Wing Foiling Session 9 - 9/24/2020

The wind forecast called for stronger easterly winds for today, but La wasn't feeling so well - so I headed home, picked up Noe, dropped her off at sailing practice and headed to Hickam Harbor with my winging gear.  I didn't see straight east winds when I got there - in fact it was shifting around all over the place.  By the time I got the wing pumped up, the wind settled out from the NE.  It was straight out of the east for the entire day - then when I show up....

Anyways - go out and be thankful for what you have is what I try to say.  I did make some adjustments to the gear before heading out.  I shifted the foil up in the boxes by another 1/4".  I also changed out the rear stabilizer for the chopped down 16".  These adjustments were totally worth it - way less breaching today, and the couple of times I did breach, it was more like a fast lowering instead of a body slam.   And the foil was more balanced and easier to get flying - like way easier than yesterday.  I felt really confident on the setup today and even got close several times to a flying tack (just short touchdowns and right back up on foil).  I think next time I'll push the foil up another 1/8" to see if the ride gets even better - I did pay attention to where my feet were - my back foot is forward of the arch bump on the back foot pad.  I'm thinking with the foil a hair more forward, my back foot can go further back.  We'll see.  The wind did shut down after 4:30, and I eventually shlogged back to the launch - just in time to pick Noe up from sailing.  Fun day!!!!

Evening Session - 7/12/2020

Marlon and I hit PTs in the late afternoon.  The wind was up, but not too bad (and good enough for the 215 pound Wing Foiler using a 6m Ozone Wasp and a 280 Maliko).  The tide was flat at 1.0',  The buoys were reading 2.5' - they were barely breaking, but if you waited long enough there were waist high sets.

I had the skinny 4'10" (I think this board and I are finally clicking), the GL180 and the chopped P18(16)W.  Marlon and I caught one together and what happened???? I breached.  But I did catch several more after and not only did I not breach, with the slight drop back in the mast position I was riding the GL180 without any weird resistance (autopilot).  Next time I'll bring my phone out and get a GPS track with this stabilizer and the uncut one and see if there is a speed difference (all other things equal).

Marlon was catching everything (as usual).

Will probably start shaping the 5'2" Wing Foiling Board and helping Marlon fix a couple of dings in his board - the surf doesn't look to be anything special over the next several days.