Garage Works - 1/17/2026

I recently sold one of my 5'6" Sweet Potato boards so I could pick up this Machadocado.

I cleaned up the board of wax and the deck pad from the previous owner.

Then I got this Firewire 2+1 deck pad placed on.  I kept it under the soft dive weights for several hours to make sure it has a good start in it service life.

Same liters as the Sweet Potato, but 4" longer.

The bottom contours remind me of the Seaside and Beyond - just more extreme.

The tail is really thin on this board - should make things really interesting.

I also cleaned up a Dakine 6'0" thruster board bag, and got the Hayden Shapes Hypto Krypto nicely tucked away in it (no pictures of this).

Then I cleaned up the fill on No.43, did the last of the fine sanding, taped over the track slots and cut the reinforcing carbon tape.  I was going to laminate the board today, but decided on cooking dinner instead. 

And while cooking dinner, I took the opportunity to put together the Zip Pod I got for the Evolution Cedrus Surf mast.

I'll test it tomorrow morning to see how it feels compared to the regular Foil Drive mast pod.

Working on these projects is pretty darn therapeutic.

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 1/17/2026

Dawn patrolled with the Foil Drive today - 

Nice high tide, light offshore (but COLD) wind, but small waves

On the drive in, the truck's thermometer read 55 degrees - BRRRRRR!!!!

I wore a long sleeved shortie and I was still cold.

I used No.39 today to get up on foil faster - otherwise everything was the same as usual.

The rides in general were shorter today.  Taking what I've learned from surfing shortboard, focus on what is in front of you and you'll have a great time (don't worry about what is beyond that).

I actually had some great turns on pop up sections!

What did make it hard to focus was the cold air temps.

Stu, Andrew, Noel (on prone foil drive), Kalani, Dennis and Ben were all out.

19 rides

There was some wind in the wingable range - which made it even colder.

And a couple of whales were breeching - pretty cool!

PW:5/FD:5/S:4

Parawing Session - 1/16/2026

Got to the beach and Derek was doing a surf check while Roland was debating what he was going to do today (wing or Foil Drive)

There was wind on the outside - which was probably good since the tide was low.

Crew setting up - Derek on tow boogie and Roland on Foil Drive.

Standard fare for me - with the exception of swapping out the main star -

The wind was way up on the gusts and the lulls were below the threshold.

But I did manage to up and riding without too much drama or downwind drift.

Shifty, hole-y wind....

Sometimes from the north, sometimes seemed like from normal trades.

I was having a hard time jibing today - might be the fact that I haven't flown this parawing in a bit.  Could also be the wind (lack of).

Not as consistent as yesterday - but still fun to be out in the water watching Derek and Roland rip it up!

Good session!

PW:5/FD:4/S:4

Parawing Session - 1/15/2026

The front that was pushing the rain and south winds passed today - and right after the winds were strong out of the NW.

I hit Kailua to get some gear to Nick (who is back on island visiting).

He was winging with the North Mode Pro 6.8

I put up the BRM Maliko 5.1 and setup the standard gear.

Really fun session!

Reverse Kailua - everything felt like it was WP (outbound tack port).

Not a ton of large waves to ride - but the swell that was there would shoulder up and you could get a good turn on it.

This is a pretty rare event - the wind almost never blows from this direction.

I could have been on a 4.0 PW...

I only went down once.

And there were a few times where I didn't want to go down (coral head garden).

It was good foiling with Nick again!

PW:4/FD:4/S:4

Garage Works - 1/15/2026

I cleaned up the glue from around the insert reinforcement blocks that I installed yesterday.

And then I routed out the slot for the inserts.  Good fitment all around.

Then I figured I should fill the voids around the mast track block.  Epoxy and glass balloons.

This is the gouge at the nose - all filled in now.

I also filled in spots where the EPS beads broke free - there weren't many, but it is good to take away reasons for laminating resin moving around.

You can also see the fill at the mast track block.

And lastly, I used pliers and a file to prepare the inserts themselves.

I was going to epoxy these in place today - but I figure I can spread out the work over the long weekend.

Skunked and Garage Works - 1/14/2026

Straight south wind this afternoon.  When it is straight onshore, or straight offshore, it gets hard to gauge the wind strength.

And you also have to pay attention to how close (or far) you are from shore.

There was actually plenty of wind.  I was optimistic and packed the Maliko 4.0 and the Ka'a 4.8.

I bolted on the Enduro 1100/HA40 (there was plenty of wind right???) on to No.40

I could not get up on foil - too choppy, too aggressive a foil (damn me!!!), and wishy-washy wind.  I drifted down from PV and landed at CG.

Oh well - skunks happen.

After that I still actually had some sunlight when I got home.  I went ahead and routed out the insert slots.

And I went ahead and got them glued in.

Tomorrow I'll rout out the slots for the inserts and get them epoxied in.  I'll also placed some fill around the cap block seams (and fill in the blank ding on the starboard nose)

I took the next couple of days off - Nick Yamodis is in town.

I should also try to finish this board...

Evening Session - 1/12/2026

There was a decent north wind blowing - strong enough to parawing/wing, but when I checked out the conditions after work, the wind line was pretty far out (and the tide was getting silly low).  I opted to do some much needed yard work and to check the conditions later.

After mowing the yard, the wind did actually strengthen, and the wind line did get closer to shore - but I didn't have a lot of time.  I grabbed the Sweet Potato (Volcanic - I sold the Helium 2 one yesterday) with the Alpha Vector 3/2 quad set. 

Marlon came with and brought his longboard.  He got several good waves (easier to paddle in board).

I got three - and they were mostly straight runs.  It was nice just to get in the water.

Roland was out on Foil Drive testing out the Vyper 150 for FD.

Hopefully the wind starts to lineup to allow some parawinging -

PW:3/FD:4/S:4

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 1/11/2026

Dawn patrolled on the Foil Drive again this morning.

Same gear as yesterday.

The waves were smaller than yesterday.  But if you patiently waited, some decent waves rolled through on the sets.

There was only really one takeoff spot this morning - out in front of the rental shack.  I was pretty far out so I wasn't competing with any SUPs or longboarders when catching waves.  And as I got closer to the lineups, I hopped out the back and let everybody get their share.

15 rides today.  That's really good considering the conditions.

Foil Drive definitely has it's place in the tool box.  I'm glad to have other tools to make best use of the presented conditions - but thank goodness for the Foil Drive!

PW:3/FD:4/S:3

Garage Works - 1/10/2026

I did some measuring for the footstrap placement today.

The inserts need to be 8" from respective hole to hole in order to have my foot fit through the strap.

Trying to decide where my feet will go and where I want to added flexibility - that is always the hard part.

I spent the second half of the day with La and the kids, and then with just La so I didn't get to the work I wanted to on the board.  I'll get to this over the next few days.

This and I did pick up some more epoxy and a vent yesterday - and I did check on the carbon I already have.  If I get motivation - I can get this finished quickly.

And then I can start working on converting the short board I have into a tow boogie -

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 1/10/2026

Used the Foil Drive on this morning's dawn patrol.

Waist to Chest high waves on the sets.

Medium tide (but still managed to scratch up my feet)

Light offshore wind.

I didn't have much time today - La wanted to do our pictures.

But in doing the standard meet and greets, the battery had been idle for too long and the throttle wasn't registering.  I had to paddle back in and dismantle the system to redo the battery.  That killed a lot of time (I was using the trench board).

Kalani, Dennis, Ben, Andrew, Makana, John, Scott, Derek and Brent were all out on foil, with Roland coming out later.

I was pretty hard on the throttle with the short time line.

The waves were smooth and if you picked the right one, offered some steeper faces.  With the smoother surface, I could more easily dig/lean into my turns.  Marlon said I was turning with the tips breaking the surface.

I'm guessing 13 waves -

PW:3/FD:3/S:3