First Turns: BRM S3 3.4m

5/8/2026

I got to try my buddies new S3 3.4m for the day and wanted to share my first thoughts after 1 day on it. For reference, I have over 1000 miles of parawing experience. I have tried a variety of brands, and would say the Pocket Rocket v1 is the best parawing I have used on the market going into 2026.

This S3 was purchased at Wingfoil Pro Center by a friend and this is a non compensated ride report.

Rider and Gear

86kg rider dry, 90+kg wet.

77l Custom Sunova Carver 5'11"x20"

AFS 80cm UHM mast

Enduro 800 with regular fuse

Mako Carve Pro 125 (S) tail

Ride Conditions

Worth noting that this gauge reads poorly. The gusts are more like the averages.

Wind was gusty, averaged 25 knots and rose to 35 knots for the second half of my session. Gregs windrange chart puts the 3.4m in the sweet spot around 20-25 knots of wind so I started the session on the top end and finished well outside of the recommended range.

Water was classic Gorge swell. Short period with steep faces.

The S3 Experience

My main questions when going out on this parawing were "will it be intuitive?" and "will the D grip handle give me any issues?" Since my friend bought these to learn to parawing, with zero experience, I also wanted to crash test dummy myself and let him know what happens with this parawing when you get overpowered.

The first portion of the ride from 2:45-4:00pm was great. The wind averaged 25 knots and I had the chance to free ride, stash, redeploy, push upwind, just like any normal day on the water. Takeoff was completely intuitive, sheet in and go. Upwind was supernatural. I quickly spooked myself with the upwind speed and angle. On my Pocket Rocket v1s I tend to average 12-13mph upwind in the Gorge. With the S3, every reach was moving at 14-16mph upwind while achieving good upwind angles.

This can't be stressed enough. This is my FIRST ride on the S3 and I am experiencing a 20% increase in upwind speed without trying. That is a MASSIVE gain that will equate to much faster upwind vs downwind times.

I played with redeploys, gybes, falling in with the S3 stashed vs in my hand vs dropping it in the water and even letting it fly away. It does tangle a little differently than other parawings but it's no drama, just different, easy to untangle. One thing that did surprise me was that the pack down on this parawing seemed to favor just stuffing it in my pouch as fast as possible. With my v1 pocket rockets I had a very precise packing method that I had mastered. This is hard to re-create with the S3 having a unique A line setup. The more I tried to pack it nicely, the more it disliked me. So I said screw it lets just surf and started bundling it fast and it responded by consistently redeploying without issue. Nice!

I saw a few comments saying it gybes funky but I had zero issues.

At the end of my first hour or so on the S3 I had only one real dislike. The harness line from BRM. It works perfectly when hooked in but the flimsy shape requires me to one hand the bar and hook it in. This is stressful when it starts to nuke and feels risky for finger pinches or dropping the parawing.

Image credit BRM Website

Greg mentions that's where the harness line needs to be and he is correct. I went in and grabbed a rigid windsurf loop that stays open and oriented but sits just below the D. Hooking in was 100% fixed but then the power was always on and uncomfortable. A future rigid loop that captures the bar like this first iteration would be a nice upgrade IMO.

The wind increased to averaging 30-35 knots...

To be clear, we are obviously outside of the normal 3.4m range and I want to address that there's a few ways I've experienced parawings acting when powered up like this.

1. Overpowered downwind disaster mode: Some violently lose control and jerk you downwind and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Hopefully you got a shuttle waiting.

2. Uncomfortable A line flight: My Pocket Rocket v1s fly off the A lines super overpowered and it sucks, it's not fun, but I can cautiously make my way home.

3. The Paia mode: This thing just swallows all wind and keeps going. I've had the 3.1m in 50 knots and it's just casual.

4. The S3 race mode: There's no way to 100% A line de-power the S3 that I could figure out today. The front half of the canopy holds its shape (and seems impossible to collapse under load) which is cool. Even better, it's stable with both hands on the bar, not twitchy, and gobbles up the gusts without ripping you off your board. However... in the Gorge where we have really steep short period chop this is a struggle. You ever see those videos of people racing cars and dirtbikes up a steep hill? Going crazy fast, bouncing all over, 50/50 shot at making it to the top? That's kinda how I felt with the S3. It could totally handle the wind, but it translated it into speed that in my home conditions was not manageable with an 80cm mast on my first day. It was too much speed straight upwind through the Gorge pump track swell to keep the foil in the water and I couldn't figure out how to slow it down.

One Day Conclusions

The S3 is epic. It's got some subtle nuances with different line layouts and the D handle that you will have to get used to which is the case with any parawing. However, if the goal is pure upwind speed at great angles, I've never experienced anything else that can compare to the S3. With a smaller backup size in a bag and once a rigid loop is available this may be the best option on the market for dedicated DW/UW riders.

That's it that's all.

Short and sweet. With a bit of practice I expect mastery of the S3 will reap huge benefits for riders. In the past I only recommended the Pocket Rocket v1. Now I'll add the S3 to the list.

Questions? Drop them in the comments and I’ll get back to you.

See you at the river,

Bryan Lee, M.S. Experiential Education.