Flagging means releasing a wing or kite to a single attachment point (a leash or one line) so the canopy weathervanes downwind and flies with no power, like a flag. In parawinging the term is mostly used by contrast: a parawing is not flagged out, it is depowered onto the front lines and stashed into a belt.
Flagging is a kiting and wing-foiling word. Release the wing to a single attachment point (a leash, or one line after a safety release) and the canopy swings downwind, luffs, and flies powerless, a flag on a pole. For wingfoilers that is the default off switch. Flag out and the wing just sits there on the wrist leash, doing nothing.
Parawinging borrowed the word but not the habit. Most parawingers ride leashless, precisely to keep a leash out of the thin bridle lines, so there is usually nothing to flag on. Per Duotone, a dropped parawing “typically flies a few meters, lands on the water, and then collapses”, bar left sitting on the surface. The off switch here takes two moves: depower onto the front/A-lines, then stash.
A leash clipped to the front/A-line leader is as close as a parawing gets to a real flag-out; Ozone color-codes that leader red for exactly this reason. Release onto it and the canopy depowers but keeps flying instead of sinking or dragging. Flysurfer’s free POW Academy walks through safety releases and emergency procedures in its handling and safety episodes.
One warning from MACkite’s safety write-up bears repeating. Near breaking waves, any rigid leash to a downed canopy turns into a dragnet; never attach yourself to a wing leash that can drag you. If conditions can load the lines, the safe state for a parawing is stashed, not flagged.
The rider-side version of the flag-vs-stash call is in self-rescue and drift; more terms in the glossary.