Wing Foiling Session - 3/11/2025

Strong winds, high tide, but small waves today.

I wanted to mix things up - Neilpryde Fly 4.0 and the Cabrinha H800.

Big crew today - Eddy, Norm and I were the early shift and Kalani and Roland were the late shift.

The H800 felt a little slow/draggy.  And it was also really pitch sensitive in the choppy conditions.  But in these winds it did get up pretty easily.

Having to learn a different foil, I pulled my punches to avoid having to restart.  Despite all that, I did eat it a lot and had to restart anyways.

Some of the gusts were nuking -

The chop did make for hard riding.  The H800 seemed to respond better to rear foot steering.

And oddly enough - the Fly 4.0 was also responsive to rear hand control.  With the winds blowing around today, the twitchiness of the wing did fatigue me.  The North wings I have been using don't do this - better for my elbows.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even stronger than today -

W:19/FD:39/PW:1/S:3

Wing Foiling Session - 7/14/2024

Challenging conditions today -

The winds were either super strong or dead.  And the direction was not consistent - it was all over the place.

And the waves were pretty darn big.

With the ups and downs, I pumped up the North Mode Pro 5.5

Lots of wingers out today - Harris, Matt, Arvin, Kalani, Prayot, Zach, Kimo(?), Tim, Jesse and myself.

And I set up this foil - the Cabrinha H800 - wanting to see if this foil can sustain higher speeds.  I put the larger of the two Foilparts rear stabilizers on.

And after adjusting once, here is where the foil felt decent.

The lulls were really bad - and there were a few of them.

But there were a couple of times I was able to just shoot straight for the break at Firsts.

The wind outside was blowing hard offshore (at least that's what I perceived) so I only caught two then decided I should limit my risks (the waves were breaking over the Reef Runway breakwater). 

There were more holes than what is shown below.

After a while, I started doing speed runs in the inside harbor.  I think the rear stabilizer was holding me back and making the foil feel slow.  I'm going to have to experiment with this a little bit more.

A little frustrating today, but still a lot of fun!

W:87/FD:48/F:4/S:13

Wing Foiling Session - 6/1/2024

Testing day at Hickam.  I brought this stuff out to see where it lined up on No.36

Lots of folks out today - even Mark the lifeguard was at Hickam.  He had a Neilpryde Fly 4.0 - I've never seen one of these up close.

Miles, Harris, Jim, Jesse, Arvin, Anson, Matt and Kalani were all out at one point

Up first for me was the Triton.  I ended up adjusting this a few times before getting the foot pressure mostly balanced.  If I were to use this more frequently, I would likely move the front footstraps back a couple of holes.

I couldn't pull a tack comfortably on this foil today - the wind was too up and down.  I brought this out because I am interested in the Triton X-1 Pro that is supposed to be coming out.

The wind was up and down and fluctuated direction a lot.  Made for really hard conditions.

Here's the track with the Triton.

Not bad for being on a wing a half meter too small for the predominant wind.

I went in a swapped out to the Axis ART Pro 1001 with the KD DW Race rear stabilizer.  I did make some adjustments as I was getting a bucking takeoff sequence.

If I had a bigger wing I think I could have gotten better feedback with this foil.

You can see I got in a few heelside tacks on the outside.

I know I can go faster on this foil - goes to show you how weird the wind was today.

And last but not least, I switched out to the Cabrinha H800 with the KD 14" Marlin.  At this point I also switched out the wing to the 5.5

I did make a few adjustments to get the foot pressure balanced.  I did end up venting a couple of times - which means I was starting to push the foil - but it could also have been the fluky winds.

Again with better conditions I'm pretty sure I can push this foil much faster.

Tomorrow I'm going to just focus on wave riding.

W:65/FD:40/F:4/S:12

Garage Works - 5/19/2024

I've actually been doing work in the garage, but not documenting it.  I got the Spitfire 840 all patched up and I've been sanding No.36 a little bit a t a time.

Moving forward, I decided to start the repairs on the Cabrinha H800.  I used the glazing putty to fill the deeper scratches.  Here I am sanding them down. 

Then I used the solid paint pen to get the gaps as close to the surrounding areas.  It took a few iterations, but it's better than 95% now.  I also put a Donaldson trailing edge on the foil.

I didn't sand beyond 320 because I had errands to run - but I got through the hard part.

And talking about hard parts - I got through the rough sanding on No.36 today.

Here's the bottom deck - 

And the top deck.

After dinner, I drilled in the holes for the plugs and got them epoxied in.

I used the extra epoxy to put one more thin fill coat on the board and close up a few known issue spots (unruly innegra, some shallow fish eyes, and a couple of holes near a foot strap insert).

Tomorrow I'll sand this fill coat and the vent and leash plugs.  I'll also open up the mast tracks.  If I have it in me, I'll also try to get through the other sanding grits (80-120-180-220-320-400).  That shouldn't take too long - but there is also some surf out there still...

Wing Foiling Session - 8/22/2023

Roland was at the beach finishing getting setup when I pulled up to the parking lot.  At my house the wind seemed a lot stronger than what was blowing at the beach.

I decided to pump up the SW2 5.2 and bolt on the H800 that I'm fixing for Ken.

The wind was a little flukey today - so I'm not sure if the performance I got out of the H800 was pulling its potential.  With enough wind, I got up on foil just a tad slower than the other ones I've been using lately (but the Eagle 890 seems to get up a lot faster).

I can say the H800 is one of the smoothest flying foils I've ever used.  It is really quiet and I don't feel any drag.  There were a few instances where I did feel it lose lift abruptly, but the longer I used it, the easier it became to get it to do what I wanted it to do.

The complaint I do have about it is that it really wasn't pulling upwind as quickly as I thought it would.  I'm not sure if that was because of the wind, the chop in the water, or the foil - but after riding the Eagle 890 yesterday, I know I should have been pulling upwind faster.

This foil needs more wind power to tack successfully - but I did get a few tacks in.

This chart is from the airport - we had light winds except for a few strong wind events - with the bigger wing, I was able to get the H800 going (especially using waves to get me going).

And here is a second dislike - I feel like I should have been going faster than what was recorded....

Roland, Eli, Prayot snd eventually Gary were all out winging today.  

W:83/F:81/S:32

Garage Works - 8/22/2023

Here is Ken's H800 with all the scratches filled in.

Just after these pictures I went ahead and used the solid black paint marker and covered the red glaze putty.

I didn't take a picture of the final (for today) product, but it came out a lot better than when I first got it.

Garage Works - 8/21/2023

And after Marlon left for classes - I went into the garage to get No.32 closer to the finish line.

There are carbon patches in the foot well areas (that you can't see them under the top sheet).

I got the top sheet laid out, the footstrap slots cut out, and the laps dialed in.  I used 22 ounces of epoxy to wet everything out - which was a little more than what was needed - for the excess I used the roller and placed it on the bottom deck as a pre-fill coat.  Side note, I used 19 ounces for the bottom deck.

Tomorrow I'll sand the new laps, laminte the rail tape, and drill the holes for the leash cup and the vent plug.  After that, it's add the logos, place the fill coat, sand-sand-sand, then spray on the finish.

I also started the repair on Ken's Cabrinha H800.  I'm actually thinking about using this foil for the race on Saturday...

More sanding.... oh - what - fun.

Wing Foiling Session - 8/8/2023

Stupid strong winds today!!!  This is Hurricane Dora throttling the tradewinds while passing 500 miles south of the Hawaiian Islands.  The surf was also on the bigger side.

Knowing that the winds were at ludicrous speeds, I opted to do a little testing today.  I ran two sessions with the same wing/board/mast and changed out the lower foil assembly.

Yup - the wind was nucking futs!!!!

First up was the HPS 700 and 380HA rear stabilizer.  I had this set right at the Eagle 1090 mounting spot.

This foil is predicable, smooth to rise and nice and loose.  Having just refinished both the foil and the stabilizer, this foil set still made some noise

I used the Mantis 2.5 that I got for Noe.  There were times I needed more wing to get up and go - but there were other times where nothing would have been small enough.

Track while on the HPS700.  I did manage to get a few tacks on this tiny foil.

Not a bad top end speed given the challenging conditions.

Next up was Big Ken's Cabrinha H800

This foil was really smooth - felt buttery underwater and well behaved.

I mounted it all the way forward in the mast tracks on No.25.

This foil does need energy input to stay on foil - which for the most part was not an issue today.

I fell a bit more on this run.  More the wind causing havoc

Also didn't get the same top end speed.  Again - I think this is more than just the foil - the extreme chop and turbulence, the nuking winds, and the fact that this was a new foil to me - this was still pretty good.

Tomorrow the wind will still be up - not sure where I'll wing...

Today will be a day to remember!!!

W:77/F:71/S:31