Properly Adjusted

After finishing a bunch of requirements, I got a quick session in before dusk.  The swell was up (overhead on the outside), but the tide was high so I could foil the middle and inner breaks.

I set the foil forward from yesterday and just like previously, the foiling became second nature.

Actually looks like is a bit more forward than the second to last session on this foil, but I could apply backfoot pressure and pop the foil up and balance it out with front foot pressure to get to stable flight.  I had several long rides - and that is what keeps bringing me back to this.  I could have surfed a shortboard today - but the wind was chopping up the water - the foil negates all of that.

Marlon brought out his new longboard again and he said he is getting used to it.  He said it catches waves easier than La's board, and he is able to perch up on the nose easier.  

The Next Project - 4'10" Prone Foilboard

With Marlon's longboard all finished, I've been trying to figure out the template for my next board.  This one is going to be a stripped down windsurfing board and it'll end up becoming a 4'10" prone foilboard.

Here are the templates I've come up with so far.

I printed this one out already, but it isn't really growing on me.

This second one is Marlon's pick.

This is the one that growing on me.  I'll print them out and lay them on to the donor board (Naish Wave 87L Windsurfing board I got for free) to get a better feel for them before committing to a template.

Marlon's Longboard Finally Finished

Besides mowing the lawn, I spent the majority of today finishing Marlon's longboard.  Lots of painting, marking, applying acrylic and fine tuning the boxes (still need to work on the middle one - too tight).

I like how the stencil logo came out.

We got the board out to the beach in the really late afternoon - Marlon got plenty of rides and from what I saw, he was not stalling as much as he would when using La's board.

We didn't take out the GoPro, but I did stop to watch him on his first wave - looks like a fun board!

Also - I took out the Slingshot Infinity 76.  I made the mistake of leaving the foil pushed all the way to the rear of the tracks.  I was anticipating a bigger swell, but I should have paid attention to my previous notes on using this foil - an inch or so up from the back of the tracks and the foil will pop up easy.  All the way back like today and I'm having to get my weigh back to pop the foil up, but it requires a lot more effort to keep the foil balanced.  I need to remember this...

And lastly, I took some hits from the foil - tail hit me in the gut on a wipeout, and the main wing hit my ankle.  Even with the setbacks, I did get some decent rides.

What to do on Rainy Days - Finish Building

It's been raining buckets here the past two days - good time to finish building Marlon's longboard.  On Monday evening, I got most of the rough sanding done.

This evening I got most of the detail sanding finished and I installed the leash plug.

Tomorrow I'll grind down the excess resin around the leash plug and start painting the board.  This should be ready to surf this weekend.  Pretty amazing what you can do when it rains and you can't go surfing.

Sunday Evening Foiling - June 23, 2019

Marlon and I hit the beach in the evening.  Jimmy met us out there and was filming with his drone.  I grabbed this screen shot from the video file he sent. 

I thought the swell would be smaller so I setup the Maliko 200.  Way too much lift for the swell that was there (belly high again).  I had some epic wipeouts - one even knocking the wind out of me.  But I did get three really long rides.

Even with the foil jammed all the way back, this wing makes a ton of lift and makes it challenging to control.  This wing is off the surfing list and will only be used for windfoiling now.  

Marlon was catching waves 3 to 1 compared to me.  Here is a picture from the video Jimmy took.

Fun session (and always great to have a photographer out)!!!

Second Fishing Outting of the Year

Marlon has been asking to go fishing for a couple of weeks now, so I figured I'd oblige.  We hit the channel this morning on the low tide and pitched ika strips.  There was no wind so it would have been really hard to flyfish for oio today.

We saw this crab on the way out.

And after seeing a bunch of fish tail our hooks with no takers, I finally got one to play tug.  Clean hook up in the corner of the mouth (easy to remove the hook and minimizes damage).  Nice moana!

I actually lost a bunch of tackle to snags.

Nice way to spend the morning!  It's hard to believe this is only our second time out fishing this year (foiling has officially taken over the free time).   Marlon took all the pictures today.

Solstice Foiling

Washed the work week off with a foiling session in the evening.  I used the 5'2" with the Go Foil Iwa on the 29.5" mast (with the 3" plate adaptor, so 32.5").  I had the foil set less than an inch from the back of the tracks (back of the plate is the reference line).

I was not hurting for lift, so this setting for this foil works well for belly high waves.  Any lower and I think I would have pushed it all the way back.  With it being the solstice, there was plenty of light and I was out for an hour and a half.

The swell was about belly high and the tide was super full.  Before foiling I would have cringed at these conditions but they were perfect for foiling.  I caught several waves and had multiple long rides.  The height of this setup is really fun - I don't ever worry about touchdowns.  The falls are a totally humbling experience - but worth it.  There were 6 other foilers out for the evening session - 3 prone (plus me), and 2 SUP foilers.

Glassing the Top Deck of Marlon's Longboard

We also spent part of Father's Day getting the top deck laminated on Marlon's longboard.  Schedule wise, the bottom was 2 layers of 6oz, and the top was a 4oz patch with two 6oz layers on top.  This should allow him to knee paddle the board if he wants to without dinging the deck.

It's hard to spend time during the week (while Marlon is in his summer program) working on projects - but I'll try and grind the laps down and prep the board for a fill coat of epoxy tomorrow evening.  He wants a spray paint color scheme and I'll need Thursday and Friday to finish that if we're going to surf it by the weekend.

Foiling Over the Weekend - 15 and 16 June

The higher tide finally migrated to the late afternoon.  On Saturday evening the bump in the swell started to show, but the waves were packed in tightly.  I set up the Slingshot foil with the 24" mast.  Fun session with some longer rides.  With the longer mast, I moved the foil back another 1/2" in the track compared to the previous session with the 18" mast - tons of lift and still controllable.

Didn't hit the bottom - tide was at 1.5" while I was out.  With this foil, I'm noticing that you need to set the foil up to deliver more lift, and use your body weight to counter the extra umpf.

I can look at these shapes all day long and not get tired.

On Sunday (Father's Day) Marlon and I went out and the swell had dropped just a hair - or the tide was swollen (maybe both).  It was nearly +2.0' while we were out.  Anticipating the fuller tide, I rigged up the 29.5" (+3" plate adapter) Go Foil mast with the Iwa wing.  Super fun out in the waves and I got more the a few long rides.  Even carved through the flat inside section and picked up the reform (everything is relative).  

The Go Foil has a simpler shape - but it's chord is thick.  Translates to tons of lift - super fun to ride and really exhilarating with the mast height. I had a couple of rides where I felt the foil about the breech, but dumped more front foot weight on and recovered.  This is starting to become second nature - and mixing up which foils I'm using helps to make my riding more versatile.

This is getting to be so much fun that I don't even think about conventional surfing at all... Scary how this is taking over - but totally willing to make the full commitment!

End of the Work Week Surf

This was a long week - I've been taking Marlon to a summer program he has and after I pick him up in the evenings, we've had to do battle with the other commuters on H1 West.  When we got home today, I did a quick turnaround and got to the beach by 6:30pm to get in an hour of foiling.

This afternoon saw the beginning of a new south swell hitting - but I brought the foil anyways (which I see as a divergence from surfing... I really only want to foil now).  After the last session, I've actually been looking forward to getting into some larger waves (where I would just begin to short board).  I've been dealing with the excess speed from the steeper takeoffs (that used to throw me off the board because of too much lift - not enough time and front foot weight to control the foil) by paddling at a 45 degree angle to the wave direction.  This has really helped and I'm getting longer rides by taking off further out.

There is so much potential in foiling and so much to learn - it's like getting to start all over again knowing all the fun and amazing things to come!

I still used the 18" mast with the Infinity 76 wing since the tide was ebbing down to 0.4' - didn't ground so all is good.  I moved the foil forward another 1/2" thinking the swell would be the same size as yesterday -  It was almost twice as big.

I ended up catching a bunch (including some of the bigger ones at an angle at takeoff).  I lost a few of the steeper ones (epic crash and burn), but I had three really long rides.  Awesome way to wash of the work week!

Getting Marlon's Board Closer to the Official Annoitment

We got the bottom glassed on Thursday evening.  I'll clean up the laps on Saturday and laminate the top.

Should have this done by the end of this weekend.

Wednesday Evening Foiling - June 12

I went out for some foiling this evening.  The tide was going low - the time band I was out it was hovering around +0.5' - so I put the 18" mast on the Infinity 76.

I also felt that with the waves around waist high and the shorter mast (less ability to pump), I could use some extra lift so I moved the foil up in the tracks.

This was a pretty good setting for the conditions.  I only had one breach and several good rides.  The force seemed more balanced between both feet (kinda why I breached on that one wave - got too relaxed).  I felt good paddling for waves I would normally have used my longboard or SUP to catch before this setup.  I even caught a few green waves (unbroken) - as little as a month ago, I was a little leery about paddling for greenies - I felt like I couldn't control the extra lift that came with moving faster on a steeper takeoff.  Now it's just more fun to catch greenies that are ready to be ridden.  

Super fun session!

Foil (crunching) Sunday Afternoon

Just after I fixed the main wing, I take the Slingshot out to foiling and in between a couple of waves, I hear "crunch - crunch".  My old friend Jimmy was out shooting video with his drone but had to leave early.  I went it to say bye, and I took a look at the main wing to see what all the crunching was about.  "HOLY SH!T" - some front to back scratches, tip damage and a fairly deep gouge.  The tide was not even that low...

Oh well - a good session other than that.  Had a few long rides and no getting bucked.  I moved the foil forward 3/4" in the tracks to get more lift.  Next time I go out I may move it forward again to get even more lift - a front wing this big should be lift faster and sooner.  The waves were about the same as Saturday, but they were easier to catch.  The tide was at 0.9' - shouldn't have hit anything with the 24" mast...  oh well - I guess I needed more practice patching gouges in solid carbon fiber...

Sunday Fin Setting

Marlon and I set the fins in place on his longboard yesterday.

The side bites are in perfectly.

The center box had an issue - I forgot to use the plunge setting and as a result there were two excessive cuts.  If we weren't going to paint the finished board, I would probably try and fix these.  Oh well - we're painting the board so no issue.

Now I just have to find time to glass this board (uuuuugggggggghhhhhhhhhh).

Opae Ula Again

I've been trying to set up this habitat for some opae ula (Hawaiian Alchialine Pond Shrimp) for quite some time now.  I finally got around to doing so -

Finished Shaping Marlon's Longboard

Small surf this morning - so we decided to use the time to finish shaping Marlon's longboard.  Used the planer to cut in the rail bands, and a surform to blend to top to the rails.

We broke out the dragon skin and sanding screens to dial in the rails, and then sanded the decks.  When we were done sanding, we broke out the random orbital sander and carved in the nose spoon.  We actually made it pretty deep, so Marlon should have the ability to park up front and eat a few ham sandwiches.  La bought me some Dapp's Lightweight and I closed up all the shaping mistakes.  THis thing is ready to glass (for tomorrow).

Front Wing Touch Up

These are the two front wings that I've been using the most.  And they had some scratches from touchdown while waiting for waves.  I swear there are three high spots in the bottom where I'm foiling and even after coming off the board to physically ensure I am in deep water, as soon as I hop back on the board I hear a 'crunch'.


Oh well - solid carbon fiber is pretty resilient - but I am also super OCD (though I am getting better).

Here are the wings after some corrective cosmetic attention.

Taking a Short Break By Shaping

Knowing Marlon is anxious to get another board in the water, we decided to skip surfing and foiling to get moving on his new longboard.

We felt most of the foiling should be done to the bottom - getting it as flat as possible to make it a super fast paddler.  I'll put a spoon in the nose so he can get 10 toes over (but later after the top is dialed in).

We used the surforms first - and Marlon was comfortable with using it.  But I switched to the planer because we had to remove about a 1/2" of material.  After a couple of hours, the bulk/rough shaping to the bottom is done.

Now the question is do we work on this all weekend and knock it out, or do we go surfing....