Large part of the Hickam Harbor crew came out today - including Tim and Kalani. Kalani wanted to get his new board (yes the one that has been "curing" in my autoclave/"garage" for the past year) in the water. Tim declared that if he didn't get up on foil today, his gear would likely end up on Craigslist. And I wanted to try out the Takuma RS 6.1 wing.
The wind was supposed to be down in the morning, but the forecasters were WRONG AGAIN - the wind was all over the place - sometimes not even strong enough to get up on the 6.1 with gusts into the high 20's/low 30's.
I have been having better luck with the Takuma fuselages being discipline specific now (the "shaky" one is now the prone foiling fuselage; and the less issue plagued one is the winging fuselage), so I decided to test whether the 1210 would come loose while winging. And as you can see - I brought out the strapped wing board...
I also bolted on the 17" rear stabilizer I just got from www.Foilparts.com
The wind was way up and down - so much for light wind testing the RS 6.1
I actually got three sessions in today. First one was in the lower of the winds today. The RS is not like the OR and Reedins - it is closer to what the Ensis V2 felt like. I initially had a hard time going upwind with this wing - if I pinched too hard, it would backwind, and it would be slow to recover (I would have to really pull with my backhand to get the luff to pop back out). I also seemed to have needed to move my hands to the back of both handle bars in order to fly the wing.
I figured I had a decent feel for the wing and had gotten some transitions in - I headed straight out to Firsts. Jim was out there with his Alien wing 6.0. The waves were small, but rather clean. I caught a few and then went it to check on Tim and Kalani.
Kalani was having a hard time dialing in the foil - it has been almost a year since he was last out. Tim had drifted down to the reef where I fish (and did the walk of shame back to the launch) - but he said he did get up on foil three times during that run.
I took a break - the RS is a demanding wing (but to be fair - I should probably have been on the 4.5 or 4.2). I headed out for another run. Even though the wind was stronger, I tried to use the same coping skills I figured out on the first run and it worked - the RS was a bit easier to manage and I was getting upwind (just not as closed hauled as the OR or SWX could get). I also hadn't felt my hands go numb while winging - but the handles were stretching my hands - just like a windsurf boom. WOndering if I'm going to need to use gloves while flying this wing.
Almost broke 20mph with the 1210.
I didn't record the last run, but Kalani asked me to take his board out to see if I could ride it (so he could tell if it was him, the foil or the board). He had on his HPS 880. I got up and foiling right away - that board I made is pretty awesome! That didn't make him feel better, but a year can be a long time.
The 1210 held- except for the last screw which had loosened just a tad - way better than having to limp in on a loose foil.
I think I'm going to like the RS wing - but it is significantly different than what I have been foiling with so I'll have to make some adjustments.
W:34/F:43/S:12
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