Greg Drexler shows how to use a parawing, the latest addition to Boardriding Maui’s adventures in foiling. Photo courtesy Scott Drexler

A new water sport is taking flight on Maui — parawinging.

Thanks to local company Boardriding Maui, the sport made its debut with a featured event at the 2025 Paddle Imua, giving the island’s water sports community its first official introduction.

Greg Drexler, founder and designer of Boardriding Maui, began crafting strutless kites in 2012 — innovations that have since evolved into wingfoils and, most recently, parawings for the Maui community. For Greg Drexler, the real reward isn’t just seeing his creations on the water but sharing the experience alongside his customers — and most of all, with his brother Scott, a fellow kite foiler and multi-sport waterman.

“Sharing fun on the water with my brother since we were kids is an amazing part of my life,” Greg Drexler said. “His mad talent as a visual storyteller has been amazing to be able to share our fun on the water.”

At the 2025 Paddle Imua event at Kanaha Beach Park, Boardriding Maui sponsored the first-ever parawing division. Partnering with a community-driven event like Paddle Imua was the perfect way to introduce this emerging sport to the island for Drexler and the BRM team, who are looking forward to what the future holds for parawinging.

“It’s a great event for a great cause, so we were of course super happy to be included,” Greg Drexler said. “(It’s) awesome that they were excited to open a new division for the new parawing category. Big thanks for that. All the riders did amazing, and everyone seemed to have a great time.”

He added that progression in one water sport can benefit others as well.

“We were already kiting when we added hydrofoils,” Scott Drexler recalled. “Parawing is the latest addition to our adventure in foiling. Kite, wing, parawing, paddle, prone — all forms of foiling are awesome, and progression in each is shared across disciplines. Now there’s a similar transition from wing to parawing. The parawing borrows from the kite technology, so, in a way it’s bringing it all together.”

Boardriding Maui inspired the creation of their version of the parawing by having the focus on using wind power to tow into hydrosurfing. Within this advancement, the parawing created by Greg has taken off into a new technology, expanding in all sorts of directions ranging in high level disciplines to more relaxed versions of riding on the water with this invention.

“Over the years, from kiting to winging, we were evolving toward greater freedom to use the wind to get on foil, and into the waves and downwind bumps, but to then try to minimize or eliminate anything other than the foiling experience,” Greg said. “The parawing was a next step in this evolution.”

Whether it’s kitesurfing, wing foiling, hydrofoil surfing, or now parawinging, Boardriding Maui and the Drexler brothers view this new sport as the next exciting step in water and wind sports. Beyond the thrill, parawinging is about the simple joy of being on the ocean — sharing the experience with family, friends, and the Maui community.

Photo courtesy Scott Drexler