Foil Drive Session - 2/22/2026

Way cleaner this morning compared to yesterday.  Also a tiny bit bigger.

Nice higher tide again - and no brown water (like everywhere else).

Stu, Ben, Roland, and others were out (foiling boogie guys, eFoiler, Carlo and his girlfriend, and one other - then eventually Jason - more on this in a bit)

Last night I had a clear garage and I got the modular AFS front foils all situated on the correct fuselages.  The Enduro 1100 was on a short fuselage while the Enduro 1300 was on a standard-length fuselage - I'm beginning to think that may have something to do with the takeoff speeds I had been experiencing...

I've got the Silk 850 and 1050 on the 68cm fuselages, and the Enduro 1100 and 1300 on the 65cm fuselages.

And for today I set up the Silk 850/HA38 - the surf forecast was showing a bump up so I wanted to bring this one out.

Long running waves today - 

And the Silk 850 delivered in spades!!!!  Hard carving turns converting speed to torque - so much fun!

 

The odd thing that happened was I didn't bring the Foil Drive bag and didn't have the wrench to move the mast position.  The mast position was set on the Ultra HA750 from yesterday.  I figured I'd just ride it and deal with the extra lift.  Turns out this spot was even better than the previously marked setting.

I recall the previous setting was fine - but there was this feeling of "dragging" that I couldn't shake off.

This setting from yesterday woke the Silk 850/HA38 up and it was amazing!  I even recycled on a couple of runs with a second wave behind.  I went ahead and redid the mark on the board.

I was idling back out to the outside lineup on a run when Carlo and Roland were on the same wave.  Carlo was going right and Roland was to his left heading left.  Roland made a cutback and all of a sudden they were headed right towards each other.  Roland made a last minute ditch but they both collided.  Roland's calves were hit by Carlo's board's rails.

And right after that, I was riding a wave and another FD rider was efoiling back out, headed towards me - so I made an exaggerated turn to avoid the collision and he fell off.

I went in shortly after that because I prefer riding without the efoiling crowd around.

23 rides! 

Another great session!

PF:2/W:2/PW:15/FD:17/S:8

Foil Drive Session - 2/1/2026

Another beautiful morning with incredibly nice conditions!!!

Waves were chest to head high on the sets.

The wind was a non-issue and the tide was high enough to make bottoming a lower concern.

Charlie used the Starboard Element and was catching plenty of waves today.

I brought the same setup (No.43, AFS Enduro 900/HA38, Cedrus Surf Mast, Zip Pod, Foil Drive Max) and remembered to swap the wing screws for the small nuts.

Today was definitely better than yesterday - bigger swell, more frequent sets.

And the waves were standing up more - so lots more top and bottom turning carves.

Charlie was talking afterwards about the stark difference between the guys Foil Drive-ing (riding everything) to the surfers fighting for the inside breaking waves.

17 rides in an hour - had to get Charlie and Amy over to the airport.

I want to take No.43 out prone foiling now to see where the foils will position out.

PW:5/FD:12/S:7

Foil Drive Session - 1/31/2026

Beautiful conditions again this morning.

Same setup as yesterday.  I wanted to validate that this positioning was good to mark.  Time to mark!  And also time to sticker up the board.

And I brought this guy out today - Charlie Bisgard visiting from Maui!

Fun rides - with lots of carving

Dennis, Kalani, Stu, Roland, Ben, the Flite eFoil guy, and others were all out at Foil Drive Country.

With the tide a bit higher than yesterday, the waves were a little less energetic - but it is the middle of winter and we have waves!

16 rides in just over an hour.

PW:5/FD:11/S:7

The Anointment of No.43 - 1/30/2026

Marlon and I got in an evening session at WP

Virtually no wind.  Low tide (so more paddling).

And the west swell was wrapping in -

Head high on the sets

But the highlight of the day was getting No.43 out for the first time!!!

I took the mast placement from No.41 and it was perfect!  The painters tape marks are where the mast ended up being bolted down.

Marlon did a double session - first on the Evo and finishing up on the longboard.

Dennis, Roland, Duke and Prayot were also out at Foil Drive Country 

No.43 performed flawlessly - and the conditions were ridiculously nice - I couldn't have asked for a better first session.

I did look down at my feet frequently to get the placement identified.  This is for later when I want to put foot straps in place (for when I prone foil with this board)

21 rides in just over an hour

More west wrap in store for tomorrow!

PW:5/FD:10/S:7

Dawn Patrol Foil Drive - 3/22/2025

Dawn patrolled with the Foil Drive this morning.  Really nice conditions!

No.40 with the same lower assembly.  I've been wanting to use the Spitfire 900 - but the waves weren't consistently big enough to use it and still get long run time out of the battery.

And I didn't want to do a battery swap since the tide was on the low side (me being lazy).

Full crew out today - Mark, Andrew, Thursday Matt, Dean, Dennis, Noel and others were out.

I had some really long rides today.  All but a handful of waves were pretty low energy - but there was enough shape to bounce turns between sections.

On the handful of bigger breakers, it was fun to drive to the bottom of the broken wave, zoom back up the face behind the section, bank off and head back across where the wave broke.

23 or 25 rides depending on which data set you look at.

This distance view of the ride data makes the longer rides more obvious.

Should be similar conditions tomorrow morning.

W:22/FD:45/PW:1/S:4

Evening Session - 2/13/2025

Not as big as yesterday.  Fuller tide.  And more wind.

Today was not as perfect as yesterday was - but there were still good waves to ride.

Marvin came out to try out the new High Output battery and High Efficiency motor.

I moved the mast forward a notch and bolted on the Spitfire 900.  I thought I might end up moving the mast to dial in the optimum position - but it was pretty good from the get go.

I did notice the whole setup felt a little slower than normal.  I have been using the Foil Lite bolt system and with the prospect of moving the mast out on the water I used the Wingscrew wing nuts.  That might have been the drag I was feeling.

But there was also a really strong current running West to East.  There was also a little more chop on the surface than I have been used to (from the past few clean sessions).

Not sure exactly why I was feeling off my game - but today was definitely more of a struggle day.

To add to all of that, Marvin mentioned his battery was moving inside the unit.  And after his mentioning of that, I heard/felt the same in my box.

I finished the session with 35% left.  I did efoil a few times - but I wasn't getting in the groove (still).  Otherwise I was a little harder on the throttle than I normally am - and the waves were breaking on the far outside - so that additional usage would explain the higher consumption.

Now to reflect on the positive - there were some great rides today.  Tons of carving and critical position riding where the waves were breaking.

I did have some abrupt/unplanned dismounts.  I'm attributing that to the chop and using a different front foil.

17 rides in just over an hour - no room for complaints here.

W:9/FD:27/PW:1/S:1

Evening Session - 2/12/2025

Went Foil Drive-ing this afternoon

The wind had been on the waves for a bit so it was not as smooth as yesterday - but the tide was higher and the waves were pretty darn good.

Same setup as yesterday - except I was using the High Output Max battery and I brought the mast back a notch.

The set waves were head and a half high and it was so good to swoop to the bottom of a wave where you could look up at the wave break right at you!!!

And I caught multiple waves like this -

The High Output battery is the same voltage as the Max battery - but having more Ah and Wh made the Foil Drive seem steadier and even a tad stronger compared to using the regular battery.

That might very well be all in my head - but the battery did seem like it was not dropping off as fast as the other battery does.  A possible explanation would be the Max battery has been rode hard for well over a hundred cycles - and batteries don't last forever.

Back to the rides - I was way outside the Cabins - pretty much where we go winging when the wind is strong (because the wind swirls at this point and if you get dropped in a lull it is a really long swim back in).

20 waves in an hour!!!

The mast position was probably a hair too far back - I didn't feel like I was wrestling the foil - but I also needed to work a little more to keep it in the sweet spot.

Truthfully I think I could have been on the Spitfire 900 (and maybe even the Spitfire 840)

No.39 has been working superbly.  I have zero complaints/tweaks/ideas on how to improve its performance.  I got the WMFG deck pad today - and it's on No.40 already.  I'm going to let it sit for a couple of days to make sure the bond is good.  That will give me a couple more days on No.39 to get its characteristics down.

W:9/FD:26/PW:1/S:1

Evening Session - 2/11/2025

Headed to get some waves at WPB on the Foil Drive.

The conditions were super nice!

Minimal wind, decent tide and swell with some energy in it - I'm wondering if it is west wrap...

Zach, Prayot, Roland were all out - and there was a guy on Foil Drive on the outside with me (not sure who it was).

As a first step in testing, I brought out No.39 - everything else was the same.

I forgot my watch so no data or wave counts - but sometimes that's ok.

It was breaking at the peak outside Cabins (where we would like to wing, but sometimes the wind gets iffy).  The wave would reel to the left and the pocket was tight - so I got to hook turns back and forth for mega runs.  SO MUCH FUN!!!

As narrow as this board is, it is super reactive.  It catches waves easily and I was able to pump back out without much effort.

I think I need to move the mast back a hair (or put the Spitfire 900 on at this position).

I'll ride this board for the next few days - then hop onto No.40 

W:9/FD:25/PW:1/S:1