Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 10/25/2026

The north winds were blowing this morning.  It was actually 5.0 strong out at the outside breaks (but it was pretty calm on the inside).

The waves were there, but on the outside where you would have thought it would be top to bottom, the waves weren't standing quite as tall as they could have.  And it was a dropping tide as well - quite the conundrum... 

Based on yesterday's conditions, I opted for the AFS Silk 850/USurf 135

I spent most of my session out at 5-O's.  Brent was SUP Foiling out there and I followed.

My Garmin watch had stopped twice during the session - and I don't know how many waves/rides weren't recorded (at least two, maybe up to five).  That means the rest of this data is incomplete.

In fact you can see one of the "forced data fit" straight line mods the app did.

I did pick off one wave that gave me a ride from 5-O's all the way to where I would pick up waves on the inside (super long).

These charts say nine rides - I think I was closer to 15.

Fun session (but yesterday had much more thrilling rides)

PF:11/W:3/PW:131/FD:76/S:27

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 10/24/2026

Dawn patrolled PVs this morning.

There was a northerly wind - so the waves were groomed.

And when the sets came in - they had some energy

Norm and Stu were out on Foil Drives.

Lance and Nick were on SUPs.

I brought out the same gear as yesterday.  The foil position for the Silk 1050 is perfect.

The plan was to run one battery - then go in and put Nick's foil on the board and let him run.

The waves were just overhead.  The swell was coming from the SW and the rights were firing at what I came to found was called "Tree" (the break to the left of PVs - it's what Pat Caldwell calls it).

Nick didn't want to leave Lance's board out alone, so he asked just to get a few runs on the battery I had in place.

He caught 3.5 (one double dip) waves and we swapped back.  I even caught a wave on the SUP 

he was using (haven't done that in years...)

12 rides on the first battery

I followed Norm in because I wanted to trail him going back out.

Which I did (and I also took the time on the way back in to do some soundings to find the potential high spots.

The waves didn't seem to have the same energy over the course of the second battery.  And Stu got his heel cut open (from the foil).

11 rides that second battery.

It was great being out on the water with Lance and Nick again!

Super fun session!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:131/FD:75/S:27

Evening Foil Drive Session - 10/23/2026

And I got an evening session in on Foil Drive.

Waves were much better than this morning.  But the wind - at times - were actually strong enough to parawing....

Oh well -

No.43 with the AFS Skinny mast (75cm), Silk 1050/Usurf 150

I got in a bunch of really good feeling carves on this combo!!!

I used the adjustable alignment custom wing screw wing nuts.

I could definitely feel less drag going through the water - nice add to the equipment list.

Look at those curves!!!!  The Silk 1050/USurf 150 are magic on smaller waves!!!

16 rides in an hour and a half - not the usual take, but there was a lot of discussion between waves.

Fun session!

PF:11/W:3/PW:131/FD:74/S:27

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

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 8/21/2026

Dawn patrol with Stu at Hickam.  Phil was also there - Bill came when we were finished (he did a first session at Bunkers).

Pretty much zero wind, glassy conditions.

Waves were small at Firsts -

Same gear as yesterday - except I used the second can with the blue props (which worked out way better for these shoulder and lower waves)

Stu was trying out his new Silk V2 750 - it looked like it was getting him up faster than the other foils he has been using.

I headed out low and slow - only burned 5% on the way out.

Stupid asshole SUP guys would drop in... jealous fakas -

So - to stop that from happening, I would just head right for them so they knew I was stopping them from dropping in.  I hate it when I have to do things like that - but it's better than getting hurt because someone doesn't know what the other person is going to do.

Besides that, the waves were good fun!

The USS Inouye came back into port - and delivered some decent wake to surf!  I knew it was their wake because the direction was different.

16 rides - but spread out more (1:43)

Off to the Columbia River!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:61/S:25

Evening Foil Drive Session - 8/20/2026

It was small yesterday afternoon - which made the session an exercise in efficient foiling.

Kalani was already out when I got to the parking lot.

Same setup as the recent runs -

The battery on my watch was running low (as my charging cable has not been cooperative) and I think this set of weird data was from the low battery.

Ignoring those straight lines, the session was more like this -

I would probably not even paddled out if I didn't have the foil drive.

But with it, the session was salvaged and I got several really fun waves - with banked turns and rebounds.

Roland and Prayot came out, Scott was out with another prone foiler, and Ben was setting up when I was leaving.

16 rides in an hour!

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:60/S:25

Evening Foil Drive Session - 8/19/2026

La said she wanted to go to the beach today - primarily because her friend and her daughters would be there (and I'm not even second fiddle here...)

I said sure I'd go and brought the Foil Drive with No.43

AFS Enduro 900/Mako Carve 130 on the UHM Skinny 75cm mast

The waves were on the small side.  But if you waited a bit, some decent ones would pull through.

I made sure not to take every wave so not to piss off the surfers.

Robby had come and gone before I headed out.  Roland eventually came out - and after I got in Derek and Ben went out.

I focused on using the cupped wave face as a turning agent and shwacking the tops.  Super fun!

18 rides in an hour!!!!

Fun session!!!

PF:11/W:3/PW:93/FD:59/S:25