24)
No, no, that's the R1 race guide. ⁓

as far as enduro? she could probably get away with seven meter. But nine meter, yeah, the seven meter, nine meter enduro, you could get away with probably, I was riding in 10 miles an hour, so that's what, like eight knots? Eight knots? And it was pretty epic.

Daniel Paronetto (1:18:33)
Yeah, the seven is where I normally go to. Yeah.

Yeah. Nah, think for, for the, yeah, for

that kind of style of, ⁓ kites, would definitely go for the smaller sizes. It's just more fun. I don't want to have too much, too much, anything big.

KEN ADGATE (1:18:54)
⁓ Yeah,

20 meter lines is what I like the Enduro on as far as foil kiting and then 23s when I'm riding boots or strapless surfboard.

Daniel Paronetto (1:18:59)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, nice. have, yeah, I have a similar setup 20 meters with actually 16 meters with four for meter extensions. I think it's nice because you can have that option to chuck something small. Ken, that's awesome, man. ⁓ lots of nuggets in here. ⁓ hope it's been helpful for, for people getting into parawinging people, learning about boards or anything that we spoke about. Thank you so much for being on. ⁓ can't wait to be with you in Hood River, man. It's going to be an epic season, ⁓ this summer.

KEN ADGATE (1:19:13)
Yeah.

Yeah. Now, the

crew there is going to be epic for you in July. You are going to have everybody there. mean, AWS would probably be the second best, but probably the first, the best time to go as far as all the pros there. But if you want just the epic conditions, mean, July is money, absolute money. yeah.

Daniel Paronetto (1:19:35)
my god.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah, that's what I'm going for. I'm going there for

writing AWS side, more networking. If I have the money, I'll go back. But if not, I just want to, I want to nail the writing. Yeah. I just rent a house there. I can't really be a remote firefighter. There's not really a good potential for being a remote firefighter these days, but yeah, we'll work something out. Ken. Thanks again, man. And I'll see you in hood.

KEN ADGATE (1:19:57)
You might not leave. You might not leave. well cool. Great chat.

All right, awesome.

013_Ken Adgate: Expert Parawing techniques, tips, hacks and modifications!

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