Dawn Patrol - 4/13/2024

Dawn patrolled this morning with the same setup I used yesterday.

From the beach it looked really messy - onshore wind, white water everywhere.

I texted Marvin and he still wanted to go out - and I don't like storing my batteries with a full charge... out I went.

And the funny thing was as bad as it looked from the beach, it was decent on the outside.

The tide was on the low side - so the waves were breaking everywhere.  I just motored to wherever wasn't jumbled and I picked up rides.

The concentrated area is pretty much the same spot where I pick up waves when I wing.  It is pretty cool that I can do this (MAHALO Foil Drive!!!).

Marvin used yet another board today - his 5'4" Quatro.  With the extra volume, he was doing so much better.  Nothing but smiles!!!

Tomorrow is supposed to be stormy... and I am going to Noe's concert - not sure what the session will be tomorrow.  I am going to borrow/test some more Ezzy Flight wings - I may sneak in a short winging session at Hickam....

I am still trying to figure out a way to clean the Gen 2 setup... it doesn't seem right that I just hose it off and put it away - salt is not good long term for any of these materials.

This smaller cooler worked for the Gen 1 FD - I may pull down a slightly bigger cooler that isn't being used and try that.

W:47/FD:23/F:4/S:9

Evening Session - 4/12/2024

Got an afternoon session on the Foil Drive again.  The waves were pretty good and the wind calmed down - the water wasn't absolutely smooth, but it was way better than yesterday.

The tide was a little lower, but still out of foil grounding range.  I did manage to find the pipe with both my feet... no blood drawn. 

Of note, there were two kites and foilboards setup when I pulled up to the parking lot.  I'm guessing they were doing a downwinder and landed here.  AK Durable and Airush equipment.

I brought the Spitfire 960/375P - I think I finally got the drive unit and mast position dialed in!!!

Marvin and I launched around 4 pm and stayed out almost an hour and a half.

The Spitfire was definitely the right foil - handled the energy present way better than the HPS980.  The wave energy was reported by Surfline to be about 35KJ.

I got some ridiculously long rides -

24 rides in one hour and 20 minutes.  That's almost a wave every 3 minutes -

Marvin was getting the hang of it - for a while he was actually up on foil and trying to takeoff that way - and eating it.  I told him he should probably try to standup sooner since he was up on foil already.  He said he didn't know he was up - he was expecting to feel no drag from the pod before he was at the point where he could standup - turns out there wasn't much drag regardless if the pod was submerged or not.

Once he had that feedback, he was popping up faster and catching longer rides.  He acknowledged that a longer board, and even one with more volume in the tail would be better for use with a Foil Drive.

Dawn patrol tomorrow!!!!

W:47/FD:22/F:4/S:9

Dawn Patrol - 11/18/2023

Dawn patrol this morning was a Foil Drive prone session at Firsts.

There were sets coming through Firsts, so I set up the Spitfire 960 combo.

Jesse and Harris were using the tow boogies that Jesse built.  The new one has a crap ton of power and Jesse used it to give me a tow out to the start of the channel.  Nearly yanked my arm off and it was towing both of us out.

The swell was really good when the sets were pushing through - well overhead!  My first wave, as I was standing up the bottom dropped out!

It's pretty cool to see the set waves all focusing on one takeoff point.

I called it a session when I got ambushed by about 25 OC-1 paddlers

Today was the second day I felt the Foil Drive Assist Plus was actually underpowered.  Jesse was killing it with the whip ins and low speed.  And in between waves, getting back out to the line up was slow (in order to preserve voltage).  I think I should be surfing more to avoid looking at the Gen 2 Max...

W:114/F:101/S:54

Evening Session - 10/27/2023

Marlon and I got in an evening session.  There were still waves, but they were acting a bit funny - pulled back from breaking and fat.  The wind was a seabreeze, but not strong enough to mess with the surf.

Marlon did a bit of everything - in water photography, surfing the Seaside, and drone photography.

I brought the Foil Drive setup with the Spitfire 960.

Noel and Prayot were out.

I didn't want to pull a 3-hour session so I was a little heavy on the throttle.

And with all the surfing I've been doing lately, I wanted to ease back into foiling to get my footing (and not get hurt in the process).

I caught 21 waves (a few were double dips) in less than 2 hours.  This Foil Drive is a game changer - 

I didn't try to crank turns as hard as I could - this is where I was pulling back.  The waves weren't really optimized for that either.

I have errands to run in the morning, so I'll likely be on a midday session tomorrow.  Conditions are likely to be the same... Foil Drive!!! 

W:104/F:98/S:52

Dawn Patrol - 10/15/2023

Smaller surf today.  Higher tide and super light wind.  Good Foil Drive conditions!!!

Set up the skinny prone foil board with the Axis Spitfire 960/Advance Crazy Short Fuselage/P375.

The Advance Crazy Short allowed me to move the front foil forward enough so I didn't have to exert as much backfoot pressure (as I had to do using the Advance + Crazy Short).

I got 3 hours out of the battery today.  I started the watch late (after the first ride).

I think I could have actually benefitted from using the HPS980/400P today - it would have pumped better than the Spitfire 960.  I did get to recycle multiple times, but triples eluded me today.

Surfline called the waves this morning to be 37kJ - I'll note this for future reference.  Probably 40kJ and below will be HPS980/400P

Looks like I got 21 waves in under 3 hours - that's roughly one every 8 minutes.  I did have a huge lull in the middle of the session.

I ran the battery down to 41%.

The season is definitely changing...

W:103/F:95/S:46