Thursday, January 11, 2024

Wing Foiling Session - 1/11/2024

Challenging conditions today.  It ramped up from the west and was fairly strong.  By the time I showed up, Matt (from Hickam) and Norm were out and they were powered up.

I had high expectations of getting nuked and riding fully lit up.  I pumped up the SW2 4.2 and setup No.32 with the Spitfire 840/350P

But as I was finishing my setup, both Matt and Norm had come in.  They both saw the squall (that hit while I was setting up) and knew the wind would drop off for a bit immediately after the dark clouds passed.

This picture was taken when I first got there.

The wind did pick up again, but it had swung more northerly and dropped a notch in intensity.  I chanced it and went ahead and paddled out.


The wind eventually got strong enough to wing on the gear I had - but it was up and down.

With the wind completely opposite of what it normally blows, I've been reluctant to tack (don't want to fall and have to deal with getting back up; and my brain is confused about the muscle movements since everything is backwards), so I've just been jibing.  But with the Spitfire 840, I can roll way easier than any other foil and it is so much more fun to turn.


Waves were hard to come by - it was mostly hunting for bumps and milking as much as you could get (it is winter... I'm just glad there are bumps!) 


Short session - just enough to tickle the adrenal gland and move the counter.


Even with the smaller wing and the flukey wind, I managed to eek out a decent session.  It was just hard to make out the waves from the background.  


Pretty chaotic.


I'm calling it 50-50 today.


I didn't get blown down towards Hau Bush, didn't have to paddle in, and I didn't break any gear.  Let's call today a win!!!

W:4/F:4/S:0



No comments: