Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/25/2025

After missing two days because of the onshore south winds, I was going today regardless of the conditions.

The winds were there - and Roland and I went out anyways.

Nice high tide, pretty good energy levels in the water pulsing up from the southern hemisphere....

No.40 with some change outs - I used the original motor with the 15cm cable and the AFS Silk 850/142 rear stabilizer.

Once I got the characteristics of the foil down, this thing ROCKED!!!  The differences are well publicized - but you often don't get it until you experience it.

The Silk 850 is a devastating carving weapon - and it cut through big white water with zero drama.  I could feel the turbulence, but I never lost lift while moving through the aerated zone.  Not many foils out there that could do that.

The Enduro 900 also carves, but it isn't as visceral and it glides and pumps through the flats with ease. 

Today was challenging - the waves were really fat so they were hard to get on and stay out in front of.  And when I did get on them - they were jacking (and thus the opportunity to carve hard).

And Roland was finally getting up and riding using the Foil Drive.  He was getting up on both feet much faster.

He got even better (catching waves more consistently and riding) when the wind died back and we had moved over to the Cabins side.

22 rides on this choppy wave, challenging day.

I'm going to keep riding the AFS Silk 850 for a bit -

W:31/FD:60/PW:1/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/22/2025

Good energy in the water today (101 kJ being reported).  Unfortunately it was a pretty low tide.

Roland and Marvin out Foil Drive-ing!!!

And today was the first day I Foil Drove with the AFS Enduro 700 (Mahalo to Mark for letting me borrow it).

Using the last setting from Sunday's winging session, I looked at the differences in the Enduro 900 positioning - wing and FD - and used that to position the mast for the first run.

We all headed out - but Roland and I had to turn back because our drives weren't picking up throttle signals.  After resetting the batteries, we headed out again.

I rode the E700 as is for several waves - but it had that same sense of "stickiness".  I pulled it back a 1/4" and it felt much better.

I was hooking some good turns with this foil - tomorrow I'll try again and push the rear stabilizer up to the forward position and see if that helps loosen up the turns. 

Roland is getting more rides every session.  He was on the Vyper today and he didn't get thrown/bucked off once.

17 rides for me in under an hour.

Epic!!!!

W:31/FD:59/PW:1/S:4

Afternoon Foil Drive Session - 4/18/2025

Smaller waves (but some decent ones would come in periodically) today.  And when I first went out it was glassy - then a squall came through and it was wingable.

After the squall, it was still a little textured, but still nice.

Medium tide.

Same gear as the last several sessions (it's just that damn good!!!)

Prayot and Duke were out when I got to the beach - they were out DW SUP foiling.

I used a 1/3 of the battery before the squall hit.  I headed in for a break while the wind was howling.  By this time Prayot and Duke had left, and Kalani and Roland were setting up.

Roland had several good FD rides today (3rd session).  But there were still times where he was getting up way too slow and would end up losing it.

29 waves - but this time over a larger time band.

I was able to borrow Mark's Enduro 700 - but this afternoon seemed too small to really get to try it and see what it can do.  I'll try and wait for bigger surf.

W:29/FD:57/PW:1/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/17/2025

On shore breeze today.  Smaller waves.

I used the same gear.

Similar results!

Roland's second day out on FD - and he made some good progress.

Duke and Prayot were out on their DW SUP foil boards.  And they were catching.

But I caught a shit ton of waves!  29 rides - with a hand full of double dips.

I'm going to try and borrow Mark's Enduro 700 and see if I can make that foil turn even harder than the Enduro 900.

But I do need to spend some time in the garage to get the repair orders completed.

W:29/FD:56/PW:1/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/16/2025

I got out later than normal this afternoon - was talking with the contractor who is painting our house.

I did want to get out so I could help Roland get through his Foil Drive learning curve.

I brought out my new standard gear - No.40/UHM 80 cm mast/E900/HA40.

And Roland setup the Nugget with the Uni Progression 140

Roland did get close to getting up on FD - he just needs to get up faster to avoid the "I'm up on foil already and can't control the board because I'm still laying down" issue.  It does take time to get used to all that is going on and to develop muscle memory.

I was ripping!!!  Clean conditions and a nice full tide.

Walls lined up that I could just carve up and down for hundreds of feet -

28 waves - this is way over the ridiculous limit!!!!

Should be similar conditions tomorrow!!!

W:29/FD:55/PW:1/S:4