Evening Sessions - 1/31/2025

This was yesterday afternoon's session.

Residual swell from the storm (but quickly dropping).

Decent tide - lightish winds.

Norm has FD'd Pavilions earlier - said it was not organized at all.  Fenceline looked much better - but smaller.

Same gear - 

The rides were much better than I would have thought looking at the waves on the beach.

The waves had energy in them - enough to crank really fun turns and make long runs.

I'll call this 16 rides which is ridiculous based on the hour I was out.  But as long as the wind is not creating chop, this is possible.

Foil Drive saves the session yet again!!!  And it didn't hurt that the waves were decent (for this time of year).

Rolad was out on his prone gear, and it looked like Prayot was also out (but the person I am presuming to be Prayot had a red board).

W:8/FD:20/PW:1

Evening Session - 1/29/2025

This was yesterday's session.  Hit WP with Norm.  FD.

It was pretty darn small...

And there was a building onshore breeze (front end of the cold front coming through)

At least the tide was above 0.7'  

Same gear - no surprise.

And the air temp and water seemed colder to me - likely the cloudy conditions.

I was heavy on the throttle - since I was out with Norm (he and Marvin efoiling makes their sessions last around 45 minutes - compared to Kalani and Dennis on their SUP foils lasting around 2 hours).

I only had a handful of good rides.  Most waves I caught would fizzle out with not much length to them.

I'd say I got six notable rides out on the lot shown below - looks are deceiving in this instance.

Storm's a coming - time to rest!

W:8/FD:19/PW:1

Garage Works - 1/29/2025

I got the final sanding in today.  I also got the clear coat on - 

So this board is ready to go back to its owner (Scotty)!

Garage Works - 1/28/2025

This first picture is from yesterday where I placed the fill coat on the modified area,

And this evening I routed out the slots and rough sanded the modified area.

All that's left on this one is more sanding and spraying the clear coat on.

Out of curiosity, I'm going to take this one out for a spin tomorrow on the wing! 

Evening Session - 1/28/2025

Shifty winds this afternoon = Foil Drive session.

Small waves, medium tide at 0.7'

Marvin and Norm were out also.

Everyone was on their normal gear.

Except I switched to the Magic Hub - just to remember what characteristics it has.  Those would be more torque and less top end speed.  Basically I need to remember this would be best for bigger waves.

Not bad run time - considering I was trying to mix in efoiling between waves.  I still feel more comfortable with my normal mode (lower throttle, prone - then gun it to catch waves).

There were some fun waves mixed in with the small stuff (where you were just trying to keep moving).

A few of these I was able to get some good turns in.

I'll call this 18 rides - but a couple of handful of these were just pickups and pumps. 

Always fun on the Foil Drive!!!

W:8/FD:18/PW:1

Wing Foiling Session - 1/27/2025

The wind was blowing hard while I was driving home.  Norm texted that he was planning on winging over at Paviliions.

I had not planned on winging today - so when I got to the beach, I was scrambling to get everything set up - the wind was strong, but winds more often than not tend to break down the closer you get to dusk so time was limited.

I opted for a higher wind foil and board, and a larger wing - to make sure I could get up on foil in the case of lighter winds.

And I brought out the GoPro 12 mounted on the strut to see what the wide angle lens could capture.

Having the AFS Silk 850 out, I did not want to ground at all - so it took me a while to get past the shallow spots.  After that, with the North winds - the runs were nearly parallel to the beach. 

On the first run, I made it out past Fenceline.  I had to stay further outside to keep in the cleaner wind.

I rode some waves and headed back over to Pavilions - just to make sure I wouldn't have to swim back... the wind was strong, but not without holes.

It's hard to rig for days like this.  The North Nova Pro handled it, but I wonder of the Mode Pro 4.8 would have been better...

The Silks aren't known for their speed, and the waves today were getting blown nearly flat - I think I would have been better off with the SK8750???

I could sense the wind weakening so I headed in.  Any session where you don't have to paddle in is a great one!

W:8/FD:17/PW:1

Garage Works - 1/26/2025

And while La was sewing upstairs, I worked on my current project.

I sanded the epoxy and the track boxes flat.

Then I taped the boxes and cut out the reinforcing cap sheet (thanks the La for letting me use her rotary cutter - I'm going to have to get one of those.

And here is the patch laminated on.

This is an 8.9 ounce patch - pretty thick as far as laminates go.

I used 4.9 x2 ounces of epoxy.  The first 4.9 ounces went on the wet out the carbon.  Then I added the second batch to make sure everything was saturated. 

I'll sand the edges to feather them in.

I'll go back and add another fill coat - this time just enough epoxy.

Lastly I'll route out the slots and fit test.

If I work on it tomorrow, I should be finished by Wednesday. 

Evening Session - 1/26/2025

I went with La to Waimanalo this morning to look at plants that we will likely be purchasing in the near future to redo our yard.  She was also going to go over to KYC to help out with an event - and Marlon wanted to check out the surf shops so he headed out to Kailua.  They did a high 5 to swap me out and then I found myself in a position to get a second session in.

Same gear - I didn't break it down from this morning.

Marvin and Norm were in the parking lot when Marlon and I pulled up.

The waves were still there - and the tide was lower than this morning's session.  This was one of Marlon's pictures!

The wind was a little stronger, and it was blowing offshore so it slowed you down (going right) - but with the lower tide, there was more workable face (which is a relative term - I don't think surfers could have been on these waves).

You can see somewhat of a pattern.  What I like the most was the length of the rides this afternoon

And just when you think you broke a record, you can quickly do it again.  This session was way shorter, but I rode 16 long waves.  It felt like I was in constant motion.

I ended up with a short session because the charge on my remote ran dry.  I think I stretched the charge out over 4 sessions.

Super fun day!!!

W:7/FD:17/PW:1

Dawn Patrol - 1/26/2025

Dawn patrolled this morning with the Foil Drive setup.

Dean was there this morning, and he said it was definitely better this morning than yesterday morning.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it - 

I did check out the app again, and my system now is updated (and it does have the chirp function).

The tide was high this morning - so launching and landing was easy.

I had a time limit this morning so I was pretty heavy on the throttle.

With the smooth surface conditions this morning, long rides were the theme.

Dennis was out on his smaller KT prone foiling.  And he was efoiling (like everyone else - I'm quickly turning into the only person that doesn't regularly do it). 

And the waves were tightly packed together - short period.  That meant tons of rides - in fact I got 18 rides in an hour.  Probably the most rides per unit time that I've gotten to date.

And leaving earlier than I normally would, I don't think I missed much - the waves were starting to back off.  Perfect timing!!!

W:7/FD:16/PW:1

Wing Foiling Session - 1/25/2025

I had planned on winging today, but the forecasts got revised with lower winds.  I went ahead and started charging my Foil Drive battery and then the trees started moving.

I figured the waves were small and there would be fishermen on the shore - and I went ahead and drove to Hickam.  It looked like the wind was going to stick around, but it would be light.

I set up the current light wind equipment - Nova Pro 5.0, KT Dragonfly and the AFS Enduro 1300.

I also bolted on the North Shiftlock Camera Mount.

Side note - I couldn't get the GoPro Hero or the 12 to power up - I think I'll have to charge the cameras up right before using them.  They may be smart batteries (and self discharge if not used to preserve the health of the battery).

Any ways - the mount is pretty cool and I didn't feel the weight of the camera.

The picture is the back half of a heel side tack 

The session started out well - I made a bunch of runs and transitions despite the lower wind levels - this equipment is good for wind in the 10ish to 15 mph winds.  Just need a puff to get up off the water.

Unfortunately, the wind dropped out and I spent most of the session waiting for that puff to get up.

Pretty tight correlation between the wind speed and my speed.

I'm glad I did get up on foil, got some miles in and got to try out the camera mount.  Despite the long back half, today was good training (for the parawing - the more I know how to coax this board up on foil, the better it work for me when parawinging).

W:7/FD:15/PW:1

Garage Works - 1/25/2025

I got the boxes epoxied into place this morning.

I used fins to make sure the boxes lined up.

Lined up

And lined up

I'll let the epoxy harden overnight.  Then I sand the area that will be under the carbon cap sheet, tape up the boxes, and laminate the carbon on.

While waiting on the epoxy to harden, I also tuned in this fin.  The base pin wasn't allowing the fin to sit correctly in any box.  I filed the pin back -

And now it fits!

If this one works nicely, I'll probably order the thruster set.