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

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

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.

Fun session!  The wind should get stronger and more steady over the next several days.

PF:11/W:3/PW:110/FD:65/S:25

Garage Works (inside the dining room) - 9/16/2026

I went ahead and did the D Handle modification yesterday.

We'll see what this does to change the riding characteristics.

Parawing Session - 9/16/2026

Fun conditions this afternoon - decent trade winds, good sets coming in every now and then, and a medium tide.

BRM S3 5.3m for power

No.44 with the Cabrinha Prestige 905/160 Union Rear Stabilizer

Perfect equipment selection for the conditions present.

I tried getting some tacks in, but I guess the wind direction had a bit more north in it.  I got around on only 2 attempts.

I did retract on three waves and rode them for a considerable length and got a lot of carving in on these waves.

The wind was up and down - but the waits were not that long.

This is the Kalaeloa anemometer (which is generally 5mph low) 

Some nice correlation going on -

Really fun session today!

Wind may be a tad stronger tomorrow with a slight uptick in wave height.

PF:11/W:3/PW:109/FD:65/S:25

Garage Works - 9/15/2026

I've got two boards at the house in for repairs.  I started work on the smaller of the two boards this evening.

There are four clusters of dings ranging from small to large.

This is on the front port rail.

This is the middle of the port rail.  Large series of cracks and impact dings.

These two are on the tail

And this is on the top deck towards the port rail back near the tail.

I cleaned up the dings with the sander.

Tomorrow I'll add epoxy with filler (before I head out to parawing).

Parawing Session - 9/15/2026

There are distinct whitecaps blowing in this picture - but it is side onshore and there were thick clouds moving through the area.

I didn't have a charged Foil Drive battery - so I opted to bring my light wind setup (from the experiences from the last parawinging session).  I had also considered bringing the J Splee Big Fish with the Neal Purchase canards - but I wanted to test the wind range on the new parawing.

No.42, AFS Enduro 1300/HA43, UHM 80cm mast

Power provided by the BRM L1 6.5m

Second session on this parawing.  It definitely flies and powers up differently than the S3 parawings.  Prefers to go more with the wind and I feel it likes to be pumped up onto foil rather than pulling you up onto foil.

I did manage to get up in this light wind and even retracted the big parawing and rode three waves to the inside lineup.

The lines running to the NNW are the retracted PW rides.

This is the chart from Kalaeloa - which I feel is typically 5mph short.

That would put the wind around 10 to 15 mph while I was out.

Not a bad ride profile considering the light wind.  In my mind, if I'm taking out the BRM L1 6.5 I should also be taking out No.42 if not the AFS Enduro 1300.

Tomorrow should have stronger winds and more waves!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:108/FD:65/S:25

Garage Works - 9/14/2026

Marlon, La and I were up on the North Shore yesterday - and I found this set of Neal Purchase canard fins.

Quite a bit more compact than even the FM canards

And just a tad bit more portly about the midsection

I liked the way the FM canards made the twinzer setup on the J Splee Big Fish more playful (compared to the conventional canards).

This is definitely another step in getting a better understanding of how these canards work.

I also tied up four sets of bridle line anchors for relocating the connection points of the front lines on the BRM S3/L1 parawings.  Not sure if I'll convert them all, but all the videos Greg Drexler has released on modifying his parawings have all been good for improving performance.

And the last small project I'm going to work on is trimming the big Marlin rear stabilizer.

Straight cut on this one.