Parawing Session - 3/8/2026

Dawn patrolled again out at Kailua - that stretch of coast was the only spot with strong usable wind.

That's Mike in the picture taking anemometer readings - good strong wind (but not as blustery as yesterday)

I downsized board and foils - AFS Enduro 1100/HA40 and No.40

I also downsized on the parawing - BRM Maliko 4.0

Stu was out - downsized to a 4.2 wing.  Kalani was out on the same gear (but eventually switched out to a longer fuselage and a surf rear stabilizer).

With the strong, relatively steady wind, the Maliko 4.0 was perfect!  No.40 and the Enduro 1100 were perfect also -

The waves at Jump City were awesome!  I stashed on a few and the rides were fun going right - where with a wing I'd have to carry the wing when the apparent wind drops off - with the parawing I just retract and go. 

The wind dropped off the second half of the session and I got stuck (and couldn't get back up on foil) - I had to do a short walk of shame.

If I had packed the Maliko 5.0, I think I would have been able to keep on going.  I should make a habit out of packing a second wing...

In preparation for the new season parawings being released, I have been trying to sell off the non-Maliko V1 parawings.

Yesterday I sold the Ka'a 3.6 (and maybe the Ka'a 4.8) and the Flysurfer POW 5.0

This will allow me to get the Vayu Pyro!  And maybe one of those snazzy new AFS Silk V2 front foils...

PF:4/W:2/PW:22/FD:20/S:9

Parawing Session - 3/7/2026

Went back to Kailua for the dawn patrol.

NUKING WINDS!!!

That kite foiler was lit!!!

Same board-foil as yesterday.  The winds were not supposed to be nuking...

And I used the Flysurfer POW 4.0 (smallest parawing I brought).

Stu and Kalani made the trek over also.  The regular crowd was there.

Mark (from Hilo) was the early bird (on his Neilpryde Fly 4.0).

I was barely hanging on for at least half the session -

I could probably have used the Maliko 2.9 (I'll bring that tomorrow).

The water was pretty choppy and there were two predominant directions the bumps were coming in from.  Made for challenging conditions.

And even though the swell seemed bigger, the waves were not as rideable as yesterday.

The wind was strong enough that I got goofy starts without any real drama.

Nuking winds are awesome!!!  More tomorrow!

PF:4/W:2/PW:21/FD:20/S:9

Parawing Session - 3/6/2026

Morning session at Kailua yesterday -

Decent wind, waves at Jump City

Big stuff day -

Chris was dipping his toes into parawinging -

Stu was out also - he was getting more comfortable riding and even got through a jibe (just didn't ride out of it).

Mid session the bridge line that pulley rides came undone.  I had to go in to get the lark's head back on.  Then restarting got a little frustrating with a rather long lull.

I got back up eventually and got back upwind.

I did have a really good stashed pw ride at Jump City - totally made the session worth it!!!

I went in before Stu did (I had to get back to work, while he took the day off).

Fun session and I learned something about the Flysurfer setup.

PF:3/W:2/PW:20/FD:20/S:9

Parawing Session - 2/26/2026

The trades are backing off for about a week.  Stu got off work early today and asked if there was any place to wing.  I looked at the forecasts and the reports and said Kailua was going to be the only place to get any wind.

La texted me and said she would be at her workplace for a bit - so I asked Stu if I could hitch a ride to Kailua.

I broke out the big stuff - 

And it was enough to get up - and I had to do that more than a few times (and I had to work for it).

Once I was up, the light wind was more than enough to get me where I wanted to go.

I'll be honest - there were a few setups where I thought I was going to either do the walk of shame, or I was going to have a long paddle back.

I managed to avoid either of those outcomes with the help of a lot of proper pumping and just enough of a gust to get up - and almost all of those get ups were close to shore headed back to the beach (followed by a quick tight jibe).

Somewhere in the track are a few tack attempts.  On one I got the board and the parawing around, but lost momentum to stay on foil.  I'm going to have to practice this much more at Hickam to get the muscle memory down.

And Stu was up and going with his new to him gear (AFS wing board and the PPC M1 6.0).  He even got a jibe to go all the way around.

Pretty light winds.  But it is good to work on light wind skills - lest we forget.

Fun session!  This was likely the last of the wind for multiple days.

PF:2/W:2/PW:18/FD:17/S:9

Parawing Session - 2/19/2026

The wind was up again today - but there was an upper layer of clouds that gave the impression of a trap.

Kalani was at the beach when I parked and Koa was already winging.

I popped up the Flysurfer POW 4.0 to see how the wind was blowing - nicely powering this PW.

The waves were more organized today and the tide was rising

With the conditions of yesterday making me feel like I could size down, I figured I should see if the Enduro 1100/HA40 on No.40 would deliver the goods

Short answer - yup!!!

Long answer - 

Initially I was setting dumpster fires...

I tried to deploy the parawing but it had a twist, and that lead to getting pulled into the wave breaking zone, which lead to the parawing sinking and getting wrapped around the foil.

I got my way out of all that after 10 minutes.

After that, I had a fantastic session.

Plenty of upwind to ride waves -

The Enduro 1100/HA40 was faster than the Enduro 1300/HA43 (duh) and that allowed me to stay ahead of the building swell.

I had several head to overhead rides, and multiple stow and go runs - long ones!

No breaching today - I used the AFS UHM 85cm mast.

The I drifted into the dead zone and got stuck on the struggle bus for quite some time.

I kept seeing "gusts" just ahead of me - but they weren't strong enough to pull the 4.0

I stashed the parawing and started paddling back up (straight blue line heading east)

I did eventually got back up and rode in. 

Even though I had to paddle back, I technically rode back in and the first half of the session was that good... all making this a really good session!!!

I really liked how the Flysurfer jibes - it isn't as quick as the BRMs, and not as direct, but the slightly slower response actually fits my pace better.  And it makes riding more relaxed.

It probably did help that today's conditions were way better than yesterday.

I think I may use today's setup more frequently.  

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

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

Parawing Session - 1/6/2026

The wind was blowing all day -

I got home and packed up the parawinging gear.  No.34 with the AFS 85cm UHM mast, Enduro 1300/HA43, short fuselage.

Power courtesy of the BRM Maliko (V1) 5.1m

Roland came out (but later).

Wind was largely perfect for the Maliko 5.1 - save a lull that kept me down for a bit. 

The waves were head high on the sets - not sure where they came from but what a gift in the middle of winter.

I had a handful of waves where I doused and rode for a really long time - this is one of the reasons why I parawing.

The Maliko does not have the drift that the Flysurfer has.  When the waves weren't big enough to carry me without the PW, I would ride and keep the PW high, but it pulled more than I would have preferred.

Lots of parallels between the two charts.

Fantastic session!!!!

PW:3/FD:1/S:1