Evening Session - 12/20/2024

Pulled another Pavilions afternoon Foil Drive-ing session with the crew.  Marvin's back is giving him grief, but Norm and Robby were there.

Same gear as yesterday, but moved the rear stabilizer to the forward position.

Today was a notch smaller than yesterday, with way less wind and more cross chop.  Definitely made for challenging conditions.  The cross chop was almost as big as the primary waves - and when I was able to transition over to one of them, it pretty much was downwinding.

These were pretty long rides - the glide on the AFS Enduro 1300 is exceptional.

15 rides!!!!  Ridiculous!

I've been informed that Pavilions gets pretty loaded with fishermen on the weekend... there were two groups on the beach when we got out.  Tomorrow will likely be a dawn patrol with Marlon at WPB.

W:152/PW:2/FD:95/F:5/S:29

Garage Works - 12/19/2024

And I got the fiberglass patches over the windows that Marvin wanted placed in his boards.

This is the Appletree C@$H

And this the Majek.

And Roland asked if I could replace the boxes on his Orca wingboard... the repairs never end.

Evening Session - 12/19/2024

Introducing the AFS Enduro 1300/HA43 combo - 

I wanted to test this out... and the guaranteed way was with the Foil Drive.  This will eventually support my parawinging - but I'll still Foil Drive with it to get the feel of this foil down and then wing with it to get the foil position set on the Dragonfly.

I had the HA43 on the longer fuselage position - I'm going to switch it to the shorter position next session.

This foil can glide - when I got up and settled, I did not have to pump much if at all and I was getting long rides.  The HA43 stab did make it a little hard to get push out of the pumps I did do, but I think that has more to do with getting the feel of the foil.

I could turn the foil, but again I think it will be easier when I move the stabilizer forward.

The west wind was actually wingable - especially with the Enduro 1300.  But I always look at the thermals as suspect - and they can drop out at any time.  They actually stuck around today - it would have been nice to fly around with the wing.  I'm going to keep an eye on the wind... but the forecast says Monday and then the weekend after Christmas. 

I think there are 11 rides in this.  I did have a lot of false starts, and had to make a lot of adjustments on the foil position.  The foil ended up forward of the Spitfire 960 position.  Might be the Center of Lift location on the narrower chord E1300.

Hopefully the west wrap keeps getting bigger...

W:152/PW:2/FD:94/F:5/S:29

Evening Session - 12/18/2024

Yesterday's session involved watching Robby tear it up!!!  Norm and Marvin were also doing well.

The swell was bigger - with the wrap coming in from the west, it definitely changed the mechanics of the break.

I did try to motor back out while standing.  Not easy... or maybe mentally I don't want to do it... either way I wasn't good at it.

With the additional energy coming in from around the point, the rides were fun, steeper and definitely challenging.

I'm going to call this 12 rides (with some misses due to me still getting used to the new board).

Uber fun!!!

W:152/PW:2/FD:93/F:5/S:29

Evening Session - 12/17/2024

Went back to Pavilions today - Marvin and Norm were there also.

The waves were slightly bigger than yesterday.

The water was really clear - and it kinda made it weird foiling and being able to see the bottom so clearly - threw me off a bit.

With the additional traction, there was no slipping off the board today.

Stayed out an hour and came in with 34% battery.

We went straight for the outside break today.  I caught several longer ones - but they were still weak - so not much pumping back out.

I even tried the middle break over a bit towards the east.  This wave seemed to bowl a little more.

I caught at least 10 longer rides.  There were still some fat waves hanging around - and those ended up being shorter rides.

There is a large swell forecasted to hit the North and West shores starting tomorrow (and likely peaking this weekend).  Hoping for some wrap so Foil Drive-ing will have some more excitement.

W:152/PW:2/FD:92/F:5/S:29

The Anointment of No.39 - 12/16/2024

I took No.39 over to Pavilions to get anointed today.

I bolted on the same equipment that I have been using - Spitfire 960/Skinny 365 on the Project Cedrus Aluminum mast.

The surf was puny small - but with the Foil Drive that somehow didn't really matter.  Catching bumps became a game to see how far you could go.

Norm (with No.38) and Marvin (with No.37) both came out also.

Norm had his Progression 200 on with the balanced 14" stabilizer.

Marvin had the Kujira 1440.

It is pretty cool anytime I see another one of my boards being used - but seeing three lined up together - I was pretty stoked!!!

And despite the waves being tiny, the graphs and charts from the session still looked like the others.

Two distinct reef peaks (that triggered the waves to break/peak).

You can see legitimate rides on the chart.  I ended up moving the mast position once - then everything felt really well balanced.

I'm guessing there are ten rides in this -

Several of the peaks are false starts (waves would back off as they went over deep water after traveling over the high points).

And a few of the peaks above I had slipped off the board.  When I got back home I went ahead and added more traction in the spots where I needed it.

And since this board was anointed and it performed well, I went ahead and got the stickers placed.

This is going to be an awesome board!!!!

W:152/PW:2/FD:91/F:5/S:29

Dawn Patrol - 12/15/2024

The wind that was forecasted to still be here has now been forecasted to dwindle.  With that I decided to dawn patrol with the Foil Drive at WPB.

Not that the waves were all that great either, but this option also keeps the drive shorter.

I upsized the front foil to the Spitfire 960 - better for smaller waves compared to the Spitfire 900.

I am now convinced that No.34 is one of the most versatile shapes I've made so far.  I can see myself parawinging this (in addition to winging and Foil Drive-ing).

The session was good (any time on the water is good) - but the higher tide that made launching/landing easier also made for choppy/bumpy rides and almost drowned out what little surf was coming in.

I actually only had a handful of good rides - the rest were attempts to catch really fat waves, or I'd get bucked off by incidental chop.

The wider the blue lines, the better the ride was.

And on one wipeout, the board came back at me and I got a good cut on my right calf.  Definitely could have been worse.

And to top everything off, the Wizardhat bolts came loose on the front - I called the session after that.

Too many issues... I quit while I was ahead.

W:152/PW:2/FD:90/F:5/S:29

Garage Works - 12/14/2024

I've actually been working on several projects, but have been too lazy to document them (this blogging stuff takes a lot of work - I've been thinking about cutting back, but considering how much information I have on this format, it is hard to let it go).

Marvin brought over two boards to get windows placed in them - 

The vinyl decals Glenn put on his boards makes it hard to modify (and still look good).

And after all kinds of sanding and filling and sanding and filling, and more sanding and filling - I finally sprayed the clear coat on No.39

Tomorrow I'll work on these again - the windows will get their fiberglass top coats (capping the epoxy fill).

And I'll spray the top deck of No.39 with clear coat (and plot out how the deck pads will go on).  I'll give it a day between spraying and applying the deck pad - that means that the earliest this board will get wet is Tuesday (Foil Drive likely as the forecast doesn't call for wind for multiple days).

Wing Foiling Session - 12/14/2024 - Round 2

And I went out for a second session over at Hickam.

This picture was taken late - but there was wind.

Same foil, different board (to get this one dialed in with the Enduro 900 also). 

And the same wing from this morning.

Good gear choices.  I am amazed by how much lift the E900 generates.

Marvin was out to try winging again (the main reason I came for a second session).  He bolted the foil drive on so he wouldn't have to paddle back upwind.  He said he was able to get up 3X.  Everyone counts when you are learning.

After warming up and seeing how the wind was working, I headed over to Firsts to get more experience with the E900.

I caught three waves - the last one was notable as it was breaking right behind me and I was going straight into the wind - pretty dynamic situation.

The two charts correlate pretty well.  A few of those "down" times I had to wait for a gust to get back up - but the E900 works quickly to get you back up.

This is the fastest I've gotten this foil.  I think I need to get the HA40 on next time there is wind (because the wind is dying off for a while again).

W:152/PW:2/FD:89/F:5/S:29

Wing Foiling Session - 12/14/2024

The forecast called for wind at Kailua early - I packed up and headed over.

The wind was blowing when I first got there - but I ended up talking too much to the regulars.  In the time I spent socializing, the wind dropped a notch - but it still looked wingable.

I pumped up the North Nova Pro 5.0

And I bolted on the Enduro 900

When I got up on foil, I stayed up.  But if I went down (four times, including the initial launch), it did take some finesse to get back up.

There were some waves - but they did not have a ton of energy in them (save a few on the better sets).

Strong easterly flow.

I got in a bunch of tacks - pretty easy actually with the Enduro 900.

Considering the forecast - this was actually a pretty good session! 

I reallly had to push this foil to get this top speed.  When the wind comes back, I'm going to have to try the Enduro 900 with the HA40 rear stabilizer and see if that unlocks this front foil (speed wise - it is already good at nearly everything else).

W:151/PW:2/FD:89/F:5/S:29

Wing Foiling Session - 12/13/2024

After work session at WPB - I didn't want to pull a solo session at Pavilions and the wind seemed lighter than yesterday.  And the waves were smaller.

And the tide was low.

But I answered the call -

I wanted to be able to get back up on foil if the winds got weak.

I setup No.36 with the Project Cedrus mast and bolted on the Spitfire 840 and P325 stabilizer.

Well - this was a great session!

I was messing up several of the outbound tacks - but I made up for that with the tack off a waves after the ride was done.

Looks like I got another day of near perfect wind - at the right time.

This kinda lays it out the pattern that the Spitfire is not that fastest foil around.  I did pull of some runs with constant wave riding - pure ripping!!!  

I'm debating about dawn patrolling Kailua, or doing a mid day Hickam session...

W:150/PW:2/FD:89/F:5/S:29