Winging Session - 2/15/2026

I wanted to get some of the newer foils lined up on No.39 and No.40

And the fastest way to do that is on wing.

And committing to a testing day, I asked Kalani and Stu of they wanted to go.

Here's the truck loaded up with three dudes worth of gear.

I started with No.39 and the Enduro 1100/HA40 (short fuselage), then switched to the Silk 1050/HA40 (on the standard fuselage).

The engine of choice was the North Nova Pro 5.0

The wind was up and down - but with a wing you can pull yourself up onto foil way easier (I forgot how well wings do this).

I put the foil through its paces and went through all the transitions in quick succession.

You can see the "knots" in the track where I was tacking and jibing in quick succession.

The foil was positioned well on the first pass.

I went in and switched over to the Silk 1050/HA40 (had to remove the Silk 850 from the standard fuselage, and add the HA40 from the Enduro 1100 setup)

Basing the positioning from the Enduro 1100 and Enduro 900, I positioned the Silk 1050.  I got the spacing on this correct as well.

The Silk felt pretty good where it was positioned.

I went in because the wind died (rain came in).

I was going to be done, but Stu asked if I wanted to try using the PPC M1 6.0

I said yes, so I set up No.40 with the Enduro 1300/HA43 (to confirm the positioning, I could then use the settings from No.39 to get the E1100 and S1050 settings laid out).

It's been a while since I've used a wing this big - lots of power.  Handling during the transitions required some exaggeration to make sure the wind didn't catch the wing incorrectly.

But I got up on foil long enough to make an adjustment, and confirm the mark on the board was for the E1300.

The wind shown below was from the airport station - it was much lighter than this at Hickam.

So with all this testing today, I got 3 foils positioned on 2 boards - all for being able to use these boards and foils with parawings.

Fun session today!!!

PF:2/W:2/PW:12/FD:15/S:8

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 2/14/2026

I took Marlon to the airport this morning, then headed out for the dawn patrol.  The wind did not settle out last night and the ocean was pretty choppy.

I got the KT board back to Kalani.  He set up the longer KT for FD and was using the 1075 foil. 

In the interest of seeing what is possible, I bolted on the AFS Ultra HA750 with the UGlide 41 rear stabilizer.  I did move the assembly forward a notch to where I thought the foil should be located.

This session was challenging with the chop.  And the wind really ramped up to make it harder.

But after the first few rides, I moved the foil forward and everything felt right.

The Ultra 750 is fast - 

But it has a higher degree of stability in that it wants to go in one direction - fast.  I didn't have a problem turning it, it was more that it preferred to move fast downstream of the energy source (wave).

Even on the GPS track, you can see it is not as smooth as the Enduro 900 or the Silk 850

15 rides (some pretty long considering the conditions)

The whole time I was out, I kept wondering if I had a parawing, could I get up on foil with the smaller board and the drag of the FD system...

PF:2/PW:12/FD:15/S:8

Garage Works - 2/13/2026

When I got home, I had enough sunlight to get this board modification/repair over the finish line.

I got the tail repair and the window mod up at the nose sanded and sprayed.

I'll get this back to Kalani tomorrow morning. 

Now on to Roland's board...

Parawing Session - 2/13/2026

Got off work, headed home, loaded up the parawinging stuff and headed to the beach.

It was whitecapping when I got there -

Prayot was out (but oddly not on foil??? - foreshadowing).

AFS Enduro 1300/HA43 on the UHM 80cm mast bolted on to No.34

What I should have done was packed two parawings - a 5m and a 4m

But I was hopeful on the side of strengthening winds (based on the forecast) and I went out on the BRM Maliko 4.0 

This beautiful woman was taking lots of pictures!

Lots going on here -

It actually took a bit before I got a gust strong enough to get me on foil - yup, as soon as I hit the water the wind dropped.  The opposite of what was forecasted - but I blame the clouds.

Once I was up, I was able to pull pretty hard upwind and made it back past the launch point.

Paul Cooper was out on wing -

I rode a couple of waves with the PW doused.  It was the second one that ended my session - I wasn't able to redeploy the PW after the wave was fizzling. 

If I had a 5.0 I would have been able to swap and get riding again.  Instead, I drifted while waiting for a gust.

The Maliko 4.0 needs whitecaps for sure.

I drifted past the last cabin into Campgrounds.  I figured I should cut my losses - and paddled back to above Fenceline

Along the way, I got into the breakers out in front of the Cabins.  I missed standing up on one that I caught, but I did ride the next one.  This is probably the third time I've been able to prone foil this board and foil.  Back in the day I was prone foiling on really big foils - this is really small in comparison to those - but it somehow feels almost too big. 

I caught up with Roland who was also down on the water waiting for a gust.  He did get up on foil - I headed in all tuckered out from the long paddle.

And I saw this guy in the parking lot!!!

Fun day despite the challenges!

PF:2/PW:12/FD:14/S:8

Rest Day and Garage Works - 2/12/2026

I decided to take a rest day - but I still went to the beach (and with a surfboard) just to check it out.

Roland was out on wing and Prayot was out on parawing.

Kalani was ground handling the Triple 7 PT Skin 7.3

He let me try it out and it flew just like the PT Skin 5.4

Roland got a chance to fly the Ozone and Kalani's BRM Maliko 5.1

This was Prayot's setup - AFS Silk 1050 - and he was using his Ozone Pocket Rocket 4.3

I don't know how he is able to get up on foil with a much smaller foil and parawing... but he does have a much longer, higher volume board.

And before I went to the beach, I did address the tail repair on Kalani's new KT board.

I should be able to clear this one from the garage by tomorrow afternoon.

And tomorrow afternoon, I should be parawinging!

Garage Works - 2/11/2026

And when I got back home, I worked on the projects on the rack.

First up was sanding down the signal window fills.  Here they are nicely sanded down and slightly below the surrounding area.

And here are the patches 

And here is everything epoxied in.

Tomorrow I get this modification faired in and then start on the laminate crack on the tail end of the bottom deck.  I'm trying to get this back to Kalani by Saturday morning.

And with the little bit of epoxy left over, I added a little more fill to the seam side of the footstrap insert reinforcement blocks.

As soon as I've gotten Kalani's board back to him, I'll start cutting open Roland's board to get these inserts placed.

Evening Session - 2/11/2026

The wind seems to be way up and down again today - so I opted to rest a bit to let the wind drop off, then I headed to the beach to surf.

There were 3 monk seals on the beach.

The wind was down, and continued to drop through my session.

The tide was low at 0.2'

There were waves, but they were breaking funny - somewhat closing out and they would build, stand and then back off.  You almost had to cheat inside in order to catch them.

Machadocado and the Futures Alpha 2+1 Reverse 3/2

Once my muscle memory for surfing kicked back in I was catching waves.  On one I lined up with a walling right and I got in some fun turns.  Bu tin general the rides were short and I was lucky to get 2 turns in.

In all honesty, today's conditions were not the best for testing a newish board and fins.  I think even with the Wolverines installed, the waves weren't the best for getting good rides in. 

Intuitively these fins feel like they'd be a better match for the HS Hypto Crypto - but that's another test for another day.

Tomorrow should be a better, more steady windsports day.

PF:1/PW:11/FD:14/S:8

Parawing Session - 2/10/2026

Wind and waves today -

And also a bunch of mammals chilling on the beach in pairs.

I mixed it up today by taking out No.39

Enduro 1300/HA43 on the UHM 80cm Mast

Power provided by the Flysurfer POW 4.0

Slow start - got pushed over towards the cabins and into the dead (wind) zone.

After heading way the heck outside to catch unimpeded wind, I finally got up (a little squirrelly on No.39).  I was up and riding and didn't come off foil for quite some time.

I had a few waves where the swell direction and the wind lined up nicely, and I'd take down the parawing (2-step with the POW - in fact almost all PWs are two step).  The wave at 52 minutes in and the last wave were super long rides

I had originally wanted to simplify today's session and not bring out multiple PWs.  The POW 4.0 seemed to be the wing that could handle the range of wind present today (not nearly as up and down as yesterday).

For the most part the 4.0 was well powered.  But there were a few periods of time where I could have been on the BRM Ka'a 3.6, and others where the Maliko 5.1 I think may not have been able to pull me up.

Today's riding was basically finding the transition point between fully nuking and the dead wind zone.  Riding in the goldielock's zone was a great way to stay nicely powered when the wind would pick up and rip through.

Norm was out also - he opted to wing (and was catching some good sized waves).

It's looking like the wind will back off another notch again tomorrow and Thursday - but we will still likely have the swell still.

PF:1/PW:11/FD:14/S:7

Parawing Session - 2/9/2026

I got home from work and immediately headed out to the beach

The wind was nuking this afternoon - but it was way up and down.

Two Monk Seals chilling today (and I could totally understand - the water was pretty cold).

Tide was low (had to paddle pretty far out to avoid bottom strikes).

And with the wind, there was decent surf pushing through.

Roland was my wingman today -

I downsized to the AFS Enduro 1100/HA40

And I packed three parawings into the dry bag - the Maliko 2.9, the Ka'a 3.6 and the Maliko 4.0

I started with the Ka'a 3.6 - and was surprisingly up and running almost immediately.  This had me thinking maybe I should have this foil bolted on more.  Previous sessions with this foil usually ended up with me paddling back -

You could see the gusts flowing down from the airport area.  When a knock down gust looked like it was headed over, I stopped, backed whatever wing I had up and swapped to the Maliko 2.9

This PW needs wind - but it definitely handled the high 30s (low 40s???)

And I also pulled out the Maliko 4.0

From the wind graph - the wind was definitely all over the place.  Bringing 3 parawings (why not - they fit nicely in the drybag) is likely what I'll do in the future if the wind is forecasted to be this wild.

I did retract the parawing to ride prone a few times, one of which ran for quite some distance.

I did have to fight my way back to the launch point - but I didn't have to perform an epic paddle to get back - it was all on parawing!

We definitely don't get wind like this except for a few times a year!

PF:1/PW:10/FD:14/S:7