Wing Repairs (again)

La and I got our order from Sailrite in today.  Inside there was a roll of ripstop tape - just what I needed to repair the rip I put in my Ensis 5.2 wing.  

Round those edges to prevent lifting of the repair tape.

Taped up both sides longitudinal along the rip.

Tomorrow La will sew this and four of the leading edges seams that have started to wear (wings definitely lead harder lives than kites do).

The winds return on Thursday - repairs done just in time!!!

Bottom Deck Laminated

I passed on the evening session today - the tide was too low anyways, but I really wanted to get through this part of the process on Kalani's board.  Under this layer of 2 ounce fiberglass is a nose to tail layer of 4.8 ounce carbon fiber, and another layer of carbon acting as a stringer connecting the boxes to the bottom deck.

I always sweat this part - during summer the slow hardener isn't really that slow.  And the alignment always seems to get misaligned after getting the boxes epoxied in.

This one came out really nice.  I spent a lot of time cutting the laps to try and minimize overlapping in an attempt to reduce sanding.  I'm still going to have to grind and fill and sand - but hopefully that will go quick.

The nose half of the board has only one layer of innegra (on top) and carbon fiber (bottom, but with a cover sheet of 2 ounce fiberglass).  That was specifically done to reduce the weight up front, as well as the overall weight - but without sacrificing strength where it is needed.  Kalani really rides his gear hard - this is as much as experiment for me as it is a new board for him.  If this board survives him, I know I've gotten to an optimized layup.

There is still a bunch of work left - adding carbon tape to the rail all around to hide the carbon lap, adding to logos, fill coat, grind the boxes open, drill out the plug holes, epoxy in the plugs, fill any voids, sand everything down, and sign the board.  All that, but the hard part is pretty much done.

Laminating Afternoon

And after the de-sticking operation on the two foils, I got off my arse to start laminating Kalani's wing board.  I put two layers of innegra patches on top of the divynicell sheeting, and a full layer of innegra.  I put a base layer of blue tinted epoxy on.

I went ahead and cut out the slots for the foot strap inserts in the innegra - more prep up front means less work later.

And here it is - top deck all on.  I prepped the carbon for the box area - will do the bottom deck inserts when I get back from work tomorrow, and also laminate the whole bottom deck.

Dawn Patrol - 8/29/2021

Marlon and I were on the dawn patrol again this morning.  The surf was bigger - chest high+ on the sets.  There was no wind to speak of and the tide was rising to a high of 1.6'.  Marlon brought out his longboard again - I changed things up again.  I brought the 4'6" and started out with the CF1200 on the 72cm mast and chopped 300 rear stabilizer.  I cannot say how good the combo is - on good waves, this thing absolutely rips!!!  I caught a bunch and then headed in to switch this setup out.

There is a lot of hype out on the High Aspect foils so I decided to break out the HA925.  I rigged it the way the guys on the internet said to - 85cm mast, small drag free rear stabilizer.  That said - they also said this foil does not like turbulent water (and it doesn't), and that it has a high stall speed (and it does).  It is going to get some getting used to to find the cadence and feel for this foil.  I did catch several on it - it is really fast.  It is also really unstable.  Next go I'll use the 72cm mast and the 232 rear stabilizer.

When I got home, I discovered that the HA925 was stuck on the fuselage.  I spent the next few hours getting both this foil and the GoFoil GL210 unstuck from their respective masts.  It felt good to get the 210 unstuck - now I can use the NL160 and PNL185 on that mast to experiment with those foils on the wing.

Dawn Patrol - 8/28/2021

Marlon and I hit WPB on the dawn patrol - first for me in a long time actually.  We brought the same gear we had out yesterday.  There was hardly any wind, the tide was just above 1.0', and the new swell had started hitting - belly high and fairly consistent.

Fun waves - a bunch of double dips and some good turns.

Evening Session - 8/27/2021

Marlon and I hit the beach for a late afternoon session.  He brought his longboard and was getting tons of rides.  I brought the 4'8" and bolted on the GoFoil NL160.  I wanted to get this foil dialed in with the GoFoil.  The wind was right on the cusp of being wingable - Eli, Derek and another winger chose the wing - I sided with the prone guys today.  The swell was waist high on the sets.

On the first wave, there was a lack of lift so I moved the base up a bit.  I landed it in the sweet spot!  All the rest of the waves I caught were long gliding rides with tons of turns.  I got a bunch of 2 for 1s and ended a couple with carving 180s.  

Here's the spot!  I'll use this again tomorrow to confirm this setting.

Wing Foiling Session - 8/25/2021

Hit the beach again this afternoon.  The forecast was projecting 15 to 25 mph winds - pretty good call.  I setup the same equipment from yesterday.  

Today was actually really good.  With more east in the wind and a tad bit of SW in the swell, it was one of those days that lined up perfectly!  I had a handful of waves that were at least chest high that I picked up on the outside and rode all the way in while luffing the wing.  With the HS1550, turning was so easy on the wave faces.  I was able to carve back and forth to stay in the pocket - and I had some of the longest luffed waves to date.

I did pay the Ocean today - on the launch, the wing did blow right back on to the rear stabilizer.

I picked up this new tear right along the seam.  It should be easy enough to fix.  Small price to pay for the perfect conditions today!!!

This is the last day for the foreseeable future that called for strong winds.  For the next week+, the winds are going to be light.  I can actually use the break to heal up.  Awesome session!

Wing Foiling Session - 8/24/2021

I hit WPB for a winging session after work today.  Got to the beach around 4pm.  The tide was nice and high (over 2'), there was a nice little swell pushing in.  Best of all, there was texture on the water from wind that was strong enough to drive me with the Ensis 5.2m2 and the Armstrong HS1550V1.

I left my watch at the house, so no data today.

The waves were just big enough to whip into them on a jibe and luff the wing - I got three like that - smiles for miles!!!  I also rode several goofy - I actually think those waves were longer rides for me.  Roland came out - he was on his smaller Amundson and the Ensis 4.5m2.  I saw him get a bunch of jumps in.  My next board will be lighter so I can jump it.

Lots of fun today (even though I lost my GoPro)!!!!

More Blanks

Marlon and I went to Fiberglass Hawaii up in Wahiawa this past Friday and picked out blanks for our next projects.  He picked up a 9'8" Y blank in polyurethane with a laminated stringer.  He is going to make another longboard (purple colored????)

I got a 9'8" XX in EPS.  I'm going to chop it in half and get two foilboard blanks out of it.  I think it is 3.75" thick at the middle - these boards will be sinkers for sure.

Have I said I really like this truck of mine???!!!

Garage Works - 8/23/2021

It was raining on and off yesterday - so I didn't bother with thinking about going to the beach.  Instead, I routed out the slots for the foil track boxes and the bottom deck handle on Kalani's board.

Now the board is ready for glassing.  I'll try and get that done this week/weekend.

Evening Session - 8/22/2021

I hit the beach pretty late today - I wanted to avoid the "not quite winging" level wind and I also wanted to avoid the crowd that WPB has been generating lately.  The wind was down by the time I got there (about 6pm) and the tide was high heading down (peaked at 4pm at +2.3').  What was a surprise were the waves - on the sets they were almost chest high.  The forecasts were calling for a drop...  

I wanted to switch things up again - I put the 4'6" board away and broke out the skinny 4'10".  I haven't had either of the 4'10" boards out in a while - I wanted to see the difference in paddling power coming off the 4'6".  What I found was this board had a ton of volume.  I felt like I was bobbing like a cork (although when I was sitting in the lineup, I was sinking this board below the water's surface).  It did make paddling easier, but punching through white water was way different than I remember it being with this board.

I also brought out the Go Foil NL160 that I just repaired (and waxed).  I set the mast up right in between where I had the GL140 and GL180.  I caught my first wave and decided to move the mast up just a notch.  I caught my second wave and noticed the board seemed to be riding a hair nose up and my front foot was way forward of where it normally was.  I caught several more waves where I would carve up the wave going in to the beach, then pump back out.  I just adapted my riding to these two issues.  Back on the beach, here's what I saw - it looks like I need to shim the back screws of the mast plate to close the gap between the front foil and the bottom of the board.  Oddly enough this is the first time I've seen this on this board.    

While I was foiling on this board, I started thinking that I should try to wing on this board.  I was also thinking that the NL160 was too big for the conditions today.  I would not have thought either of these things 6 months ago.  I don't know if it is the weight I'm losing, my skill increasing, or my sense of getting the equipment into good trim - but it is absolutely fulfilling to be able to foil on smaller equipment and not feel lacking for lift or power.

I think I'm coming up to the end of my second full year prone foiling - what an incredible journey this has been!  

Licking Wounds - NL160

And here's one of the aforementioned projects - addressing the reef hits on the NL160.

I sanded the hits (two - one on each side) down and had already sprayed primer/filler on to the damaged spots after taping them off.  And this morning I went ahead and wet sanded the excess primer/filler off.

Tomorrow I'll spray blue paint on, let it dry, sand to 1500, clean, spray gloss, sand then wax the wing. 

Wing Foiling Session - 8/21/21

There was enough wind to go winging today - but just barely.  I bolted on the HS1850 and pumped up the Ensis 6.0 m2 - so that how "windy" it was.  Kalani and Roland, and eventually Brian were out wing foiling.

I found a patch of wind east of the launch point (Fenceline) and spent most of my time there.  The swell was on the small side - I only jibed onto a wave and luffed twice.  

With all the winging I've done on the south shore, I like easterly winds the best.  Had easterly today until later in the session when it turned way north.

I got in over 27 miles in just over 2.5 hours.  Top speed was over 17 mph - likely riding the one big wave I caught after jibing.

The forecast has the remnants of Tropical Storm Linda affecting the islands for the next couple of days.  I'll likely finish the projects in the garage tomorrow.

Evening Session - 8/20/2021

The big south swell that hit this week has all but moved on.  Waist high on the sets, full tide and winds on the lighter side of not winging made for a fun prone session today.  I figured I'd break out the small wave foil today - the PNL185.

It took a few waves to get used to the big push this foil gives.  What I should have done was break out one of the 4'10" boards which would have matched the foil with a board that can paddle faster into the wave.  The 4'6" is great for waves with more power - but groveling is best left to the bigger foil boards.

I caught a bunch of fun ones - but taking off was an exercise.

Evening Session - 8/19/2021

There was some wind today - but I decided to go prone foil instead.  First since I didn't want to drive back to Hickam (with the bigger surf, WPB would be harder to launch from), and second I was waking up from a long nap and I know the wind tends to die back later in the day.  I did want to mix it up a bit again - the surf did lower a notch, and I switched out the HS1050 to the CF1200.

I caught my first wave today and did a nose dive.  I set the mast more forward and that corrected the issue for the rest of the session.  I caught several more larger waves, but I also wiped out a bunch more than normal.  The waves were close together and taking off on a narrower board means landing on a much smaller sweet spot.  And getting my footing while trying to get in front of a shifting foam ball while just off the sweet spot leads straight to a wipe.  Still fun out there, but not the smoothest session.  On my third wave, I pumped back out (again with the CF1200).  When riding a standing wave that has an open end (todays were mostly open to the left), this foil is so awesome - carves top to bottom and going super fast - pure bliss!!!

The balance point was pretty much where the HS1050 was (the HS1050 is just forward of my mark, and the CF1200 is just behind it).  When you line up these two foils, they have a similar outline - the real differences are the thickness and the tips.  I think I actually like surfing with the CF1200 a lot more than the HS1050.  I'll still use both - but I think I'll try the HS1050 while winging in strong winds next.  There are too many front foils in this chest + high surf group (HS1250, HS1050, CF1200, GL140, NL160 - with the GL140 being my favorite closely followed by the CF1200).

Afternoon Session - 8/18/2021

I had a work dinner tonight - so I only had a short window to get some rides in.  The surf was still pumping - but there was a seabreeze blowing  - straight on shore.  I didn't let that deter me.  Had the same setup as Monday - didn't move a thing.

I caught three good sized waves and got decent rides.  Stats below are pretty close to what I thought was going on.  The swell was not as smooth as some of the swells from earlier this year - had to maneuver around sections to get length, but as always it was still super fun.

I did bring the CF1200, but I didn't have a short screw for the front hole on the front foil.  I'm glad I used the HS1050 today.

Great session even though it was short.

Tow Training

La, Noe and I drove around this evening so they could get more accustomed to towing the Laser.  This way I won't have to take off work to get Noe to sailing events or practices.

They passed the driving test.

Evening Sessions - 8/15 and 8/16

Another late post.  I went foiling on a rising swell on Sunday (Marlon was out at an orientation so I went solo).  I brought out the NL160 to get it dialed in.  I had it up a bit from the PNL185 setting.  Surf was chest high and rising.  I would catch a wave, and make an adjustment, then repeat.  Despite the tide being on the higher side, I hit bottom twice - the second of which was pretty good.  This wing is definitely faster than the PNL185, and swoopier in the turns - but the PNL185 is way easier to pump.

This is where I ended the session - almost right on top of the PNL185 setting (they are very close in surface area...).  I'll need to test this one some more before I mark the board.

And this is from today - I wet sanded the two spots that had reef rash (on the leading edge of both sides), taped the spots I didn't want filled, then sprayed filler/primer.  I'll let this dry overnight then sand it back to a pre-rash state.  Then I'll re-tape the wing and get a coat of blue paint on the front - then sand, the clear coat, then wax.  I hate hitting bottom.

Yesterday's surf was even bigger than Sunday (solid overhead).  I bolted on the HS1050 and pushed it all the way forward.  Marlon was out and he brought his Firewire.

I caught one, felt the board was riding nose down, then spent a bit of time just paddling for position - there was a really strong current that was dragging everyone towards Fenceline.  I eventually caught another wave and was able to get over towards the two cabins on a single wave.  After that I picked up another several waves and it was more like the usual big wave foiling - waves with more slope and less pitch.  This is a great foil, but I was wondering what the difference would be compared to the CF1200 (I'll try that next).

I skipped today to get the track block epoxied in, La and Noe trained on towing the laser, and getting the NL160 sanded.  Tomorrow night I have a social to attend (so I might punch early to get a session in while the tide is high). 

Garage Works - 8/15

Late post.  Sunday was a pretty busy day.  La went to pick up Noe from the airport (she finished racing in Boston), and I stayed home since we had a contractor over to fix some drywall.  I took this opportunity to get more work into a few projects.  First up, I grinded down the bolt that I put through the tail end of this fuselage.

I went ahead and put a seal coat of epoxy on it also.

Next I went ahead and routed out the slots for the footstrap inserts (and epoxied them in).

And perhaps the biggest accomplishment, I adjusted the clutch cable tension on my motorcycle (just in time to commute today - which is Tuesday).

So I don't have to post on this separately, I also routed out the track reinforcement block hole, cut out the fiberglass underlay, and today I epoxied the block in place.  If I have time tonight, I'll put a seal coat on the bottom deck so I can route out the track slots and epoxy the tracks in (sometime before the weekend - which is when I want to glass the board).