Foil Drive - Parawing Augmented Session - 8/19/2025

Following Norm's lead, today I brought out the Foil Drive, and brought along a parawing.

Wind was way up and down.  When it was up - it was easily parawingable.  When it was down it was almost glassy.

Super high tide made for easy launch and recovery.

No.40 with the standard Foil Drive setup.

And in the stash pouch is the BRM Ka'a 3.6 (first outing)

I had intended to take out the Ka'a 4.8 but I grabbed the wrong bag

In the end it didn't really matter.  My first wave I caught I reached in and deployed the parawing and it opened.  I was going along for a little bit and then lost power in the wing and came off foil.

That's when I noticed I was on a smaller parawing.

I did the same thing multiple times after, but they all got progressively worse

I did ride some waves without messing with the PW, and those were really fun.

16 rides - can't complain about that.

Koa was out also - and there was another Foil Drive-r guy who we haven't met before.

Good introduction session for the FD-PW combo.

W:56/FD:104/PW:24/S:6

Parawing Session - 8/15/2025

I had been keeping an eye on the wind all day - and it was looking like the afternoon session would be pretty good.

Even driving up the trees were moving...

But when Norm and I showed up, the wind just started faltering and the waves picked up.  

I thought I actually prepared for the worst - E1300 and the Dragonfly - but I hesitated and packed the Ka'a 4.8 instead of the Maliko 5.1

And I paid for that decision by spending the vast majority of the session trying to get up on foil.  There just wasn't enough wind for the majority of the session.

I did get up twice - so that counts as a bona fide session.  But the rest of the time I was sitting on my butt trying to keep the parawing up and out of the waves.

I think if I had put up the Maliko 5.1 I may have been up a bit more - but probably not the whole session.

You can more easily see the up on foil periods when you look at the distance-speed chart.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to catch the dawn patrol at Kailua.  I will likely go on parawing again - but I am going to bring a wing also just in case.

W:55/FD:103/PW:20/S:6

Parawing Session - 7/11/2025

Surf seemed a little smaller today (but it really wasn't).

Tide was nice and high.

Wind was up, and seemed more steady than yesterday - but it had it's ups and downs still.

View from the start.  Wind line was kinda out there.

When Norm and I pulled up, Prayot was finishing his water time - DW SUP foiling in the surf, and I think he tried his PW.

I had the same PW and gear from yesterday.

View from the finish.

My gauge to size which PW to take is whether or not there are white caps.

White caps - take the Maliko V1 4.0

No white caps - take the Ka'a 4.8 - today was a Ka'a day 

Decent stats today - but if you read between the lines, you see some interesting things happening.

On the surface this looks like a great run.  Lots of time up on foil with a handful of times where I had to reset and start again.

Here's where things get interesting - the peaks were at 15mph or so, and really the gusts were what got me up on foil - but the lulls were pretty deep.

And here is the real kicker - this is the speed chart.  The blue is decent - up and foil and moving along at the speed you'd expect from a 1300 front foil.

You can now see the handful of starts were actually pretty long.  The chart doesn't point this out as all that was happening was I was moving slowly.

Same session but now looking at the distance covered - looks more like a winging session with a speed data set.  But this basically says I was covering decent amounts of ground before getting off foil. 

I landed before the wind dropped off - and didn't have to swim much at all.

Norm said he wasn't able to get on foil at all.  He was struggling to find the sweet spot on the board he got (just a couple of days ago).

Fun session!

W:51/FD:92/PW:18/S:4

Parawing Session - 7/10/2025

Parawing WP-PV - Norm and I.

Wind was there, but not as steady as one would like for parawinging.

Uber high tide - very nice!

And the swell - more than I would prefer for parawinging - but oh well.

BRM Ka'a 4.8 with the current standard foil-board-mast.

The swell was bigger than it looked from the beach.  And there was considerable chop in the water that made starting really difficult.

Definitely one of those days where you earn your victories.

The wind was staying in swimming lanes again today - if I got out of the lane, I dropped off foil.  I had to go way outside a few times to get to the next lane (without getting bogged down by the chop).

And outside there were some sizable waves breaking - made for some puckered situations.

Norm got up twice.  He got a new higher volume board so he was sorting that out.  And this was only his second session out with the parawing.

Strong winds - but up and down.  Not the best for parawinging.

And with all the falling I did, I lost my single point harness line.  I ordered three more from Stringy - and I'm going to get some dive belt weight keepers to prevent future losses.  The ocean giveth... the ocean taketh.

It is definitely tons of fun to be on a learning curve again!

W:51/FD:92/PW:17/S:4

Parawing Session - 7/8/2025

Another WP-PV parawing session

Stronger, more consistent wind compared to yesterday.

Waves, but nothing that would make me reconsider putting up the parawing.

Nice high tide (so minimal chance of grounding).

And Norm went out for his first parawing session!

Same board-foil combo as yesterday.  I did switch to the Maliko 4.0.  I also moved the foil forward a notch (and it helped tremendously with early takeoffs and relieving backfoot pressure).

Norm set up his winging board with the AFS Enduro 1300 - same foil I am using.  He has the one parawing - the Ozone Pocket Rocket 5.0

This was my best session yet!  Early takeoffs (probably due to the foil repositioning), mostly perfectly powered on the Maliko 4.0.  I was on foil more than off.

I also retracted the PW multiple times.  I didn't successfully redeploy the PW... but I did get a few longer rides with the PW stashed.  The type of waves we have here are not conducive for this type of stow and go - except on the outside peaks, but these are not super long rides.

This is the reading from the Kalaeloa meter.  I'm pretty sure it was reading low.

I did switch a couple of times while riding inbound.  I also got one inbound regular stance start.  Progress every session (even if it is just developing more muscle memory).

And Norm got up on foil - on his first PW session!!! He hinted that if he gets comfortable with the PW, he is likely to replace winging with the PW.  I can't blame him - pretty easy to stash, doesn't take up space, sheds heavy equipment and after you get used to it can actually replace the wing when the conditions are right (and you can FD when the winds are light anyways).

Awesome session!!!

W:51/FD:92/PW:16/S:4