To depower is to kill a parawing's pull by sheeting out onto the front/A-lines, dropping the canopy's angle of attack until it stops generating power. Every stash starts with a depower, it is the survival move in gusts, and it is where single-skin and double-skin designs differ most.
Shift load onto the front/A-lines until the canopy’s angle of attack is too low to generate pull: that is depower. You use it before every stash and the instant a gust hits. You also buy more or less of it when you pick a construction type.
Construction decides what happens next. Depowered, a single-skin sits deep in the wing window and pulls downwind, which is why pure single-skins give up upwind angle. Double-skins don’t. BRM’s product notes for the Paia double-skin say “double skins… continue to drive upwind even when completely sheeted out to the lowest possible angle of attack,” and Triple Seven claims roughly 30% more top-end for the P.T. Hybrid over its single-skin equivalent (777kites.com).
Gust management is the parawing’s biggest weakness, which is why 2026 R&D is piling into depower. The approaches diverge. Sroka’s patented Push Bar System is the only true sheet-in/sheet-out bar, kite-style. North’s Depower Tab is a handbrake midway up the Ranger’s leading-edge bridle; pull it, or hook it on the bar end. Flow’s reflex airfoil holds shape fully depowered instead of collapsing. And Ensis runs a Depower Control System (fly entirely on the front bridles) on the Roger V2.
Calibrate expectations with two numbers. Consensus on the Seabreeze and Progression Project forums: knock 3–5 knots off any published top-end wind range. The Inertia’s test, run in 12–30+ knots across San Francisco Bay, Hood River and Maui, found the same pattern: real-world top ends narrower than the manufacturer claims. Cut the other way, a wing that depowers well stretches range hard: MACkite’s Tucker rode a 5m Pocket Rocket V2 in 30 knots.
Related technique: gust management and stashing mid-ride. Full term list in the glossary.