Garage Works - 2/16/2026

And I did spend some time in the garage -

I got this new to me DMS Gherkin checked in to the hangar.

This is a super clean 5'8" coming in at 39 liters - a couple of liters above what I normally ride - but I am wanting to see the limits of uber grovellers.

This is a Surftech board - and I haven't owned one of these before.  The previous owner had also put a deck patch on so this should resist deck pressures nicely.

The tail is intriguing -  

I got the base coat and the top coats of wax on.  Never rush this step!!!

And for fins, I moved the Futures Alpha Vector 3/2 quads from the Firewire Sweet Potato.  The fin boxes on the Gherkin are pushed further out to the rails - I'm thinking this will suite a quad set better.

And having moved the fins over to the Gherkin, I went ahead and got the Sweet Potato waxed up and refinned - 

The CI BMT with an added True Ames 2.5" trailer 

I remember absolutely loving how the BMTs worked in this board - so again in the interest of finding what works best for hacking small, mushy waves apart into pure stoke - I'll give this setup a run.

It'll also be interesting to which of these board grovels better for the waves I surf over here.

Parawing Session - 2/16/2026

Went to Hickam again - didn't want to mess with the crowds or the low tide at WPB.

Kalani came with to get more parawing training in.

The wind was really strong -

The was a first for me - parawinging on No.40 (although I think I have PW'd this board before...)

And even more firsts - I set up the Enduro 1100/HA40 (on this board... I'm pretty sure that was a first).

I opted to go with a single PW - and with the texture over the water, I packed the BRM Maliko 4.0

This session I wanted to focus on getting the feel for this board-foil combo, as I want to use this more over at WPB.

Needless to say, this combo goes -

You can see there were a few lulls where I basically drifted out to the furthest wind line.  But the rest of the session I was cooking (overpowered and on the verge of disaster)

I also wanted to practice my tacks.  Once I get these committed to muscle memory I want to incorporate them into my transitions onto waves over at WPB.  I was able to get them heel and toe side while using the Flysurfer POW 5.0 - but the smaller parawings travel much faster and that is causing trouble for me.

These gusts would transform the harbor from bumpy to swell building.  And just managing the parawing and not getting pulled off the board was the focal point -

Corroborating the graphs, the Maliko 4.0 needs 20mph to get me up on foil. 

I actually think this is one of those days that I could have brought 3 parawings and then I would have been covered (2.9, 4.0 and 4.8/5.1)

Although I did not ride out of the tack attempts I made, I at least got the board through the turns.

And I have a higher degree of confidence on the setup I brought out (which should give me more options on the daily WP runs).

PF:2/W:2/PW:13/FD:15/S:8

Winging Session - 2/15/2026

I wanted to get some of the newer foils lined up on No.39 and No.40

And the fastest way to do that is on wing.

And committing to a testing day, I asked Kalani and Stu of they wanted to go.

Here's the truck loaded up with three dudes worth of gear.

I started with No.39 and the Enduro 1100/HA40 (short fuselage), then switched to the Silk 1050/HA40 (on the standard fuselage).

The engine of choice was the North Nova Pro 5.0

The wind was up and down - but with a wing you can pull yourself up onto foil way easier (I forgot how well wings do this).

I put the foil through its paces and went through all the transitions in quick succession.

You can see the "knots" in the track where I was tacking and jibing in quick succession.

The foil was positioned well on the first pass.

I went in and switched over to the Silk 1050/HA40 (had to remove the Silk 850 from the standard fuselage, and add the HA40 from the Enduro 1100 setup)

Basing the positioning from the Enduro 1100 and Enduro 900, I positioned the Silk 1050.  I got the spacing on this correct as well.

The Silk felt pretty good where it was positioned.

I went in because the wind died (rain came in).

I was going to be done, but Stu asked if I wanted to try using the PPC M1 6.0

I said yes, so I set up No.40 with the Enduro 1300/HA43 (to confirm the positioning, I could then use the settings from No.39 to get the E1100 and S1050 settings laid out).

It's been a while since I've used a wing this big - lots of power.  Handling during the transitions required some exaggeration to make sure the wind didn't catch the wing incorrectly.

But I got up on foil long enough to make an adjustment, and confirm the mark on the board was for the E1300.

The wind shown below was from the airport station - it was much lighter than this at Hickam.

So with all this testing today, I got 3 foils positioned on 2 boards - all for being able to use these boards and foils with parawings.

Fun session today!!!

PF:2/W:2/PW:12/FD:15/S:8

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 2/14/2026

I took Marlon to the airport this morning, then headed out for the dawn patrol.  The wind did not settle out last night and the ocean was pretty choppy.

I got the KT board back to Kalani.  He set up the longer KT for FD and was using the 1075 foil. 

In the interest of seeing what is possible, I bolted on the AFS Ultra HA750 with the UGlide 41 rear stabilizer.  I did move the assembly forward a notch to where I thought the foil should be located.

This session was challenging with the chop.  And the wind really ramped up to make it harder.

But after the first few rides, I moved the foil forward and everything felt right.

The Ultra 750 is fast - 

But it has a higher degree of stability in that it wants to go in one direction - fast.  I didn't have a problem turning it, it was more that it preferred to move fast downstream of the energy source (wave).

Even on the GPS track, you can see it is not as smooth as the Enduro 900 or the Silk 850

15 rides (some pretty long considering the conditions)

The whole time I was out, I kept wondering if I had a parawing, could I get up on foil with the smaller board and the drag of the FD system...

PF:2/PW:12/FD:15/S:8

Garage Works - 2/13/2026

When I got home, I had enough sunlight to get this board modification/repair over the finish line.

I got the tail repair and the window mod up at the nose sanded and sprayed.

I'll get this back to Kalani tomorrow morning. 

Now on to Roland's board...

Parawing Session - 2/13/2026

Got off work, headed home, loaded up the parawinging stuff and headed to the beach.

It was whitecapping when I got there -

Prayot was out (but oddly not on foil??? - foreshadowing).

AFS Enduro 1300/HA43 on the UHM 80cm mast bolted on to No.34

What I should have done was packed two parawings - a 5m and a 4m

But I was hopeful on the side of strengthening winds (based on the forecast) and I went out on the BRM Maliko 4.0 

This beautiful woman was taking lots of pictures!

Lots going on here -

It actually took a bit before I got a gust strong enough to get me on foil - yup, as soon as I hit the water the wind dropped.  The opposite of what was forecasted - but I blame the clouds.

Once I was up, I was able to pull pretty hard upwind and made it back past the launch point.

Paul Cooper was out on wing -

I rode a couple of waves with the PW doused.  It was the second one that ended my session - I wasn't able to redeploy the PW after the wave was fizzling. 

If I had a 5.0 I would have been able to swap and get riding again.  Instead, I drifted while waiting for a gust.

The Maliko 4.0 needs whitecaps for sure.

I drifted past the last cabin into Campgrounds.  I figured I should cut my losses - and paddled back to above Fenceline

Along the way, I got into the breakers out in front of the Cabins.  I missed standing up on one that I caught, but I did ride the next one.  This is probably the third time I've been able to prone foil this board and foil.  Back in the day I was prone foiling on really big foils - this is really small in comparison to those - but it somehow feels almost too big. 

I caught up with Roland who was also down on the water waiting for a gust.  He did get up on foil - I headed in all tuckered out from the long paddle.

And I saw this guy in the parking lot!!!

Fun day despite the challenges!

PF:2/PW:12/FD:14/S:8

Rest Day and Garage Works - 2/12/2026

I decided to take a rest day - but I still went to the beach (and with a surfboard) just to check it out.

Roland was out on wing and Prayot was out on parawing.

Kalani was ground handling the Triple 7 PT Skin 7.3

He let me try it out and it flew just like the PT Skin 5.4

Roland got a chance to fly the Ozone and Kalani's BRM Maliko 5.1

This was Prayot's setup - AFS Silk 1050 - and he was using his Ozone Pocket Rocket 4.3

I don't know how he is able to get up on foil with a much smaller foil and parawing... but he does have a much longer, higher volume board.

And before I went to the beach, I did address the tail repair on Kalani's new KT board.

I should be able to clear this one from the garage by tomorrow afternoon.

And tomorrow afternoon, I should be parawinging!

Garage Works - 2/11/2026

And when I got back home, I worked on the projects on the rack.

First up was sanding down the signal window fills.  Here they are nicely sanded down and slightly below the surrounding area.

And here are the patches 

And here is everything epoxied in.

Tomorrow I get this modification faired in and then start on the laminate crack on the tail end of the bottom deck.  I'm trying to get this back to Kalani by Saturday morning.

And with the little bit of epoxy left over, I added a little more fill to the seam side of the footstrap insert reinforcement blocks.

As soon as I've gotten Kalani's board back to him, I'll start cutting open Roland's board to get these inserts placed.