Evening Session - 11/27/2024

Yesterday evening the wind was up and down, the tide was lowish and the waves were small - I ended up bringing the Sweet Potato.  I could have brought the Mode Pro 6.8 and the Dragonfly - that for sure would have worked, but I opted to play it safe.

I actually got up on several waves - but there was so little energy it was hard to get maneuvers in.  At least I didn't get skunked.

Roland and Prayot on the other hand did take out their prone foil setups and had some good rides.  Three-peats were common.

This was Roland's last wave of the day - he took it all the way in.  But it wasn't sand on the inside....

Hopefully the wind comes back soon.

W:145/PW:2/FD:83/F:5/S:23

Evening Session - 6/20/2023

Yesterday the wind was light and offshore(ish), the tide was pretty high and the waves were tiny.

There was a monk seal hanging out on the beach...

I wonder why???

I used the same combo I have been trying to dial in - No.31, Progression 170, Flexible Rear Stabilizer.  I ended up moving the mast again - a little more forward.

With the waves as weak as they were, it was really hard to tell if this was making a difference or not.

I did catch a handful of fun ones - but after that, I figured I had my share and paddled in (short session).  In waves as small as these on a high tide that drowns them out, I should be using No.21.  With it's additional volume and width, I can get into more waves.

Anyways - I marked this position and will use it as a reference point for future usage.

W:55/F:57/S:28

Prone Foiling for Winging Setup

Today was another day where the forecast did not line up with the actual conditions.  I skipped the dawn patrol in favor of the chance to go out and wing.

Well - the wind was coming in from the North - and it cleaned up the surf a little.  There were times the wind was up (and when it was up it was nuking), then the wind would almost completely die down.  Kind of frustrating...

I went ahead and prone foiled No.26 - and I brought out the GoPro to take a picture of my feet while riding the wave.

Roland came out on prone - but he went in and got his winging stuff lined up.  The wind was teasing him too much.  I knew I had only a short window, so I stuck it out on prone.

Plus, I came out to prone this board with the singular purpose of determining where my feet balanced the foil.  I want to place the NSI stick on strap inserts and start winging with this board.  

And this is exactly what I wanted to get a picture of - my feet in the sweet spots for this board.  

And Koa was out - never got close enough to me for the GoPro to take worthwhile pictures (but he was ripping!).

Roland texted me later and said the wind got so strong he couldn't hold on to his wing at times.  That's ok - these up and down conditions aren't too good for my golfer's elbow...        

W:110/F:94/S:36

Dawn Patrol - 10/16/2022

Dawn patrol this morning with Marlon.  He brought his longboard - after he paddled out I did not see him (because he headed over to Coves).  He said he was also in testing mode, seeing what the different center fin positions did for his riding.

I was continuing with comparison weekend.  The waves came down a lot.  Was lucky if waist high.  The wind was still down and the tide was rising.  I started with where I left off yesterday - the 4'8"/Kujira 1095/218/75cm PC mast.  

I caught several waves at the crack of dawn in the middle of the pack before the waves really started dropping.  Got in a bunch of fun turns and pumped right back out.  Then the crowd started filling in so I moved over to the Cabins.  I caught a couple of triples, then decided to change out the foil setup to get more back-to-back data.

I switched to the ART999/400P/Crazy Short fuselage on the 68cm PC mast.

Out of the three setups I used proning this weekend, this one is the best (with my cadence and usage) at getting repeat rides and pumping back out.  It turns really well and never has any issue at takeoff (progressive lift).

The F One Eagle has incredible glide - at times I wasn't even pumping to trim - just along for the ride while the foil did all the work extracting the energy from the wave.  It turned well, but not as well as the other two.  What I couldn't do with this is pump back out for repeats.  I think it may have to do with the mast and the trimmed rear stabilizer.

The Kujira was the foil I had to manage the most on takeoff - I always stuck the takeoff and bottom turn - but for whatever reason, I always feel like I'm all the way up on the mast and that takes some getting used to.  I can carve this as hard as I want to and it does have times where the glide is effortless (but I have to trim it to get there - the Eagle did it automatically without input from me).  And I could easily pump out and triples are common place for me with this setup.

The ART - well - I can get in a 4x repeat if the waves are lined up.  I can pump as much as I need to, and carve up any wave - it really is the best all arounder.  But it needs more input while riding than the other two - in fact I find myself pumping while riding a wave to keep pace and get to where I want to be.  

They are all good foils - but the scary thing is the Eagle has the potential to be a game changer (if I can get it to pump back out).

The rides this morning would take me across the breaks - starting at Towers, migrating to in front of the first Cabin, then going all the way over to the Admiral's Cottage, then back.  Mark had been on the outside with the rest of the foilers - but then we noticed he was hanging on the way inside.  We thought he was tired of waiting for ridable waves on the outside - turns out his mast broke at the base.

He was lucky to quickly find the lower set (sunk fast).

  

I thought the waves would have been bigger - but the session was good fun despite the small waves.

W:96/F:88/S:32

68cm Project Cedrus Mast

I received this 68cm Project Cedrus mast in the mail yesterday.

I ordered the Axis adapter and the 2021 Takuma adapter to help reduce the amount of times I have to switch adapters when using the foils in different disciplines.  This Axis adapter looks way better than the one I got with the used 75cm mast (I might have to order another one).

This is only going to be used for prone foil surfing.  I ordered this 68cm mast so I could go out in lower tides.  It may not seem to be that much of a difference between the 75cm and this 68cm masts, but at a 0.7' tide I've been tapping the bottom where on the Armstrong 72cm mast I wouldn't.

And actually, the 75cm when setup is at 79/80cm.

Fully assembled, I measured the height from the extents (top of the mount plate to the bottom/invert of the fuselage and this 68cm mast turns into a 73cm assembled foil (which is 28.75").

I'm also thinking this will improve the effectiveness of my pumping (shorter stroke height should allow for faster/shallower pumping).  Using the 75 (79/80) cm setup I found I was having to ride way higher to get the foil to the optimum height below the surface (foils work best just under the surface which also reduces the drag of the mast), and that took some extra effort to get and maintain it there - often meaning I had to pump through a higher water column.  Again you may be thinking "you're only talking about 2.75"" - but everything makes a difference.

Looking forward to getting this bolted on and ridden hard!!!