Dawn Patrol - 10/12/2026

The surf was just below the closeout size - 

No wind (but it wasn't entirely glassy)

Nice higher tide to dull the edge to the bigger surf.

I brought out the J Splee Big Fish

And I tried out the Neal Purchase tiny canard fins in front of the Futures Rasta Reverse 3/2 Vectors

Lots of energy still coming in - and I could see the outside breaks throwing lip (breaks outside of Campgrounds).  I stayed on the inside of the main break in front of the shack.

I caught a handful of waves (paddling in is HARD) - going right is pure joy!!!

Got to crank some good top and bottom turns (but still haven't unlocked the over rotation move that comes so easy with the Boogie Fish).

I'm glad I surfed today - and I'm even more glad to say I can still surf surfboards!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:125/FD:71/S:26

Dawn Patrol Foil Drive Session - 10/11/2026

Nice swell hitting town this morning!  Surfline was showing 600 kJ in the swell -

I took Stu on to Hickam and Prayot also came out with his SUP.

Same lower as the past couple of days - just swapped boards to No.40 (wanting speed to pick up the larger waves)

So after today's session, I can say the battery wasn't the difference (I used both and had similar results).  The wing screws did have a contributing factor - having used those first, then switching to the nuts only on the battery swap.

The swap back to the blue shim was probably the larger factor in regaining pitch stability and takeoff ease.  And the swap over to the Tweaker rear stabilizer was what gave me the grip in the turns (which is still weird to me).

Anyways -

You had to wait for the swell, but when it came around... Freight Train!!!!!

The east bowl was firing at Seconds today!!!!

These were taken by Peter the lifeguard - but I caught some bigger ones when he wasn't taking pictures

First run was with the regular Max battery and the wing screws (just in case I needed to adjust - which I did once - the original marks seemed to work just fine).

Drops, carves and pit sitting!!!

11 rides (including the ones pictured) on this first battery

I didn't count this as two separate sessions - since they are pretty close together in time and I really didn't change equipment.

Second battery was the High Output

Even more carves!!!!

10 rides this session - and I caught probably one of the best bowling waves I've ever had at Seconds - double overhead and I stalled to stay just in front of the gaping maw - EPIC!!!!

 

The Whippit was confidence inspiring - except when I was driving through whitewater - little flutters, but not surprising (which is where the Silk dominates)

I'm going to let this session sink in a bit (and shift over to shorter sessions surfing).

PF:11/W:3/PW:125/FD:71/S:25 

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 10/10/2026

Dawn patrol at PVs

Slightly overhead on the sets.

Norm and Stu were also on Foil Drive.

Same setup as yesterday - but I made three changes:

1. High Output battery

2. Streamlined bolts

3. Blue shim on the rear stabilizer

Definitely better performance today - the whole setup felt like surfing a shortboard on a perfect wave!

I'm just not sure which change made the most difference...

The HO battery certainly made an endurance difference.

The curvy tracks show how well the Whippit turns.  I really don't know why I didn't gel more with the foil when I first got it???

But from today's performance, I'd say this turns nicer than even the AFS Silk 850.....

The sets had some time between them, but when they came and you picked the right wave - the rides were phenomenal!!!

20 rides - and they weren't all overhead runners either.  I had several chest and belly sized waves where I could carve equally as well as on the bigger waves.

In regards to getting rid of the looser back end feeling I used to have when riding this foil (and the reason I stopped using it) - I'm thinking the Tweaker rear set is helping.

And check out that top speed!!!

Super fun session!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:125/FD:70/S:25

Garage Works - 10/9/2026

This one is getting close to being finished.

I sanded the laps and got two coats of epoxy on the rails.

Tomorrow I'll sand the rails again fairing everything in, and then finish it off with a clear coat.

I should be able to return it on Sunday (or Monday).

That will leave room for me to work on No.45 - a prone/FD foil board that I'll wax the top deck instead of using front foot pads.  It'll have a flat nose and higher tail rocker (similar to No.44 - but cut for prone board dimensions).

Foil Drive Session - 10/9/2026

Decent surf this afternoon, and a nice high tide to boot!

Went out with Stu (AFS Silk 750 V2)

I wanted to try something different - the Cabrinha Whippit 850/Tweaker 160 rear stabilizer on the 390 fuselage.  I used the yellow shim to see if I could get a grippier feeling out of the tail (as compared to the last time I used this while Foil Drive-ing)

It took me the better part of the session to get the feel of this setup.

The yellow shim did make the tail not slip - going to have to continue experimenting with this...

I had the wing screws on to make sure I could adjust the foil position if I needed to - but what I got out of them was more drag.  That coupled with my using by old regular Max battery, I felt like I was not gaining speed on takeoff.

By the end of the session I was using the steeper wave faces to takeoff.  Stu said he saw me taking off at the peak of a good sized one - principle described in motion.

Towards the end of the session I had figured out how high I was up off the water and I could then use that to work out my turns. 

There were some good overhead sets - but placement was pretty crucial today.

17 rides - with the earlier ones being shorter, and the later ones being super long and carvy.

I'll get in a dawn patrol tomorrow on Foil Drive - but also will keep an eye on the wind.  Surfline is calling for parawingable trades to be blowing....

PF:11/W:3/PW:125/FD:69/S:25

Garage Works - 10/8/2026

With all the rain coming down - I was grounded and didn't have distractions.  I've been wanting to get this repair finished.

I got the sand the other rail and cleaned up both rails with acetone (so the epoxy will adhere better).

I also stopped by City Mill and bought some 2" rail tape.

Each rail took 1.4 ounces of mixed epoxy

I'll sand the rails again tomorrow and get a fill coat on.

I should definitely be done with this by this weekend.

I also moved the front bridle lines forward on the BRM S3 5.3, and placed the original harness line back on to the bar.  I didn't take a picture of this.

Lastly I got the Foil Drive mini pod mounted on the Evolution Surf Cedrus mast.  I want to take out the Cabrinha Whippit 850 out tomorrow with the Tweaker 160 rear stabilizer (shimmed more positive to see if I can get a little more "grip" out of the stabilizer.

Rainy days are productive days -

Foil Drive Session - 10/7/2026

I burned a battery today knowing tomorrow is supposed to be pretty stormy.

We had a low tide and some current.  Not intuitive, but a lot of the waves coming through were kinda mushy.  Maybe I was too far out, but there were a lot of surfers in "their" lineup today - so I just kept to myself (and Roland and Ben) over at Foil Drive Country.

Same gear as yesterday - 

This is Roland's setup

There were a lot of clouds moving into the area.  That definitely dampened the wind, but it made foiling harder because I couldn't tell where the water surface was.  I didn't breach, but it seemed like I was going to on a few occassions.

When the waves weren't mushy, they were good and offered some really good carving opportunities.

I got 18 rides from the conditions today.  There are 20 showing - but I know a couple of those were not long at all (as the wave disappeared under my feet). 

Fun session!!!

I'm probably going to take a rest day tomorrow and get the rails fixed on the Gordon's SUP board.

PF:11/W:3/PW:125/FD:68/S:25

Foil Drive Session - 10/6/2026

When I got home from work, I took a power nap to wait for the wind to back off.

I took a little bit too long of a nap -

The tide had dropped considerably and the waves were at the point where they were closing out on the main break.

Norm was out (and on a Jimmy Lewis trench board).  Roland was also out and messing with an Insta360 X5

This was the perfect setup for today's conditions!!!  No.43 with the AFS Silk 850/USurf 135

I had the motor pod setup on the AFS UHM 75 Skinny mast and these were made for each other - super slippery without any weird mast reactions - pure carving with minimal drag 

I had to go far outside (where the big bombs were going off yesterday) in order to takeoff on waves that would carry me for a bit.  If you stayed too far in the waves would be flatter (and you'd waste more battery building up takeoff speed).

I love it when the waves give you a curved section to do a high speed carving turn on - the S turns on these paths were made possible by the energy peaking the waves and the AFS Silk 850 V1

12 rides in 42 that's a wave every 3.5 minutes!!!!

I absolutely love this setup!!!!

Not sure what tomorrow's conditions will be like.  The forecast calls for southerly winds feeding a building low pressure system to the north of the islands - that'll probably mess up the surf along the south shore (but make for epic conditions up at Mokuleia).

PF:11/W:3/PW:125/FD:67/S:25

Garage Works - 10/5/2026

I got one of the rails sanded down on this repair order.  I figured it would be easier to just apply rail tape to the whole rail instead of just addressing the shatter points.

I also sanded several of the bottom deck repairs.  I'm hoping to get this done by this weekend....

The parawing lines keep lifting the corners on this grip tape.  I went ahead and got these tacked back down with 3M 77 

I'll get some more stickers on this board -

Parawing Session - 10/5/2026

The forecasts are saying this is the last of the wind for about 10 days - yup I went out.

The wind was blowing pretty offshore - and it was light.

Same board and foil setup as yesterday.

For power I took the BRM L1 6.5m parawing - and except for one series of gusts, I was good with the 6.5 (and actually could have used a bigger PW).

The wind was too offshore from me to retract this giant PW, so I rode the waves with the PW still pulling.

Prayot was out on his Ozone PRV2 5.0m and he retracted the PW before jibing onto the waves he nabbed.

I got pretty much every jibe done -pretty good considering the light wind.

The more I use the Cabrinha Prestige 905/Union 160, the more I love it!  If I use the AFS foils, I definitely move faster and carve harder - but I can feel it in my knees after,  I don't get that with the Cabrinha foils.  I am tempted to get the new Domani 960 foil because of how the Whippit and Prestige work - faster, faster, faster!!!!

Fun session before the wind-less days are upon us!  Time to charge up the Foil Drive batteries -

PF:11/W:3/PW:125/FD:66/S:25