Marlon and I hit WPB again on the dawn patrol. The waves were pretty much the same as yesterday. There was very little wind so it was really clean. Unfortunately the tide was really low - more on this last bit towards the end of the post.
Marlon brought his longboard - and from what I saw he was catching a bunch.
Seeing Kalani and Tim foil yesterday made me want to bring a foil out today. And I also wanted to try out my new to me NL160 - so I setup the Go Foil 24.5"+3" on the wide 4'10". It was pretty shallow - but if you paddled out far enough, there was a small band where the waves still broke and you did not have to paddle into a grounding. I caught three waves (had to come in earlier to bring Noe out to a sailing event) - each one was progressively better. This front foil needs a bit more forward speed before it takes off - but when it does take off, it is solid, nimble and pumps well. My first two rides were on the shorter side - take off, pump the foil up to speed, then ride high with plenty of pressure until the wave closed out. Definitely more technical to lift compared to the GLs.
My third wave was a little different. Caught the wave, started figuring out the lift pattern of the foil - pushed it to get to speed, up and running - then decided to go as far as I could. I got over 500' (according to the Garmin) then found myself in less than a foot of water. I pumped some more to a slightly deeper spot and kicked out. The board went high, I went low. I flattened out to avoid hitting the bottom at speed - then all of a sudden I felt the wing tip dragging along my left shoulder.
Ever since these NL foils came out, there has been a lot of debate on the internet about what these tips could do to you. No debate from me - these tips need even more respect than normal!!!
I think I'm going to use this foil for this upcoming swell so I can get to know it better.
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