About

Q: What is FoilFinder?
A: FoilFinder is a parawing gear catalog and community platform. It gives you the ability to compare parawing models, stats, and wind ranges, and connect with other riders.

I built FoilFinder as an experiment, thinking that it might help people find and compare parawing equipment. For a while, I got excited about providing features, but after some time I realized that I didn’t really want to be developing software, and, more importantly, that it’s more fun just to talk with fellow riders about what works best for you. I still think there’s a place for a complete catalog of all known parawing models and specs, so you can view and compare them in one place, so that’s what remains.

Q: What does “Tested by FoilFinder” mean?
A: I include my ratings for equipment I’ve tested tested first-hand. I use a 1-5 scale, with 6 reserved for exceptional, A+, category-winning performance. Note that these tests and ratings reflect my personal experience and opinions; your mileage may vary.

Q: Why doesn’t FoilFinder know about parawing X, Y or Z? A: I add new products as they come out, time permitting. Please let me know if you notice something missing or that needs an update.

Q: Why not just use ChatGPT?
A: First of all, general AI models like Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini don’t have the deep knowledge about our sports, the products, assessments–or the expertise to put all of that together into a meaningful, realistic, up-to-date recommendation–so you can’t get a complete answer from AI.

Secondly, ChatGPT is owned by OpenAI, and they have been very clear about their intentions to insert ads into results–in fact they are already doing so. Seriously, fuck that! As I wrote years ago, advertising is obsolete–and others agree.

Plus, really, it’s more fun to talk with humans.

Q: “Wang?” Eh?
A: How many times have you said “parawing”–and perhaps been mis-heard as having said “power wing” or “pawrah wing” or what-farking-kind-of-wing-are-you-talking-about mate? Or found that now you have to say “inflatable wing” or something even more ridiculous like “hand wing” to mean, you know, those older sort of wings, which we used to just call wings…even though of course that’s super-confusing too, because of all “wings” that are part of foiling. Hey, just me, but I got tired of saying “parawing” “parawing” “parawing” all the time and so I just started calling them wangs. Wing vs wang, it’s easy.

Q: How do you calculate those nifty wind range charts with lightly-, ideally-, and heavily-powered bands?
A: Our wind range data starts with ranges declared by the manufacturers. Of course, each brand does this differently–and, to be honest, some claimed wind ranges are pretty unrealistic–but we have to start somewhere. First we make sure they’re all normalized for an 80kg rider, then we apply some basic rules based on our riding expertise to break out the power bands, which are slightly different for single-skin, double-skin, and hybrid parawings. You can use the product catalog to select wings you’re interested in, and then narrow it down by size or target wind speed–pretty cool!

Q: Advertising? A: No. I am 100% against the advertising industrial complex. FoilFinder will never sell your data, or let anyone pay to influence recommendations. We might charge a fee or subscription to use FF at some point, and/or license to dealers and brands, and use affiliate links–but never ads.

Q: Who built FoilFinder?
A: Bowen Dwelle, life-long outdoor adventure sports enthusiast, sailor, kiter, foiler, winger, parawinger, writer, developer, and entrepreneur who lives and rides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Q. How can I support FoilFinder?
A. Consider buying us a coffee — it helps keep the lights on and the knowledge base growing.

Q: How can I contact FoilFinder?
A: Drop us a line any time.