Parawing Session - 7/31/2026

Strong winds today!!!

But the same thing that happened yesterday started to happen again (wind drop before I paddle out).

I did not trust the wind so I brought both the S3 5.3 and the 4.2

Kalani only brought his 4.3 - he got up pretty fast, and I was overpowered on the 5.3 (and almost immediately stowed it and brought out the 4.2)

Trying to make sure I have the Silks dialed in for the upcoming Gorge trip!

Silk 1050 with the 152 rear stabilizer.

Today was actually really good for riding powered, jibing and retracting, riding with no wind power, and trying to redeploy.

I was batting maybe 50% on the redeploys - but Prayot said he was getting 90%.

More east in the wind!!!  And not as much swirling (still some).

The waves were chest to just overhead on the sets.  I think we all caught a few bombs each.  The Silk 1050 is so forgiving - and rips so hard at the same time!!!  When the faces have some steepness, the Silks are it!

I actually could have used a 3.4 (which I just received from BRM today - I'll definitely try it tomorrow).

The falls were almost all botched redeploys.  I am working on how to manage the lines after initial takedown.  Once I get that squared away, my redeploys should be much better.

I'm just happy to get the super fun, uber long prone rides (without paddling to get into the wave)!!!

Smaller foils and smaller parawing testing tomorrow!!!

PF:10/W:3/PW:87/FD:57/S:20

Parawing Session - 7/19/2026

I've grown tired of the up-down/swirly wind runs of late.  I've been looking at the airport anemometer readings and the direction seems to be a little more stable.

I had to stop into work anyways, so I did a Hickam session

And since I was at Hickam, I figured I'd work on dialing in the Silk 1050 and getting the Flysurfer POW V2 sorted out.

I started with the Silk 1050/152 and the BRM S3 5.3

I kept the mast in the same position to see how the foil behaved in flat water.

The wind - better than what I've been parawinging in - still had holes and swings.

The S3 did get slightly overpowered once, and twisted me off the board three times.  But each outing under these conditions is helping me to develop a coping mechanism (what that is I don't know yet - maybe use the Foil Drive and screw the parawing). 

The 1050 seems to need more runway (or board speed) to get up on to foil.

But there was plenty of wind (even if in spurts) that I headed out to Firsts.

There were a couple of surfers out at Seconds so I stayed away from there.

This was the part of the session that the direction swings made riding difficult.

Even if the meter read east, the wind felt totally offshore outside.

And it was strong, so I headed back in to swap foils and parawings.

On the inside, I botched and tack and moved the mast forward to see the difference.  The balance point was obviously different, but it was definitely over the nice balance point.

I'll drop it back again next time - I think the real issue is the quality of the wind we've been getting (sucks).

I'm calling this two sessions because I changed up the foils.  The Enduro 1100 got up faster, and I started with the Flysurfer POW V2

Lots of chatter on the web says "the Flysurfer POW V2 4.0 pulls like a 5.0" - I do not agree with that assessment.  It pulls like a 4.0 to me.

It also seems to power up when pointing more downwind (30 to 40 degree off the beam) with a smaller sweet spot.

Where this parawing absolutely shines is in transitions - it tacks so easy and jibes are no brainers.

Once up and running, it is stable (still has some jitters, but is fine) and you don't need much wind to stay up on foil.

With more time with this parawing and figuring out where it powers up, this should be an awesome surfing parawing!

I could feel the wind starting to slow down so I called it.

So I definitely had a less frustrating time today, but I'm really going to have to work out jibing the S3 when the wind turns north...

PF:9/W:3/PW:81/FD:53/S:20

Parawing Session - 7/18/2026

Norm, Stu and I did the WP to -

PV run yesterday.

The wind looked really good, but that was at the ends.

There were some good sets coming through also.

I took out the same setup as the past couple of days.  I also brought both the BRM S3 5.3 and the Flysurfer POW V2 4.0

Norm brought his Ozone PR 5.0 and the 777 PT Skin 7.2

Hard to trust the wind this summer.... (foreshadowing) 

The wind was switching directions and up-down the whole way.  I paddled out and put up the Flysurfer.  Launching took a while because the wind was slightly less than what I needed to get up, but once up I immediately caught a head high wave, retracted the PW and scored a really good ride.  The Silk 1050 is pretty darn good in this application (but I'm wondering if I could still optimize the position).

At this point I was at the Cabins and the edge of the dead zone.

The wind would actually go dead and the parawing would fall out of the sky.  What was really frustrating here was the direction shifts.

You can see I would get up onto foil, then suddenly stop - that was the wind shifting while I was trying to jibe (and then getting field stripped off the board). 

At Campgrounds the wind filled in better and I was able to get up and stay up (and turn without the PW twisting on me).

Needless to say this was pretty frustrating.

I did line up with a macker wave at PVs - well overhead and a deep pocket that I just sat in - so awesome!!!  Again - the Silk 1050 V1 for the win!!!!

PF:9/W:3/PW:79/FD:53/S:20

Parawing Session - 7/17/2026

The wind was better this afternoon - still and down and swirly, but stronger.

Norm and I did the WP-PV run.

I took out the same board-foil as yesterday and the BRM S3 5.3 for power.

And with better wind, there was better foiling.

The wind was shifting east to north.  But it seemed as if whenever the waves were present the wind was north (the hardest direction for me to retract the parawings).

This is Hickam's chart - it was probably 5mph less at WP-PV

I made two adjusts on the mast to get rid of the backfoot pressure.  It still feels a little suboptimized - might need to do a Hickam session to get it dialed in.

The back half of the session was much better - a lot of it was the wind, but perhaps the foil adjustment helped.

Will push tomorrow's session to 2pm to get the wind when it is stronger again.

PF:9/W:3/PW:78/FD:53/S:20

Prone Foiling Session - 7/16/2026

Wind was forecasted for this afternoon - and when I got to the beach, it looked like it was doable.  But this was onshore.

And I broke my cardinal rule - I changed more than one parameter.

I got the Silk 152 rear stabilizer in the mail today - so I paired that with the Silk 1050.  And I don't recall using this foil on No.34

Then I also got in the Flysurfer POW V2 4.0

So I changed up three things -

The POW V2 flies so nicely - I just didn't have enough wind to get up on foil.

I floated around for quite a bit of time.

At least I didn't drift so far downwind to make this a miserable paddle back.

In fact - just so I wouldn't get skunked, I tried catching waves and riding prone.

I don't know why I have a harder time catching waves when paddling this board in...

But I finally caught one and rode it in.

Hopefully the wind comes back tomorrow...

PF:9/W:3/PW:77/FD:53/S:20

Foil Drive Session - 5/29/2026

Nice high tide - but that was reflecting the waves off the beach and introducing a warble on the rides.

Big surf on the outside - well overhead!!!

And there was some wind - kinda like yesterday - which made me glad I was Foil Drive-ing this afternoon!!!

I thought I grabbed the AFS Silk 850 from the garage - but it was actually the Silk 1050 (Norm pointed that out).  I only had the Silk 132 rear stabilizer - but Norm let me use his 152 (as he was using the Code 980S).  Session saver for me!!!

The warble on the surface made things challenging - but the odd thing I would not have anticipated was how well the Silk 1050/152 combo worked for me in these conditions!!!

I even got the foil setting correct on the first shot -

Obviously the Silk 850 turns harder, but the 1050 felt really good under foot.  It even seemed to balance out my weight perfectly on the efoil runs I made after coming off a ride.

I needed to go back to Ala Moana Beach Park to pick La up from an event so I headed in at 37%.  With the warble in the water, my energy consumption rate was a little higher than normal (which worked to my advantage today).

The last wave I took in was huge on the outside - and I just rode it all the way in.

Twelve rides in under an hour - phenomenal!!! 

That last wave was from all the way outside to all the way inside -

Dawn patrol tomorrow morning - two batteries all charged up!!!

PF:8/W:2/PW:55/FD:38/S:17

Wing Foiling Session - 12/14/2024 - Round 2

And I went out for a second session over at Hickam.

This picture was taken late - but there was wind.

Same foil, different board (to get this one dialed in with the Enduro 900 also). 

And the same wing from this morning.

Good gear choices.  I am amazed by how much lift the E900 generates.

Marvin was out to try winging again (the main reason I came for a second session).  He bolted the foil drive on so he wouldn't have to paddle back upwind.  He said he was able to get up 3X.  Everyone counts when you are learning.

After warming up and seeing how the wind was working, I headed over to Firsts to get more experience with the E900.

I caught three waves - the last one was notable as it was breaking right behind me and I was going straight into the wind - pretty dynamic situation.

The two charts correlate pretty well.  A few of those "down" times I had to wait for a gust to get back up - but the E900 works quickly to get you back up.

This is the fastest I've gotten this foil.  I think I need to get the HA40 on next time there is wind (because the wind is dying off for a while again).

W:152/PW:2/FD:89/F:5/S:29

Wing Foiling Session - 12/14/2024

The forecast called for wind at Kailua early - I packed up and headed over.

The wind was blowing when I first got there - but I ended up talking too much to the regulars.  In the time I spent socializing, the wind dropped a notch - but it still looked wingable.

I pumped up the North Nova Pro 5.0

And I bolted on the Enduro 900

When I got up on foil, I stayed up.  But if I went down (four times, including the initial launch), it did take some finesse to get back up.

There were some waves - but they did not have a ton of energy in them (save a few on the better sets).

Strong easterly flow.

I got in a bunch of tacks - pretty easy actually with the Enduro 900.

Considering the forecast - this was actually a pretty good session! 

I reallly had to push this foil to get this top speed.  When the wind comes back, I'm going to have to try the Enduro 900 with the HA40 rear stabilizer and see if that unlocks this front foil (speed wise - it is already good at nearly everything else).

W:151/PW:2/FD:89/F:5/S:29

Wing Foiling Session - 12/12/2024

I winged Hickam this morning while the wind was still nuking.

I setup No.36 with Prayot's AFS Enduro 900/Silk 152 rear stabilizer - with my AFS UHM 85cm mast.  Prayot had the stabilizer in the rear position - I moved it to the forward position.

And with the strong winds, I figured I use the Ezzy Flight 4.0

What an awesome foil!!!  Tremendous glide, easy to tack, turns super good - all around great foil.

It is also worth mentioning that once you are up on foil, this combo pumps well and it has a really low stall speed.  It left quite the positive impression on me.

The other thing to note is I have only used Cedrus masts for the past few years.  This is the first OEM mast I actually wanted to try out.  First impressions are it is stiff, doesn't ventilate and if goes fast.  I'm not sure if it is faster/slower than the Cedrus masts.   I'll have to test this mast more.

I spent the first 10 minutes getting a feel for how this Enduro 900 turned.  Tacks and jibes went really well.

After that I headed outside to see how this foil surfs.  It does not drive through tight turns like the Silk 850 does - but the glide that it does have helps you when you need to get across a flat spot.

This foil also slips through white water like it wasn't even there - except right behind a just broken wave - that's the only place where I could feel the foil start to get jittery.

And after riding several waves (they were super fun) - I headed back to the inside and did some speed runs.

I think I can get more out of this foil.  My HA40 rear stabilizer should be in the mail today - 

Fun session!!!

W:149/PW:2/FD:89/F:5/S:29