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daisy-chain

verb, noun · /ˈdeɪzi tʃeɪn/ · parawing foiling

To daisy-chain is to shorten lines by pulling a bight of line through the previous loop, over and over, until the full length is compressed into a chain of slip loops that releases by pulling the free end. In parawinging it is a storage and transport technique borrowed from paragliding, not part of the mid-ride stash.

Usage
  • “Daisy-chain the lines before the wing goes in the backpack.”
  • “Deployed with a daisy-chain still in: instant knot at the bar.”
Not to confuse with
  • Repack a repack is re-folding the whole canopy (on the beach or in deep water); a daisy-chain only manages the lines.
  • Stash the mid-ride stow wraps lines around the bar as you fold; brand tutorials teach the bar-wrap, not a daisy-chain, on the water.

Pull a bight of line through a starting loop. Pull the next bight through that one. Keep going until the whole lineset is a short, fat chain that unzips when you pull the free end: no knots, no untangling. Climbers, paraglider pilots and kiters have chained gear this way for decades, and parawingers inherited it as a shore-side tool.

On the water it barely has a role, because parawing linesets are short by design. BRM lists retract lengths of 103–165 cm for the S3 (boardridingmaui.com), and Flysurfer shortened the POW 2’s bridles so they “gather in one movement, arm’s length”. At those lengths the mid-ride stow just wraps the lines around the bar inside the fold. The brand tutorials, Green Hat’s stow-and-deploy trick tips and BRM’s stashing clips, all teach the bar-wrap. None teach a daisy-chain.

Where it does earn its keep is end-of-session packing, travel, and carrying a spare wing (dry-bag or backpack rigs for a second wing are common on long downwinders). Chained lines survive a bouncing backpack without turning into a bird’s nest, and they come undone faster than any untangling session ever will.

One failure mode, and it matters. Forget the chain is in, and a daisy-chain that goes airborne during a deploy cinches under load into a genuine knot at the bar. Unchain fully, then walk every line from bar to canopy before launch, the same pre-flight check taught in ground handling and lines. On-water equivalents: stashing mid-ride and the rest of the glossary.

Terminology verified in the racing fleet
Definitions reviewed by Dmitry Evseev · 2026 World Cup runner-up