Parawing Session - 8/9/2026

WP crew shifted east today - Hickam!

Norm and Prayot were already out when Stu, Kalani and I pulled up.  Brian had already finished a parawing session and was going back out on wing.

The wind was nice and strong, and pretty consistent.

If your timing was good, there were some good-sized waves coming through.

AFS Enduro 1100/HA40 powered by the BRM S3 4.2

This was a really fun session - totally the opposite of the last two days.

Fastest 5 miles was 23 minutes - pretty much on foil the whole interval.

I did come off foil a few times.  Once was outside at Firsts and the wind slacked, so I was grounded for a bit.

I felt compelled to work on tacks so I got through a few of them at Firsts - felt good.

I would zoom over to Seconds depending on how the wind was blowing.  I did catch a decent sized wave over there - but Prayot caught the wave of the day.

I got one wave at Firsts where I stashed the parawing and got in some turns on just foil power.  The rest of the time the wind was blowing too hard straight offshore.

Back on the inside I got several more dry tacks in.  I tried to do the behind the back jibe and blew that hard (I'm going to have to watch more videos)

That dip was below the S3 4.2's get up threshold.

Felt good to be up on foil for the majority of the session!  It also felt good to be on the right sized parawing.

PF:11/W:3/PW:92/FD:58/S:21

And Stu paid the tab at the Lanai post session!  Mahalo Stu!

The Anointment of the J. Splee Big Fish

The anointment of the J.Splee Big Fish I custom ordered from JC Matthews occurred at this morning's dawn patrol

There was a really thick layer of clouds - which dampened the wind.

And if you were patient, there were waves (and if you were smart and sat inside, there were plenty of good waves to get onto).

Before leaving the truck, I swapped out the 0 degree canards for the 4 degree set.  I felt opening the gap  between the canard and the main fin would accentuate the twinzer feel, and serve as a good baseline before going into full fin testing mode.

This board paddles into waves easily, felt balanced, and was on the upper limit of me being able to duck dive it.  I asked for a durable glass job - and I can tell by the weight it's there.  I prefer my surfboards to have more glass than less - I feel you can build momentum and it smoothes out the ride.

I had about 10 rides in just over an hour.  And as you would think, the more waves I caught, and the more I rode the board, I was feeling the board out for how it wanted input in order to maximize energy extraction from the wave.

My last few waves were pretty darn good - lots of turns and really long.  That's mostly due to the wave been good shape and the tide supporting the breaking - but the board certainly played its part.

I really like the feel setting into a bottom turn - generates speed going through the turn.  I didn't quite figure out the top turns, especially having a mental image of what I normally get out of the Boogie Fish.  The DNA is there - but this being almost two feet more board, there is physics that needs to be worked out in order to find the "over-rotation" ability that the Boogie Fish has.  I think I'll swap out the TW1 fins for the TA High Pro twins next and see if the smaller fins open up that top turn.

The second to the last wave, I was riding in front of Dennis who was paddling out his Foil Drive setup - he had a front row seat to the turning capacity of the Big Fish.

This is going to be another great partner in the quiver!

PF:11/W:3/PW:91/FD:58/S:21

Garage Works - 8/8/2026

Big Fish from J Splee Surfboards!!!

6'8" board with the front half coming from the Aurora, and the back half from the Boogie Fish

Top deck all waxed up and a rear foot deck pad installed

I set up the fins with the True Ames Canard at 0 degrees and the Futures OG TW1

I'll take this out on the dawn patrol (I need to break up the foiling run - maybe that'll get the skunk off of me)

I'll bring the True Ames 4 degree Canards out with me to see if those work better than the 0 degree.

Can't wait!!! 

Parawing-Prone Foiling Session - 8/7/2026

This was yesterday's session -

There were some whitecaps on the outside - which usually means an easterly flow.

Tide was decently high.

Norm was there and had his parawings - so we decided to do a downwind run.

I had the AFS Enduro 1300/HA43 and the BRM S3 5.3

It was another "evaporate as you go" day - with the wind disappearing.

I did get up on foil twice - early in the session so this counts on the parawing ticker.  But while jibing, there wasn't enough wind to make it through the turns.

I went down after the Cabins and stayed down.

Here's the wind from Hickam - we had it worse out West.

I figured I'd cut my losses and paddle in at Campgrounds.

I did catch a series of waves prone foiling so that's a notable.

And to add to this, I hit Kailua this morning thinking the wind would fill in there first.  I totally got skunked...

0 for 2 - unsettled atmosphere days....

PF:11/W:3/PW:91/FD:58/S:20

Garage Works - 8/6/2026

After an awesome dinner La made - I got some time in the garage.

I got two fill coats on to the bottom deck of No.44

This will harden overnight, and then I'll get the top deck done tomorrow.

This leaves sanding top and bottom on Saturday, placing the logo decals, then one last fill coat to even things out more and to protect the logo decals.

That leaves the opposing deck fill coat early Sunday, followed by drilling out the holes for any inserts.

I'm thinking about placing four leash plugs up front on the top deck so I can bungee some stuff up there - like maybe the spare parawing.

Anyways - lots more epoxy to be placed... and more sanding.

Foil Drive Session - 8/6/2026

The waves were a little bigger than they have been - so I figured I should go.

And as luck would have it - the wind seemed to be strong enough to parawing...

I brought the Foil Drive.

AFS Enduro 900/Mako Carve 130 - on the AFS UHM 75 cm mast.  No.40 had board duty.

I paddled out with Robby - and he went in before I did.  Prayot was out on his DW/Surf SUP.  And Roland was finishing his setup when I came in.

There were some decent waves if you were patient.

But it was rather choppy from the wind.

And with the shorter mast on the system, I found myself wiping a bit more than I normally would have.  2 inches does seem to make a difference (especially in chop).

I'll call this 15 rides.  I know I had a few shorter ones, and even some wipeouts.

The forecast looks doable for parawing tomorrow!!!

PF:10/W:3/PW:90/FD:58/S:20

Garage Works - 8/5/2026

I skipped out on surfing again today.  I wanted to get further along on No.44.

I sanded the laps from the top deck lamination

And prepped the board for a fill coat.  But when I went looking for it, I didn't have any international orange pigment.  I stopped at this prep point.

I'll grab some pigment tomorrow and I'll try to get a fill coat on when I get home (then go foiling), and maybe a second coat before I go to sleep.

I'm not going to get this board to a point where I can get it wet this weekend - and the next wind window will likely be the following weekend - so I can slow down and focus on getting things perfect.

Garage Works - 8/4/2026

I got off work later than usual - so by the time I got to the beach the waves were pretty drowned out by the high tide.

I decided to cut my losses and head back home to work on No.44

I sanded the lap -

Then got the top deck reinforcement layers set up - two layers of innegra, and one layer of carbo

Then I got the top sheet of carbon placed and trimmed.

Break time - and cooked dinner.

Then 18.9 ounces of epoxy (split fast and slow hardener) to get the top deck wetted out, and another 2.8 + 4.2 ounces to get the laps and the rail wetted out.

There is a spot where the bottom deck rail wrap did not seem to adhere.  That is under the weight you see in the picture.  If it doesn't stay down, I'll cut that spot out and epoxy down a patch.

The rest of the laminate looks to have behaved nicely!

It is only Tuesday and I've gotten through the lamination.  I could do a fill coat tomorrow, the opposite deck fill coat Thursday, get a bunch of sanding done Friday while getting the labels situated and the final fill coat on one side.  Saturday would see the other final fill coat and the plugs.

So despite what I feel is faster accomplishment of activity to get No.44 in the water, I still won't have enough time to let the epoxy harden the way I prefer and 24 hours for the deck pads to set.

I think it'll be a week from now before the anointment -

Garage Works - 8/3/2026

I took a rest day from the beach - and spent it in the garage.

I got the gorilla glue trimmed away from the track block.

And I got the top deck connection block trimmed away and the top deck faired in.  I made a slight depression in the top deck to mimic the ARC - but only subtly.

I started chasing ghosts again until I said enough.

Normally I would have stopped here and waited a day to get started on the next step, but I had sufficient daylight...

Laminating is definitely tricky to get right.  Weird air bubbles that want to pop up, having to mix multiple batches of epoxy, getting loose strands to sit down - in a nut shell no time for anything but babysitting the lamination while the epoxy is hardening.

Here's the bottom deck all trimmed up.

This is 4 ounce carbon nose to tail with three strips of carbon rail tape lining the tracks and spanning where my feet would be on the top deck.

Here's the rail tape underneath.  This is what ties in the boxes to the deck of the board.

And after 21 ounces of mixed epoxy (and losing maybe 3 ounces to fast summer time hardening), here is the bottom deck laminated.

I had to flatten a few bubbles that spontaneously formed well after the epoxy application.

Tomorrow evening I'll sand the burrs on the lap and setup the top deck laminate.

I'll use carbon and innegra weave patches where I expect to be on my knees, and a nose to tail cover.

That'll have me sanding and placing the first fill coat on Wednesday.

At this rate, I may be getting No.44 anointed this weekend!!!!

Parawing Session - 8/2/2026

Did the WPB to PVs mini downwind run today.

The tide was on the low side.  There were waves, but they were small - maybe waist to chest high on the sets.

WP was a zoo - like it always is on the weekends.

This is Norm making his final approach at PVs

The wind was still up and down, but mostly in the nicely powered range for me.  There were some big gusts that came through - and after I had beached (thinking it was going to drop off) there were whitecaps everywhere for a bit.

No.34 with the AFS Enduro 1100/HA40/80cm UHM mast - powered by the BRM S3 5.3

I got there and launched maybe 30 minutes ahead of Norm and Stu.  Norm was using his new Flysurfer POW V2 5.5.  Stu was on his North Nova 4.0

I spent the time ahead of their launch riding upwind and trying to pick up some waves to ride with the parawing retracted.

I got a handful of fun ones - and I believe I was able to redeploy the parawing on all of them.  I made sure to release the parawing downwind of me and coaxed it open.

Lots of north in the wind.

When I could see Norm and Stu in the water, I started heading downwind.

I didn't trust the wind so I booked it across Campgrounds.

I'm glad I took out the 5.3 today - good size for the wind today.

When I went down - it was due to lack of wind.  Most of the session was up on foil - and super fun.

Norm was having a hard time getting up onto foil.  He was using the AFS Fire board (proper wing board).  And he was saying the POW had too much power.  I suggested using the Naish and a harness, and practice flying the POW on land because it flies way different than the PT Skin.

The wind is supposed to drop to Foil Drive levels for the next five days.  But the waves are also supposed to stay small.  I think I am going to push getting No.44 completed and get some recovery time in.

PF:10/W:3/PW:90/FD:57/S:20