Evening Foil Drive Session - 9/9/2025

Fol Drive session with Roland, Norm and Stu (Duke prone foiled later).

The wind from Hurricane Kiko was influencing the local weather - swirling wind.

Head high surf on the sets - but pretty full tide.

Same setup as Sunday - but I switched out the HA40 rear stabilizer to the Silk 142.

I didn't scratch the Silk 850 today - I did enough of that on Sunday.  I could still put another coat or two over the badly scratched areas - but for now the repair work is fine.

The tide kept the waves from breaking more consistently on the outside.  But inside - they stood up pretty vertical (super fun to carve up).

I had to do a quick partial charge on my HO battery - so I didn't have the entire battery available.  And I also thought the boost wasn't adjusted for maximum output (from switching between the regular Max battery).  And the last excuse I'll put out there is the Silk 850 vs the Enduro 900 - the Silk picks up steeper waves better, but flatter waves slower.

Went right mostly today to avoid the surfers at Fenceline.

13 rides - and the 142 stabilizer opened up the Silk 850 even more... 

I'm going to have to move the mast back a notch if I'm going to stick with the Silk rear stabilizer (it has more down force than the HA40).

Fun session!!!

W:56/FD:114/PW:31/S:8

Garage Works - 9/7/2025

I got more work done on No.42

Mast track aligned and marked up.

I'll probably route out the slot tomorrow.

And I refined the rocker and the tail volume some more.

It seems more balanced now (but still rearward biased).

And after a lot of wet sanding and 3 fills, I got the Silk 850 back to top hydrodynamic shape.

I could actually put a couple more fills and sand some more... but this is good enough for now.

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 9/7/2025

Foil Drive dawn patrol at PV.  The sets were gnarly!!!!

Conditions were SO GOOD!!!

Swapped out the Enduro 900 for the Silk 850 - fun overload!!!

I used two batteries - first up was the HO

I grounded the foil shortly after flipping the board over (#$@%&33!!!!!)

About 20 minutes in, a bomber set rolled through - ultra clean wrenching waves reeling left

I had some glorious rides!!!  I'm calling them head and half (while up on foil - so double overhead on a surfboard)

14 rides!!!

Swapped out when Stu was swapping batteries.

The swell was more consistent - the tide was dropping.

I predominantly went left (to avoid getting crushed going right).

10 rides on the second battery.  Incredible rides -

And to pay the taxes, I was riding to get in and I guess I didn't realize how much the tide dropped.  I grounded hard while riding and got thrown off the board.

Needless to say I did a bunch of sanding this afternoon.  Oddly enough these did not upset me as much as I think I normally would have been - these "scars" will be a great reminder of the incredible session!

W:56/FD:113/PW:31/S:7

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 9/1/2025

The swell still had some sets coming through, but definitely fading.

The tide was flooding and there was some slight texture on the water this morning (some light wind).  But nothing too bad - still nice conditions.

I changed things up a bit.  No.41 with the AFS Silk 850/HA40.

I set it up with similar spacing that is on No.40

I also tried out a low residue duct tape to hold the ABS sheeting in place to cover the trench.

Norm was the next to arrive.  Jill, Stu, Derek and eventually Marvin were out also.

This was the first time I've had the AFS Silk 850 rigged to No.41

This foil never ceases to amaze me!  Turns were super tight and you can bank (roll, yaw and pitch all at the same time) so nicely -

I took a wave really early inside to make sure the setting didn't have too much front foot pressure - I prefer a progressive liftoff so I can control what's going on when on a steeper wave.

There was one wave (at 33 minutes) - big set wave - I took off but going down the face I had too much speed and my feet were slightly off optimal position - so I bailed.  This is what I am referring to - but for all the other rides I had, which were around head high, this wasn't an issue.

Lots of curves in the GPS tracks - straight from the slashing capabilities of the Silk 850.

There was a hint of excess front foot pressure - but I think I want to swap out the HA40 rear stabilizer for the Silk 42.  I think this will solve the excess initial lift and also increase the already radical banking capability of the front foil.

15 rides today

Super fun session!

W:56/FD:111/PW:29/S:6

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 8/10/2025

Uhhh - it was bigger today

Same gear

Uhhh - it was BIGGER today.

I was already way outside - but twice a set came through that was pitching lip 300 yards further outside.  I tried in vain to motor further inside - but got picked up and thrown anyways.  Probably the biggest I've ever seen WPB.

These were leash breaker sets - probably 6-8' on the back sides.  I think to catch those and ride them (instead of just being along for the ride), you'd need to tow in with a super small foil (Silk 650) and a jetski.

This was one of the medium sized waves I caught.  The big ones were double this. 

Duke and Prayot were out also -

I had a couple of really big rides and several what would normally be huge rides.  I was pretty much just trying not to get smashed.

After catching one and sharing the ride with Prayot (it was a bigger wave), I looked and my battery was getting low enough that I needed to start heading in.

I took that wave all the way in and just beyond where the shortboard line up was, I was in regular overhead.  The waves were so carveable at this point.  I caught a few and foiled in front of Roland (who was surfing).

10 rides this morning.  Today was definitely not about quantity - if you picked wrong you'd have paid the price.

A couple of the spikes around the 55 minute mark was me trying to motor at full throttle further inside to not get eaten by the white water.

Another EPIC day!!!

W:55/FD:103/PW:19/S:4

Epic Foil Drive Session - 8/9/2025

Well the anticipated big south swell hit and did not disappoint!!!

Prayot, Grant, Duke and I were out here.  From shore all you could see were huge pitching waves.

Medium tide so paddling out was not too bad (and I followed Andrew and Dean pretty closely through their secret channel).

The wind was super light through the dawn patrol.

Back on No.40

And to work with the bigger waves and not get into a critical takeoff situation, the AFS Silk 850/HA40 is on deck.

It took a couple of waves to get used to the different feel of the Silk 850 (compared to the Enduro 900/HA40), but after that it was full throttle!

Prayot was on the SUP he recently acquired (low ball special for a unicorn).  He caught a monster and almost got barreled.

Duke caught a couple of big ones, then got cleaned up by the second biggest set of the day.  Grant and I got his board back to him.

Then the biggest set of the day came through more towards Fenceline - Grant picked off one and was screaming for joy the whole ride!  The wave was closing in on triple overhead -

I got some good sized waves and as the session went on and I got refamiliarized with the Silk 850, I started getting some carves in.  But there were a few that were too big and I was going too fast to do anything but make sure I wasn't getting overtaken by a giant section.

11 waves and a few missed waves by both data sets.

Freaking EPIC!!!

W:55/FD:102/PW:19/S:4

Wing Foiling Session - 8/2/2025

The wind forecast called for nuking winds today - and by all accounts it looked like that was going to be the case.  With that - Mark, Norm and I planned to do a downwind run from Sand Island to Pavilions.

Mark had wing issues before launching.  He was the lucky one.

Norm and I made it out past the inside breakers (which were not small)

Then the wind dropped off and we had to bob around out in deep water.

We eventually got up and into some good wind.

There were even some good opportunities to catch and ride some well overhead swell pushing through.

Out around Hau Bush, Norm said his wing was losing air.  I told him I was going to make a beeline for PV and I can drive up and get him.

Getting in at PV turned out to be a mini ordeal for me - I went down for no good reason near the cabins and it took me forever to get back up and finish the run. 

This distance is not a straight line count.

Lots of North in the wind today.  Definitely stronger wind at the outlets of the valleys.

I had fun with the Silk 850 - especially on the big surf parts of the run, but I think the Enduro 900 would have helped me carry through some soft wind spots a little better.

Despite the challenges - this adventure was pretty cool.

W:54/FD:97/PW:18/S:4