Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 12/7/2025

Smaller conditions this morning wave wise.

Tide was really high - overtopping at the showers...

Light northerly winds.

All put together, the high tide was reflecting the waves back out to sea - so it was relatively smooth, but bumpy.

Same lower foil and Foil Drive, but I switched boards over to No.41

I'm going to write another post on this Mako Carve rear stabilizer - but the turns I feel I am getting when I have this stab on... ho brah - so carvey!!!

With the super high tide, launching and landing were about as easy as you can get at WP.

I kinda felt bad for the surfers today - they weren't really catching much with the tide so high.

I would sit outside and cherry pick - catching and riding for really long distances.

From the tracks, you can see just how carvey this rear stabilizer makes the system.

25 fun filled rides!

So much fun from mediocre conditions!!!  

W:58/FD:140/PW:71/S:18/PF:3

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 12/6/2025

Cleaner (but still a bit choppy) conditions this morning compared to yesterday evening.

Nice super high tide to make launch and recovery pretty easy.

There was some swell pushing in - but this is likely the wind swell from the SE.

Same gear as yesterday - wanting to continue developing a feel for the small rear stabilizer.

The system seemed less pitchy (but it was probably just as pitchy and I was getting used to it).  It felt like I could turn harder (smaller stabilizer has less drag and resistance to directional changes - when the waves have sufficient energy, I should try to use it in the forward mounting position).

Full house today - Dennis, Roland, Stu and another guy using Armstrong foils were out on FD; Noel and Andrew were on SUP foil; and I saw Ben out on prone (and maybe Scott).

With the high tide, I launched and landed close in.  The tide was focusing the takeoff spot (shallower pinnacle).

The wave size did come down from yesterday, but periodically good sets rolled through.

I did get a few double dips - 22 rides in total.

Fun session!!!

W:58/FD:139/PW:70/S:18/PF:3

Evening Foil Drive Session - 12/5/2025

Foil Drive convention today at WP - Eli on his Tow Boogie; Norm, Stu, Roland and I on Foil Drive Max.

The waves were definitely bigger than the previous days - mainly because of the SE winds.  But that also made the water pretty choppy.

No.34, AFS 80cm UHM mast, Enduro 900 and the Mako Carve 130 rear stabilizer.

This is a pretty small stabilizer.  Not knowing what this rear stabilizer was going to do, I placed it in the rear position and only used a +0.25 degree shim.

My first few rides were pitchy.  But as I got more time underfoot, this just became faster and more maneuverable.

This is going to be a fun addition to the quiver of foil setup choices.

Norm was on the Code 980S he recently got from Kalani - and he was ripping - even in the choppy surf.  Stu was having trouble in the chop.  Eli and Roland were hanging further inside to avoid the chop (but were closer to the surfing crowd).

I had some really short rides (because the swell wouldn't stand up), and some really long rides.  With the Mako Carve, the turns were more fun than with the HA40.

Tomorrow I am going to move it up to the short position.

17 rides - pretty darn fun!

The wind is supposed to start making a comeback... one can only hope that the forecast materializes

W:58/FD:138/PW:70/S:18/PF:3

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 11/8/2025

Dawn patrol was really good this morning.  I thought the high tide was going to drown out the surf, but it was really good.

Zero wind - super glass!

Planning for the high tide, I setup the Foil Drive.

I also swapped out the HA40 rear stabilizer to the HA38.  The size difference isn't that big - but I wanted to try something different.  No.41 came out to play.

Stu, Roland, the guy on the Lift Efoil, and Dennis were all out.

Longer session on the HO battery.

The HA38 was definitely faster and turned harder (actually almost washing out a few times when I pushed really hard).  But it didn't carry through on the pumps as well as the HA40.  It seems as if the HA40 is just a hair bigger than optimum for me, and the HA38 is slightly smaller.  So for smaller days I can use the HA40, bigger days the HA38.

As the tide came up to +2.5' the waves did start to drown out.

Still got waves on the Foil Drive - 25 rides over the nearly 2 hours out.

Fun session!

W:58/FD:129/PW:62/S:12

Evening Foil Drive Session - 8/8/2025

Today was the first showing of this big south swell.  It was big -

I setup No.41 with the same setup as I have been using but swapped out the Enduro 900/HA40 for the Silk 650/HA38

I wanted to get the mast position dialed in using this foil on No.41 - and initially I felt I needed a bigger day to do this.

Turns out that needing to be on the throttle longer to lift a smaller foil starts to position you in a more critical takeoff position.  Something I've gotten away from since I started Foil Drive-ing.

But I kept trying to take waves - and after three waves and three adjustments, I think I have found the sweet spot.

It was nearly double overhead on the big sets breaking outside.  The problem was there was too much water moving all over the place.  There was plenty of wind - enough to have gone winging comfortably - and that put a lot of chop on the surface.

That in turn made catching waves harder.

Picking the right wave was everything today.

An issue made even more challenging by using a different foil for the first time on a shorter board - factors that individually make for longer takeoffs.

Despite the challenges, I did manage to catch a few notable waves.  And the Silk 650 is tremendously nimble.  It just needs a lot of energy to move it through the water.

.

I think the perfect conditions for the Silk 650 would be a glassy head to head and a half high day, with a lower tide to get the waves running 

By the data sets, I count 12 waves ridden - with multiple attempts that ended up with the waves leaving me behind, or me pulling out of a bottom dropper. 

I need to spend more time on the Silk 650 to get it past the twitchy stage (me, not the foil).

But tomorrow morning, as this swell peaks, I am going to use the Silk 850/HA40 and No.40 to be able to get up onto a rising wave faster so I have the ability to get onto the section where I want to be (and not where I find myself due to the late takeoff).

W:55/FD:101/PW:19/S:4

Evening FD DW WP-PV Session - 5/23/2025

The wind was blowing similar to yesterday - but it definitely had more holes/lulls.  With a solid high tide, launching/landing would be nice and easy.

The waves were where the biggest disparity from the forecast lay - 

Surfline said it would be twice as big as yesterday - but it was a touch smaller (if you ask me).

That was all fine - Norm and I were going to do a downwind run anyways.

No.40, AFS 80cm UHM mast, Enduro 900/HA40

Kalani was also on FD.  Zach, Prayot and Roland were on wing.

It was pretty fun catching waves all the way down from WP over to PV.

The area before Campgrounds was pretty jumbled (and hard to catch any waves).

And from Campgrounds on to PV, the waves were fat so you had to get out in front of them if you were going to catch it - especially in the strong winds. 

I'll call this 15 rides - I know I got left behind on some of them.  If I got out in front, I could ride the waves for a long ways.

The waves were way easier to catch at WP.

I think Bill is going to let me try the Amos Trench board, and I'm going to let Kalani try out No.39, and I might be helping Mark tune in his new Foil Drive - Hickam run in the morning (it's also a -0.3' tide...)

W:42/FD:72/PW:6/S:4

Dawn Patrol Foil Drive-ing - 5/3/2025

Dawn patrol this morning saw the running swell dropping just a touch and the wind dropped off (temporarily). 

Low tide a 0', rising to 0.4' - meant a longer paddle out to water deep enough to flip the foil over and launch.

No.40 with the AFS Silk 850/HA40

The wind did inch up during the session.  Oddly enough it was from side off (NNE) and it would push me back from taking the drop on some of the waves.

Regardless, I caught some really long rides and the walls were tall and running.

On one particular ride where I was stalling in front of a breaking section, I wasn't able to pick up speed fast enough and got eaten by the white water.

On other runs I got pinched in and had to go through aerated water - the Silk ate that up not even fluttering.  Made me think I need to try out the Silk 650... 

Dean, Noel, Prayot and Kalani were all out.

I had to come in early so I could help La at our yard sale (selling plants).

12 rides by the time and distance graphs.

Again - this graph is interesting in Foil Drive runs because you can see the length of the rides.

W:34/FD:66/PW:1/S:4

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

Dawn Patrol Foil Drive Session - 3/16/2025

WP was open this morning.

Waves were a notch smaller today down from yesterday.  Zero wind again so the surface was nice and glassy.  And a higher tide made for a nonchalant entry.

Same gear as yesterday - but I pulled the mast slightly back to see if I could lessen the front foot pressure/additional lift I was having to deal with.

After cycling this board in the rotation behind No.40, I can say No.39 is the board to use when higher speed is called for.  This board doesn't like to schlog - so not a light wind wing board.  With sufficient power (larger wing) I can use a smaller foil - or just using the boost on the Foil Drive. 

So No.40 is an all-rounder, and No.39 is a higher speed specialist.

The new pulled back mast position definitely is better - the lift is more progressive without losing pumpability on the recycling efforts.

There is a pattern in this pile of red an blue spaghetti.  I'd takeoff and head right, carve several turns and then head left (to give the SUP guys a chance to catch the wave), then ride it out.

I got a triple in there somewhere, along with a couple of double dips. 

Prayot was out on his Dragonfly and AFS Silk 1090.  If the waves were taller, he was catching them.  He got a double (at least one that I saw - probably more).

24 rides - slightly lower waves count, but the waves were lully today.

The wind is supposed to come back Tuesday - I may take a break tomorrow to prepare.

W:21/FD:42/PW:1/S:3