I hit WPB this afternoon - was in the water around 3:30pm. I mixed it up a bit - used the Kujira 1095 and the 178 rear stabilizer on the Stringy 60cm fuselage. The wind seemed to be a bit on the lighter side so I setup the Reedin 5.2 SWX.
I paid some taxes today - on the way out, the waves and the swirling wind made it a little tough to get out. The wing blew back upwards onto the rear stabilizer - could have been way worse - but there were just two tiny holes (I'm going to get some Trex tape to fix it). After that, I ended up hitting bottom. Damage report amounted to some scratches and chips on the 1095, scratched tips on the 178, and the two holes in the SWX 5.2 - I'll have all those fixed by Tuesday.
Tim had gone out before I got setup. He got two runs in (and Marlon got his landing on video). Kalani and I launched at the same time (but he made it out faster than I did). Roland got to the beach late and launched after everyone else.
The rides were really fun, and every 30 minutes or so a head high set would roll through. On these bigger ones I tried something different - I tacked onto the incoming wave. This was pretty amazing - at the peak of the tack, I was at the top of the wave and rounding out the turn was a straight drop at full speed. This is something I had been contemplating since I first saw Derek Hamasaki do it. From today's success, you need good wind coming from the right angle (running perpendicular to the wave train direction), a steeper face and some confidence.
I mainly stayed on the upwind side of the course. When I had plenty of ground to give, I would ride downwind and surf the waves as they pushed in towards shore (look for the squiggly lines).
This is where the shorter fuselage paid off in dividends - this foil setup was super surfy and maneuverable. This is pretty much the same fuselage length as the Armstrong (so from this point forward, if I'm riding waves I'll be using the 60cm fuselage; if I'm making flat water speed runs, I'll use the 64cm fuselage).
Top speed on the 1095/178 - 20.2mph.
This was a really good winging session!
W:63/F:61/S:17
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