Garage Works - 6/17/2025

And after the foiling session, cooking dinner and cleaning up a bit, I got a bit of time in the garage.

First up was an emergency ding repair for Rick.  This board fell out of its spot in his board rack.

Here's the nose ding all sanded and opened - ready for fill.

And I sanded the entire surface of No.41.

Here's the bottom.

Here's the top.

Here's the rear.

I found two spots that needed fill and a patch - so I took care of those this evening.  Fill on the right corner... and I didn't take a picture, but there is a patch towards the nose on the top deck.

And here is the nose job fill on Rick's board.

More sanding and filling in the immediate future for me.

Wing Foiling Session - 6/17/2025

Wind was shifty today - both in direction and strength.

Tide was on the low side.  And the surf was on the decent side of the scale.

Same board and foil as yesterday.

For the wing, I opted to use the North Nova Pro 5.0 - with the handles.  J-handle in the front and a 400mm straight bar in the back

There were a couple of times I had to remember I wasn't using the boom.  I also need to set this up with a longer harness line.

The piston grip works nicely when luffing the wing - definitely help you mix it up!

With the shifty conditions, I really didn't want to get caught outside if the wind dropped.  I didn't press my luck and came in after an hour.  Really just enough time to make sure the handle settings were good to go for future sessions.

You can see the different wind directions that were present over the one hour I was out.

Lots of tacks onto waves today.  Koa was out earlier - and I saw him trying to pull a power slide.  That's gonna make me make another board that is built to facilitate foil out maneuvers...

Then I saw Norm at the start of a coastal run to PV.

There were some decent waves - and plenty of smashable sections.  Pretty fun considering the challenging conditions.

W:47/FD:84/PW:10/S:4

Wing Foiling Session - 6/16/2025

The wind was strong, but way up and down.  The surf was a touch bigger than yesterday and the tide was lowish when I got to the beach, but rising.

I just received the North Shiftlock J-handle that I ordered a while back - and I wanted to test it out on the North Nova Pro 4.2m - but with the ups and downs I figured I was better off with the North Mode Pro 4.8

Mark was already launching when I pulled up to the beach.

AFS Enduro 900/HA40 bolted on to No.40

I kind of wanted to parawing - but under these conditions that would have been self-inflicted suffering.

Prayot also launched close to when I took off, and Roland came out later.

There were some waves that came through, but most of the inbound rides were making the most out of smaller wind driven waves.

The Enduro 900 is such a great foil it could cover a huge range of conditions (as indicated by the wind chart) - zero complaints from today's performance.  Makes me think I should down size when I parawing next in stronger wind...

Lots of blue - just the way I like my foiling sessions -

If the wind gets stronger and steadier, I'll breakout the parawing again.  Or I'll set up that J handle...

There is wind in the forecast for the foreseeable future - choices, choices, choices.

W:46/FD:84/PW:10/S:4

Garage Works - 6/15/2025

Also on this 2025 Father's Day, I got lots of work done on No.41

After the epoxy fiasco yesterday, I got everything sanded and fixed this morning.  I'm glad the fiasco happened, but this board will be stronger now.

And this evening I was able to get the top deck lamination epoxied on.

The hard part is done!

A little lap sanding tomorrow, label stickers get placed, and a fill coat will go on.

The next day the other deck will get it's fill coat.  Sanding on Tuesday.  Secondary fill coats if necessary.

Plug installation (maybe Tuesday night) and Signal Window up on the nose.

Final fill coat on Wednesday.  This board will definitely be anointed by this coming weekend. 

Father's Day Parawinging Session

Happy Father's Day all you Fathers!

I spent a portion of my day parawinging - and I was able to have Marlon tail me with the drone.

I swapped out the AFS UHM 80cm mast for the Evolution Cedrus Surf 77.5cm mast - otherwise I used the same gear.

There were waves, but nothing critical.  The tide was rising, but I still had to paddle out to deeper water.  And the wind was blowing stronger than it has been and more consistent - perfect parawinging conditions!

After an initial series of unbalanced starting attempts, I finally got up.  And then it just kept getting better.

I was able to stay up for long runs and I easily pulled up wind.  I used the Stringfellow harness hook and it made a huge difference when the gusts came through.

Easily my best day on parawing.

In fact - this chart looks like I was winging.

Nothing but jibes today.  I'm just trying to develop muscle memory for staying up, pumping and jibing - I can wait for tacking.

And there is a switch start in there somewhere.

Pretty strong winds - I'm pretty sure I would not have been able to hold on to the Ka'a 4.8.  And I'm pretty sure I should have been on a smaller parawing (but I don't have a smaller one - yet).

This chart also looks like I was winging!

Prayot and Roland were out winging.

They both buzzed passed me at one point, but were mostly down in front of the cabins.  I was on the other side of Fenceline.

This is the second time I managed to stay upwind - and it was the second time I did it with the Maliko 4.0 (post bar modification).  I think there's something going on with the V1...

Great session!!!

W:45/FD:84/PW:10/S:4

Garage Works - 6/14/2025

I installed this parawing harness hook onto the NSI parawing pouch belt.  It works well!  I'll try it out on the water next time I go parawinging.

And I got a lot of work done on No.41

This is the carbon strips I'll apply to the bottom for stiffening.

And here they are installed.

I sanded that laminate smooth and then prepared to place the bottom on.

The first batch of epoxy cooked off a little quick - and I may have ruined a few areas of the bottom laminate.  I'll check tomorrow - if I need to I'll sand of the bad spots, and relaminate.

If I knock this out in the morning, I should be able to laminate the top deck tomorrow as well.  With all the extra work going into this build, it better perform well...

Wing Foiling Session - 6/14/2025

I originally was going to wing over at Kailua Beach Park, but there was a canoe race and I didn't want to deal with the crowd.

I eventually made it out to Hickam for an afternoon session.

There was wind, but it was tough to zero in on where it was coming from.  Tide is never really an issue here.  And the waves were far and few between.

Knowing the conditions, I setup the same exact gear as yesterday - I figure the Ultra 750 would eat up any excess power from the North Nova Pro 5.0

This is a mean setup!

I did get a late start, so I kept an eye out for the wind faltering.  When I got to the parking lot, Zach and Naomi were packing up, Matt was out on the water and Ken was setting up.

It's been a while since I really put the Ultra 750 through its paces.  I started out running through both tacks and both jibes, and eventually headed out to Firsts.

I nabbed a few waves and checked out Seconds.  I got a couple of decent waves, but it really wasn't breaking.  I headed back in to make some speed runs.

For its size, the Ultra 750 gets up pretty easily, and it stays up as long as the wing has power.  There were a few times when the wing didn't have power and I had to wait for gusts to get back up.

I think the span of this foil limits its top end - 23mph is pretty good, but at 750 square centimeters, you'd think this one would go much faster.

I called it early to avoid having to paddle back (and I'm glad I did - the wind continued to drop).

Fun session!

W:45/FD:84/PW:9/S:4

Wing Foiling Session - 6/13/2025

After work winging session.

Norm was already pumping up his wing when I got to the parking lot.

The wind was blowing hard north - it was actually pretty good for Foil Drive-ing...

I pumped up the North Nova Pro 5.0

No.40 with the AFS Ultra HA 750/HA38 - I didn't give myself options, just brought this foil (I was being optimistic).  Knowing the waves would be small and the wind not conducive for parawinging, I still wanted to do something different - I figured using this foil would be challenging.

Norm was on the AFS Enduro 1300 - so he was up on foil more than I was.

When the wind was blowing, this foil was fun - fast, still turns well (not carving like the Silk 850, but still turns).

Doesn't get more north than this.

This session was an exercise in getting up on foil in lighter winds, staying up on foil once up, and finding the lower limits of this foil.

I was able to tack this foil - as long as I had enough speed.

Definitely lighter than I thought it was going to be

Again - fun when there was a gust to get me up on foil.  No surprise that the Ultra 750 has tons of glide.  I'm going to have to use this foil a lot more to see what the upper limits are.

Another thing I noticed is this foil did not take a toll on my right knee.  Probably foil placement...

Once last note, on one jibe going in back to out, I was not able to switch back to regular foot - and I ended up riding switch back out.  I've only done this a handful of times and it feels awkward as heck - but probably something I should continue to do (in addition to getting up on foil from switch).

W:44/FD:84/PW:9/S:4

Garage Works - 6/12/2025

The wind seemed to be too much for good Foil Drive-ing and not enough to wing/parawing (without having to wait out lulls) - so I decided to get some stuff done around the house (and get some rest).

I mowed the lawn, reset the sprinkler timer, helped La wax her car, then worked on some stuff in the garage.

Up first was doing the final shaping on No.41 

It's good to finish the rough shaping on a board then walk away from it for a while.  That allows you to see all the anomalies easier.

I also had to get the top deck cleaned up at the nose (rough surface foam needed to come off) and I dialed in the back of the board to blend in the track block.

I'm happy with the shape now.

And I also got a layer of thickened epoxy into the joint between the offcut and the section with the tracks.  I used 0.56 ounces to get the first layer of sealant on.

I'll get the bottom deck laminated next - but I'll probably buy some beer first (I'll have to babysit the lamination).  I'll put a layer of carbon tape over the offcuts extending over to the nose area (double stringers), then get a cap sheet of the 4.8 ounce carbon nose to tail.

I also set up a different coil leash for FD and PW.  This is a short coil for bodyboarding with a length of standard line.  I'm going to put the knotted pig tails on the boards (same as I have them on the wings) and use a lark's head to stay connected to the board.

We'll see how this works!  I'm hopeful that it'll resolve the fights I have with the longer coil leashes.

And while working in the garage, I got to meet the new neighbors!

Noe and I fed them lots of bread.  I hope they stick around!

I love living here!