Foil Drive Session and J Splee Test Drive - 5/3/2026

Woke up and got the AFS UHM 80cm mast setup with the Zip Pod.

I headed out - but realized I forgot my battery.

Then I saw a text from Prayot that the surf was pumping - so I doubled back and grabbed the AFS Silk 850

Surf was good size and breaking on the outside.

It's hard to see but there were three monk seals swimming by the orange buoy.

It was a pretty low tide...

Had to paddle pretty far out to avoid grounding this foil.

The AFS Silk 850 is such an amazing foil -

I had the blue props on, but trying the catch the swell outside meant running up to a faster speed (which the black props do better).

I didn't miss any waves - but this is one area where I know by trial and error that I should swap out props.

The waves I caught outside awesome - overhead, pitching lip and standing up super tall.

Using the Silk 850 to maneuver around the breaking sections and to carve up and down a running wall - nothing else like it!!!

Eleven rides, and then I called it because I wanted to get to the Hapa Surf Shop/J Splee Surfboards demo day.

I ended up trying three surfboards - Quinn's 6'0" Tanto Twin (this is a phenomenal board - felt way better than the Great White Twin, but maybe on par with the Reveo Max).

Then I tried the Blue Beam (it realistically was too small for me, but the on the waves I caught, this board was super fun).

And I should have tried the Aurora... but went for the Double Chin - which definitely was too small for me.  But again, on the waves I did catch, it turns and keeps wanting to turn/pivot - where the Hammah fish wants to roll and carve more (which lately is more my style).

Super fun talking board design with JC!!!

Totally drained and stoked!!!!

PF:6/W:2/PW:37/FD:34/S:15

Parawing Session - 5/2/2026

Another day of good wind signs everywhere - but really fluky winds at WP.

I went in the afternoon and the tide was nice and high.  Surprise was the swell - some mackers coming through on the sets!!!

Same stuff as yesterday - but switched back to the Triple Seven PT Hybrid 5.7

Kalani was out with the Triple Seven PT Skin 7.3

Prayot was out with the Ozone Power Pack 4.3

And to further make it difficult, Prayot was also demo-ing the F4 Orca 800

I did not get skunked, but I also spent a lot of time drifting around.

I was barely making jibes - so I didn't even bother with tacking today.

After a rough start, the wind and I found a happy medium and I had some good runs.

There were a few waves in particular that were pretty awesome.

The wind wasn't this strong... this is Hickam's anemometer.  But this was the general pattern.

Which is pretty much reflected on the graph below.

I thought the wind was going to stick around longer.  Time to charge up the FD battery again.

PF:6/W:2/PW:37/FD:33/S:14

Parawing Session - 5/1/2026

Looks like two female monk seals pupped at WPB.

Giving them space is key.

Decent wind - more easterly and less gusty (when I went out)

High tide and fun sized swell.

Same stuff as yesterday.

Stu was already out when I parked.  Roland was setting up.  And Norm launched pretty late.

I had some epic rides!

Marlon was flying the drone - I hope he got the ride where I doused and got to ride a good sized wave carving up and down for quite some distance.

Marlon was really out to film Roland (and Stu).

I got in a bunch more tacks today - pretty much flowing with the incoming waves (SO MUCH FUN).

The BRM Maliko 5.1 felt really good today - less rough than yesterday (I'm not sure why - but glad for it).

This peak speed came from the wave ride (so awesome)!

I recently sold the Flysurfer POW 4.0

The POW was really good at "drifting" - following along depowered while riding a wave into the wind.  The Maliko fights me if I douse after transitioning onto the wave.  I'll have to jump back to the 777 Hybrid to see what that does again.

Lighter, but still doable winds over the weekend.

PF:6/W:2/PW:36/FD:33/S:14

Parawing Session - 4/30/2026

Good conditions today!  Whitecaps were scattered across the field when I pulled up (but classic WP - as soon as I got in the water, the wind lulled), and decent sized waves.

Nice high tide again as well.

Big stuff again - but notched down the parawing to the BRM Maliko 5.1

Once I picked up a gust and got up on foil, I was able to stay up (unless during a jibe I got a bridle line tangled up in the Dakine harness hook).

I got in multiple tacks with the Maliko - felt really good!

Roland and Kalani both launched at WP.  I could see another wing down at PVs - that was Norm.

The Maliko was perfectly powered except when riding a wave - there was a lot of north in the wind and it made it hard to depower the parawing.

This run of wind and surf should last for several more days!!!

PF:6/W:2/PW:35/FD:33/S:14

Parawing Session - 4/29/2026

Better than yesterday - better (high) tide, more wind (still full of holes), and bigger (oxymoron) surf.

Prayot is in this picture somewhere along the horizon waiting for a strong gust.

Big stuff day (probably could have used No.42 also).

I actually had a decent session.  I was able to stay up on foil until I had to turn and the wind would lull out.

Transitions were good - jibes, down loop jibes and heelside tacks - no drama (until I started getting tired - then everything went to shit). 

And towards the end I drifted into the dead zone and had to wait a long time before getting back up on foil and getting back to the launch point.

Some pretty good lulls in there...

Hopefully the wind fills in stronger over the next few days.

Roland came out way late.  Wind was almost gone by the time he got out.

Fun session!

PF:6/W:2/PW:34/FD:33/S:14

Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/28/2026

I'm feeling a lot better.  And looking at the weather forecast, there is likely to be a week of good winds coming up.

I had a fully charged battery that needed to be brought down to storage levels.

When I got to the beach, it was about as flat as you can get without it being completely flat.

If you waited a bit, there were ridable waves.

Nice high tide.

And for once a decently high tide.

Everything the same as last time - I had the FD system already built up.

It took me an hour to get the battery down below 50%

And I had to do a bunch of things I normally wouldn't do - like donuts, a bunch of efoiling and heavy throttle motoring to get it there.

A few of the rides were actually fun - walls and bowls to carve up.

17 or so rides, with a few missed waves or wipes at takeoff.

There were a few periods where the wind did seem strong enough to parawing (for sure wing).  I had thought about going in and getting the BRM Maliko 5.1 and seeing if I could deploy it and use PW pull only.  But then I remembered that wind was not steady and I'd be out longer than I needed to be to get the battery to storage levels.

Something to try another day.

PF:6/W:2/PW:33/FD:33/S:14

Parawing Session - 4/26/2026

I'm still fighting a cold/flu....

And I also needed to get some stuff done around the house so I opted for an afternoon session.

Roland is in this picture and he is up and riding on his winging gear.  There were whitecaps on the outside -

Big stuff with No.34

The wind did have some ups and downs, but it was better than worse.

I still needed the gusts to get up, but once up I could stay on foil even when the wind got lighter.

I didn't try and tacks today - I actually really should have just stayed home to get rested.

But I did stick all but a couple of my jibes - where I historically have had some challenges with this big wing.

Roland and I got close only once - towards the end of the session.  He said he was going in - I said I'll do the same - but then Derek showed up and we both stayed out for a little bit longer.

Fun session!!!!  I even took a chance and rode all the way to the sand next to the swim only area so I wouldn't have to paddle far.

Going to the ocean is never a mistake!

PF:6/W:2/PW:33/FD:32/S:14

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 4/25/2026

The wind materializing with any real certainty was a 50-50 today.  And with the errands I had planned on running with La, I needed to be back relatively early.

So I figured I'd cut my losses and Foil Drive (even though the tide was real low - negative 0.2')

At least the wind was down.

I also wanted to try out the new low range propellors from Foil Drive.  So to make the comparison to the black/standard props, I kept everything the same as last session and just changed out the prop blades.

I'm not sure if it is because they are new, or if it is because they are better balanced, but these feel really smooth to run.

The waves were meh -

Every now and then a nice wall would run and bowls would peak up - slash and burn!!!

I could feel the additional low end push from these blades.  And I tested the run up to catching waves by progressively reducing the throttle time and starting with the wave closer.

So as advertised - lots of low end grunt.

And because of that, I oddly missed fewer waves....

I would have thought the black blades would have let me catch more - but maybe the way the waves break at WPs...

14 rides in a short session.

More compare and contrast coming!

PF:6/W:2/PW:32/FD:32/S:14