Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 8/21/2026

Dawn patrol with Stu at Hickam.  Phil was also there - Bill came when we were finished (he did a first session at Bunkers).

Pretty much zero wind, glassy conditions.

Waves were small at Firsts -

Same gear as yesterday - except I used the second can with the blue props (which worked out way better for these shoulder and lower waves)

Stu was trying out his new Silk V2 750 - it looked like it was getting him up faster than the other foils he has been using.

I headed out low and slow - only burned 5% on the way out.

Stupid asshole SUP guys would drop in... jealous fakas -

So - to stop that from happening, I would just head right for them so they knew I was stopping them from dropping in.  I hate it when I have to do things like that - but it's better than getting hurt because someone doesn't know what the other person is going to do.

Besides that, the waves were good fun!

The USS Inouye came back into port - and delivered some decent wake to surf!  I knew it was their wake because the direction was different.

16 rides - but spread out more (1:43)

Off to the Columbia River!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:61/S:25

Garage Works - 8/20(21)/2026

I've been putting clear coat on No.44 so the wear layer is built up.

This was post session yesterday.

I did notice a couple of spots on the bottom deck that showed deformation from sitting on the rack.  I sanded those down and got more clear coat on today (Friday).

I also got the deck pad on.  I may need to put augment pieces up front - but I'll wait until after I get this out for it's first session to determine if that is necessary.

So while I'm away for this next week - No.44 will get all settled and will have time in the garage to harden up.  I still need to open up the tracks - but that can wait until I get back (from the Gorge!!!)

Evening Foil Drive Session - 8/20/2026

It was small yesterday afternoon - which made the session an exercise in efficient foiling.

Kalani was already out when I got to the parking lot.

Same setup as the recent runs -

The battery on my watch was running low (as my charging cable has not been cooperative) and I think this set of weird data was from the low battery.

Ignoring those straight lines, the session was more like this -

I would probably not even paddled out if I didn't have the foil drive.

But with it, the session was salvaged and I got several really fun waves - with banked turns and rebounds.

Roland and Prayot came out, Scott was out with another prone foiler, and Ben was setting up when I was leaving.

16 rides in an hour!

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:60/S:25

Evening Foil Drive Session - 8/19/2026

La said she wanted to go to the beach today - primarily because her friend and her daughters would be there (and I'm not even second fiddle here...)

I said sure I'd go and brought the Foil Drive with No.43

AFS Enduro 900/Mako Carve 130 on the UHM Skinny 75cm mast

The waves were on the small side.  But if you waited a bit, some decent ones would pull through.

I made sure not to take every wave so not to piss off the surfers.

Robby had come and gone before I headed out.  Roland eventually came out - and after I got in Derek and Ben went out.

I focused on using the cupped wave face as a turning agent and shwacking the tops.  Super fun!

18 rides in an hour!!!!

Fun session!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:59/S:25

Garage Works - 8/18/2026

The wind seemed to be up and down - so I opted to work in the garage this afternoon.

I got the sanding done on No.44 - from 40 all the way to 400

Bottom deck

Top deck

I found a tiny weak spot (under the blue tape).  I'll drops some epoxy in it tonight so tomorrow I can spray clear coat.

I also worked on the mast repair for Stu (now Norm).

I'll sand this and get it over to Norm before the weekend.

Evening Session - 8/17/2026

The winds are not too steady - although there are periods where it would tempt you out to parawing, I felt it was a trap.

I figured it would a good day to test out these new canards - the FM canards from True Ames.

They are half the size of the standard canards - so they should produce a looser feeling over the standards.  But there's only one way to find out.

I caught five waves in the hour I was out.

As you would expect, the bottom turns feel like they have a bit more grip - but the over rotated top turn felt further away.  I think I like this board more as a straight twin. 

I think I want to try this with the Hi Pro Twins next.

Which should be fine as the wind isn't supposed to be up for a while.

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:58/S:25

Garage Works - 8/16/2026 - Mast Repair

And since I was working with epoxy, I figured I should try and get this mast fixed for Stu (who traded it to Norm).

The goal was the fill the gap in the front side of the mast foot (so it has a tighter fit on the front side).

Mold release on my fuselage -

And tape to keep the epoxy fill off the fuselage.

Here is the mast with the epoxy hardening.

And the fill in place.

Now I just have to trim the excess off and fair the top side in - hydrodynamics!

Garage Works - 8/16/2026 - No.44

Hurricane Lala (yes that makes La and I giggle) was throwing it all at Oahu today.  I got up early this morning to the sound of wind and rain.

With all that churn, I knew the beaches would be either pretty mucked up or outright closed.  I figured it would be a great time to get work done on No.44 

It took a couple of hours, but I got the rough sanding done on the fill coats - both top and bottom.

Slow and steady always wins the race (when sanding boards).

I rinsed the board down, dried it back up and wiped the areas where the logo decals would be placed with alcohol.

Here are the bottom decals in place.

And here is the last epoxy fill coat on the bottom deck.  7.5 ounces of resin and 3.0 ounces of hardener (fast). 

And this is the top deck with its final clear fill coat - 5.5 ounces resin and 2.2 ounces hardener (fast).

In both instances I had placed extra epoxy over the decal areas to build up extra for sanding.

This is the angle where you can see the most difference from No.34 - more nose rocker (since this came from a blank from Fiberglass Hawaii), and more tail rocker.  Also I minimized the "v" in the nose - going more surfboard "flat".

If I skip out on beach time tomorrow, I may be able to finish the sanding and get the plugs installed.  That would leave plug sanding and clear coat for Tuesday, deck grip on Wednesday - and anointment on Thursday or Friday (if there is wind....)

I may actually fly out with No.34 without having done a direct back-to-back comparison between these two boards.

Edit - I figured I had an hour before I needed to go to sleep.  And If I got the plugs in today, that'll put me a day ahead and just maybe (if the wind cooperates) I'll get a session in to do a back-to-back test with No.34

Vent plug hole drilled out

Leash plug hole drilled out.

And I used 0.4 ounces of resin and 0.16 ounces of hardener to make the milled fiber slurry to set these two plugs in place.

Here's the vent plug set.

And the leash plug under epoxy.

I didn't see any air bubbles so these should be good to go.

So tomorrow is sanding and spraying the clear coat on.  Tuesday will be deck pads and drill the vent hole.  Wednesday is wait for wind.

Parawing Session - 8/14/2026

This is out there... so the surf will soon turn to shit (along with a lot of wind and rain).

When I got to the beach, Zach was breaking his windsurfing gear down, and Mark was outside winging.

The wind was up or down.

The waves were pretty big on the sets (well overhead - maybe head and a half...)

At least the tide was high and that made for less worrying about grounding.

I setup the AFS Silk 1050/152 on the 80cm UHM mast.

No.34 (maybe the last time I use it in Hawaii...)

Powered by the BRM S3 5.3

The wind was side off - and you had to go out to get away from the smashing breakers and into the wind line.

Most of the riding was done way outside in the blue water.

I managed to get two retracted PW rides - both long and well powered by overhead walls.

Way up or way down -

And I was either up and going, or down and waiting for the next gust.

Fun session - especially since I didn't get smashed!

I may try and get a surf session in at the dawn patrol... before Hurricane Lala starts negatively influencing the conditions.

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:58/S:24