A repack is re-stowing a parawing whose first stash failed: lines escaped the wrap, the canopy blew out of the belt, or a crash left the wing wet and tangled. Unlike a routine stash done in seconds mid-ride, a repack usually happens off foil, floating in deep water, and means sorting bridle lines before anything goes back in the belt. It is the least documented skill in the sport and the one that decides whether a bad stash ends the run.
Every blown stash ends the same way: with a repack (full glossary here). The routine stow itself is quick. The miss rate is the number to respect. Forum riders report only about 50–75% of early redeploys come out clean, and each miss puts you in the water repacking.
The mechanics are the same sequence taught in stashing mid-ride: depower, gather lines to the bar, wrap them inside the fold, stuff into the stash belt. The one hard difference: you start from a mess, floating, often in swell. A few rules keep it short. Sort lines before you fold. Never pull against a tangle. Rotate the harness hook to your back so it stops eating lines (FoilGraham’s tip). And treat a partial stash as a full restart, not something to stuff in and hope over. BRM’s stashing clips show the full stow sequence with the S3 and handle.
Some riders pre-daisy-chain their lines so any future repack goes faster; parawing linesets are short, 2–4 m, so tangles resolve quickly once sorted.
Brand academies and courses barely touch the deep-water repack; riders improvise. That gap has teeth: a failed repack in swell, with lines under wave load, is the dragnet scenario. The step-by-step method is in deep-water repack, and the failure branch is covered in swell tangle recovery. Until you have drilled it, stay inside swim range: a wing that will not repack is a wing you swim home with.