The Life Amphibious

Monday, September 21, 2026

Garage Works - 9/21/2026

I decided to take a rest day today, and also wanted to get some things done that I have been thinking about doing for some time - like waterproofing the parawings

I did some research and felt this was as good an option as any.

And I decided to spray on the waterproofing first on the S3 that has seen the most use - the 5.3

Then I used the rest of the can on the 4.2

I'm gonna hit the beach tomorrow to test the waterproofing.

Parawing Racing at the KWA Fall Classic

Yesterday was the Kailua Windsports Association Fall Classic 2026

I signed up for the short and long course parawing class races.

Was really cool to see this many kites out all at once - this is a pretty rare site (at least when I'm at Kailua).

Prayot, Stu and I were out repping Ewa Beach -

The races were fun (mostly - more on that in a second), and the crowd was really cool to hang out with.

Podiumed on both runs!!!

The bad part about the day - on both runs the wind crashed just when the parawing starts were happening - and the races were basically who got up first.

This was the short course run -

And you can see exactly when we started because that's when the wind lulled out

And this was the long course run.

Another perfectly timed lull - and I actually took off and headed towards the mark while schlogging just so I could make some head way. This was totally who got up first (again).

Interesting that changing out to a bigger foil didn't make a difference here. Not sure if the wind just sucked more (which is a very real possibility) or if the Prestige is just plain faster and easier to get up with (not sure we will ever truly know... a genuine mystery of the universe).

Super fun day hanging out with cool people all enjoying a really beautiful place!

PF:11/W:3/PW:114/FD:65/S:25

Saturday, September 19, 2026

Garage Works - 9/19/2026

Not exactly the garage, but I was up in the loft fixing tears in Prayot's parawings

Repairs on the Pocket Rocket V1 3.6m

Repair on the Pocket Rocket V2 5.0m

Sewing is actually pretty therapeutic -

Parawing Dawn Patrol - 9/19/2026

Hit Kailua with Stu on the dawn patrol. Needed to get a session in with the wind being opposite to the South Shore before the race tomorrow.

Wind was 15 to 20mph. Initially it was from the NE, but then it got shifty.

Same board and lower foil set as the previous several runs. Switched back to the BRM S3 5.3m

Had some good retracted PW runs at Jump City. And I had some good redeploys.

But I also had one that made a birds nest, and a couple that field stripped me off the board.

And with the possibility of the race course being the opposite of what I usually do on any given Kailua Bay day, I wanted to at least see how running opposite would feel and what angle I'd have on each leg of the course.

We'll see how that all shapes up tomorrow.

Good wind - but there were still a handful of times I had to wait for a gust to get up onto foil.

I did try to get some tacks in, but I wasn't able to sail out of them. It is so odd that I can't consistently tack here.

Good session!

PF:11/W:3/PW:112/FD:65/S:25

Friday, September 18, 2026

Garage Works - 9/18/2026

The garage is getting full...

Prayot dropped off two of his three parawings to have the canopies sewn up.

And I got the fill epoxy on the dings on this board repair.

The tail had two - the leash did not have a rail saver on it.

There was an open ding here.

The port rail gets a lot of love.

And these two were up by the nose.

I'll sand these down tomorrow and get fiberglass on top of them.

This board's bigger brother is sitting outside drying out (it is heavy with water inside I think).

Parawing Session - 9/18/2026

It was windy today - strong, solid wind! I used the BRM S3 4.2 - was overpowered early, but by the end of the session, I needed the gusts to get up.

The waves were getting big also - well overhead on the sets.

Same everything as the past couple of days - just downsized the parawing to the S3 4.2m

With the size of the waves adn being overpowered, the front half of the session had a lot more wipes than I would have preferred.

But after I adjusted to the conditions, I was staying up more.

I had more retracted rides today, but they were not as fun as the few that I got yesterday - the chop and the size made things challenging.

In fact - on one wave that was almost double overhead, I was going so fast down the face that the Cabrinha foil was screaming - never did that before.

I think I'm going to move the front lines back to the forward position on the parawings. I guess I got used to the original configuration.

Pretty exciting days on the water!

PF:11/W:3/PW:111/FD:65/S:25

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Parawing Session - 9/17/2026

Gusty conditions today - I opted to rig for the lulls and took the BRM S3 5.3m with the modified D handle.

Surf would get good on the sets.

In order to isolate the difference the modified D handle would make, I took the same gear as yesterday.

And it was a really good session - until the wind just dropped off (rain clouds shut it off)

I had a few phenomenal retract and surf rides.

Prayot and Kalani were out ripping also. Duke was learning to handle the parawing, Roland was out on wing and Norm came later with his Foil Drive.

I had to paddle in after the rain clouds settled in. I tried catching a wave and riding prone - but something about longer boards and riding prone don't mix in my head. Or it may be the water entrained parawing on my back throwing my balance off.

Kalani managed to catch one and ride it in.

This was Hickam's wind chart - WP had it more from the north and higher differences between the gusts and the lulls.

Flying the modified BRM is different - with the front lines back it feels more like the modified BRM Maliko V1. It also felt more like a straight bar and less like the D handle.

Not better - not worse, but different.

The good thing about this setup is you can actually move it back to the forward position. I'll do that after several more runs with the fronts pulled back so I can get a better feel for this.