Parawing Session - 8/30/2026

I hit WPB in the late afternoon.

Whitecaps were blowing when I pulled up to the parking lot.

And there were chest high waves breaking!

AFS Silk 1050/152/80cm UHM mast bolted onto No.44

With the whitecaps, I packed the BRM S3 4.2

This was a very good session.

Got up on foil easy and took off on some larger waves - maybe head high and rode those with the parawing retracted.  I think I got three long rides with successful redeploys.

After initially taking off - I stopped and shifted the mast back - the Silk 1050/152 was perfect after that. 

Some waves I just drifted the parawing -  

There were some ups and downs - so I would just wait for the gusts.

Roland came out a lot later.  He had the Foil Drive again.  I needed to go some errands and work around the house, so I caught a gust and a wave, fully stashed the parawing and rode the wave in (with a fair bit of pumping).

There should be similar wind the next few days (before the next Hurricane starts to influence the weather).

PF:11/W:3/PW:102/FD:61/S:25

Moving West - Day Three

Looking at the forecasts on Monday morning, the wind had turned easterly, and their was hope that on the western side of the gorge there would be rideable conditions.

We stopped at Viento State Park (Oregon) - and there was wind.

There was also a bunch of other people all looking for the same thing - on a Monday morning!  There were a lot of wind-foilers and more kiters than I thought could launch from such a small takeoff spot.

And the wind and current were aligned - so conventional wisdom took over (stay up wind).

Last session (for a while) on No.34

I used the Silk 1050 and BRM S3 5.3 to make sure I didn't drift downwind.

This was a surprisingly fun session.  Not much wave action, but being surrounded by a bunch of like minded individuals was pretty cool.

This is Nick's GoPro shot of me (upper right hand corner).

The gorge walls were much steeper here - no real downwind recovery - so no margin for error.

The wind had a bit of up and down - but it was good fun.

The guys said it was time to keep moving west -

And they were right as the wind started to drop

PF:11/W:3/PW:98/FD:61/S:25

We drove through Portland to head over to Manzanita Beach out on the Oregon Coast.

The drive over was nice (tight winding road - not so good for dragging a camper trailer through, but beautiful old growth pine trees).

When we got to the beach, the wind was strong and side onshore from the NW.  But the water was cold - too cold for my 3/2.  And I didn't necessarily want to get the gear all salty again so I passed on this session.

This is Kevin on a 7m Cabrinha Drifter, and Nick and Dennis on 5.5 wings.  They both said they should have been on 4.2 wings and Kevin said he was good.

This made me want to kite on a directional in surf again...

Nice group to foil with!!!

At this point La and Teresa picked me up and we headed back north!

Awesome first trip to the Gorge and the Oregon Coast!!!!

Late August Gorge Trip - Day Two

This was the beginning of Day Two.

Wind was still up from the previous day, but it was forecasted to drop off.

Dennis and Kevin checking the conditions -

I took out the same setup from yesterday as the wind was still up.  And again the BRM S3 3.4 was perfectly powered.

Headed downwind a bit more than yesterday afternoon - but honestly the waves were best up towards the campsite.

I didn't stash the parawing much this session - the waves were too short and only in the couple of spots today that it didn't make sense to take it down.

Dennis mid-tack.

The wind got really strong so I went in for a break.  The launch-landing spot was so easy (not as easy as Hickam - but pretty close).

After snacks, I headed back out but switched to the Silk 1050/152.

I got up and had some rides, but the wind started to fall off so I went in - twice - to size up the parawing.  But in both cases (4.2 then the 5.3), it was too little too late.

We broke down camp and prepared to head off west in the morning.

Pretty incredible that the wind can be nuking in the morning, then glassy a few hours later.

The camp site was really nice - clean bath house, no bugs, nice quiet location - made me really miss the Trail Manor.

PF:11/W:3/PW:97/FD:61/S:25

Parawing Session - 8/14/2026

This is out there... so the surf will soon turn to shit (along with a lot of wind and rain).

When I got to the beach, Zach was breaking his windsurfing gear down, and Mark was outside winging.

The wind was up or down.

The waves were pretty big on the sets (well overhead - maybe head and a half...)

At least the tide was high and that made for less worrying about grounding.

I setup the AFS Silk 1050/152 on the 80cm UHM mast.

No.34 (maybe the last time I use it in Hawaii...)

Powered by the BRM S3 5.3

The wind was side off - and you had to go out to get away from the smashing breakers and into the wind line.

Most of the riding was done way outside in the blue water.

I managed to get two retracted PW rides - both long and well powered by overhead walls.

Way up or way down -

And I was either up and going, or down and waiting for the next gust.

Fun session - especially since I didn't get smashed!

I may try and get a surf session in at the dawn patrol... before Hurricane Lala starts negatively influencing the conditions.

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:58/S:24

Parawing Session - 7/31/2026

Strong winds today!!!

But the same thing that happened yesterday started to happen again (wind drop before I paddle out).

I did not trust the wind so I brought both the S3 5.3 and the 4.2

Kalani only brought his 4.3 - he got up pretty fast, and I was overpowered on the 5.3 (and almost immediately stowed it and brought out the 4.2)

Trying to make sure I have the Silks dialed in for the upcoming Gorge trip!

Silk 1050 with the 152 rear stabilizer.

Today was actually really good for riding powered, jibing and retracting, riding with no wind power, and trying to redeploy.

I was batting maybe 50% on the redeploys - but Prayot said he was getting 90%.

More east in the wind!!!  And not as much swirling (still some).

The waves were chest to just overhead on the sets.  I think we all caught a few bombs each.  The Silk 1050 is so forgiving - and rips so hard at the same time!!!  When the faces have some steepness, the Silks are it!

I actually could have used a 3.4 (which I just received from BRM today - I'll definitely try it tomorrow).

The falls were almost all botched redeploys.  I am working on how to manage the lines after initial takedown.  Once I get that squared away, my redeploys should be much better.

I'm just happy to get the super fun, uber long prone rides (without paddling to get into the wave)!!!

Smaller foils and smaller parawing testing tomorrow!!!

PF:10/W:3/PW:87/FD:57/S:20

Parawing Session - 7/19/2026

I've grown tired of the up-down/swirly wind runs of late.  I've been looking at the airport anemometer readings and the direction seems to be a little more stable.

I had to stop into work anyways, so I did a Hickam session

And since I was at Hickam, I figured I'd work on dialing in the Silk 1050 and getting the Flysurfer POW V2 sorted out.

I started with the Silk 1050/152 and the BRM S3 5.3

I kept the mast in the same position to see how the foil behaved in flat water.

The wind - better than what I've been parawinging in - still had holes and swings.

The S3 did get slightly overpowered once, and twisted me off the board three times.  But each outing under these conditions is helping me to develop a coping mechanism (what that is I don't know yet - maybe use the Foil Drive and screw the parawing). 

The 1050 seems to need more runway (or board speed) to get up on to foil.

But there was plenty of wind (even if in spurts) that I headed out to Firsts.

There were a couple of surfers out at Seconds so I stayed away from there.

This was the part of the session that the direction swings made riding difficult.

Even if the meter read east, the wind felt totally offshore outside.

And it was strong, so I headed back in to swap foils and parawings.

On the inside, I botched and tack and moved the mast forward to see the difference.  The balance point was obviously different, but it was definitely over the nice balance point.

I'll drop it back again next time - I think the real issue is the quality of the wind we've been getting (sucks).

I'm calling this two sessions because I changed up the foils.  The Enduro 1100 got up faster, and I started with the Flysurfer POW V2

Lots of chatter on the web says "the Flysurfer POW V2 4.0 pulls like a 5.0" - I do not agree with that assessment.  It pulls like a 4.0 to me.

It also seems to power up when pointing more downwind (30 to 40 degree off the beam) with a smaller sweet spot.

Where this parawing absolutely shines is in transitions - it tacks so easy and jibes are no brainers.

Once up and running, it is stable (still has some jitters, but is fine) and you don't need much wind to stay up on foil.

With more time with this parawing and figuring out where it powers up, this should be an awesome surfing parawing!

I could feel the wind starting to slow down so I called it.

So I definitely had a less frustrating time today, but I'm really going to have to work out jibing the S3 when the wind turns north...

PF:9/W:3/PW:81/FD:53/S:20

Parawing Session - 7/18/2026

Norm, Stu and I did the WP to -

PV run yesterday.

The wind looked really good, but that was at the ends.

There were some good sets coming through also.

I took out the same setup as the past couple of days.  I also brought both the BRM S3 5.3 and the Flysurfer POW V2 4.0

Norm brought his Ozone PR 5.0 and the 777 PT Skin 7.2

Hard to trust the wind this summer.... (foreshadowing) 

The wind was switching directions and up-down the whole way.  I paddled out and put up the Flysurfer.  Launching took a while because the wind was slightly less than what I needed to get up, but once up I immediately caught a head high wave, retracted the PW and scored a really good ride.  The Silk 1050 is pretty darn good in this application (but I'm wondering if I could still optimize the position).

At this point I was at the Cabins and the edge of the dead zone.

The wind would actually go dead and the parawing would fall out of the sky.  What was really frustrating here was the direction shifts.

You can see I would get up onto foil, then suddenly stop - that was the wind shifting while I was trying to jibe (and then getting field stripped off the board). 

At Campgrounds the wind filled in better and I was able to get up and stay up (and turn without the PW twisting on me).

Needless to say this was pretty frustrating.

I did line up with a macker wave at PVs - well overhead and a deep pocket that I just sat in - so awesome!!!  Again - the Silk 1050 V1 for the win!!!!

PF:9/W:3/PW:79/FD:53/S:20