Gear for 2027 - AWSI Recap
For you of those who don't know AWSI is an event put on every year in Hood River, OR around the second week of September. This event is an annual trade show where all the major brands around wind sports come together and showoff all the NEW exciting gear for the upcoming year. This event is only available to people who are involved the industry in some fashion whether it be sales, rentals, or coaching. What is the big news Items for the 2027 year? Is kteboarding still a Thing? Is the Parawing squashing the wing market? Who has the best Parawing?
*As a disclaimer I only be focusing on the brands that we carry at KPS, we didn't spend a ton of time around other brands in comparison to the ones that we sell in our retail store.
Kicking off the Big News it would have to be the Armstrong Parawing. This new parawing drew so much attention that Armstrong was only allowing people from retail stores to demo it. The canopy profile was similar to the Ozone Pocket Rocket V2 but the bar and sheeting system was extremely unique. The front A-lines has an adjustable knot that slides out from the bar so it can be powered for getting up on to foil and then depowered while riding. After testing it out on the water you could definitely notice a difference in power between the different settings.
The Next Big News item was seeing the Ozone Afterburner Parawing. This parawing is in a class of its own when it comes to upwind performance and speed. While shooting video clips from the shore it was apparent how much more upwind performance there was over other parawing brands. The Ozone Pocket Rocket V2 was Voted the Best New Gear item for 2026 so if you're still looking for the best overall parawing get your hands on one, you won't be disappointed.
Is Kiteboarding still a thing? The short answer yes, it is but were seeing the trend of brands consolidating models into fewer models within their line ups. Kites, twin-tips, and surfboards are more streamlined within a brand which helps on the decision process on what to get. From Slingshot, the new Code V3 grabbed a lot of attention from everyone who tried it for a few reasons. The Code was built as that freeride do it all kite with a little edge towards Big Air, now it's a Big Air boosting powerhouse but can still throw down some general freeride type riding styles. Naish released the New 2027 Pivot (Q) Series which hits that spot as a perfect balanced do-it-all jack of all trades type of kite, that got a lot of praise at the tradeshow. Overall were seeing kite brands focus on building kites that are the do-it-all type and the ones that built for going big air and throwing down the biggest hang times you can achieve while kiting.
Is the Parawing squashing the wing market? This is an interesting one because I feel like a lot of attention is on the Parawing right now because it's kind of the new kid on the block phenomena. From what I could see the wing market is well established with small changes being done to the wings. The industry standard has gone to all booms, overall designs are remaining the same, most brands are coming out with a wing that has a combined leading edge with Dacron and Allula which I find very interesting. Comparing the wing types, what I can see is that riders interested in doing big air or want that easy flag out ability to ride bumps are choosing to wing. The People who are choosing to parawing want that ability to pack away the parawing and achieve an uninterrupted foil experience with nothing in their hands. The surfers looking for ultimate freedom on a wave are choosing the parawing over the wing and it was evident from watching everyone on the water ride the bumps.
Who has the Best Parawing? To be honest I can't pick one over the other, it's just splitting hairs between them all right now. The Ozone parawings have been leading the field for the past year so it seems other brands are trying to catch up with them and add some sort of twist to their own models. The Armstrong Parawing should be released this fall, and I feel that could be a leap forward in design with the ability to adjust power at the control bar. Finally, the Naish Hatch V2 Parawing was a huge success over the V1 with a host of improvements that make it a highly versatile parawing. My favorite feature on the Hatch V2 was the built-in harness line that sits flush with the bar and then pulls out when you want to hook in...very clever idea. Still no parawing from Slingshot so hopefully will be seeing one from them in Spring of 2027 more than likely.
I didn't talk much about Foils but Armstrong, Slingshot and Naish don't have any changes this Fall, but stay tuned for Spring 27 because there are some new exciting foils coming that we can't share about until then (stay tuned).
I put these videos together to show off some of the New Gear, hope you enjoy them and leave us a comment or share the video with a friend if you found the video useful. Thanks again for taking the time to read this Summary of the AWSI 2026. Get out there and have some fun on the water. Cheers Everyone!
- Aaron