Evening Session - 2/1/2023

Did an evening session yesterday.  Good south swell (in the middle of January???!!!???)

Tide was low, but the swell had some size - that meant time to break out the Hypto Crypto!

What I didn't anticipate was the crowd - too many people in the water (just bobbing around and clogging the takeoff line). 

I did manage to get a handful of fun waves.

I'm going to switch the fins out - going to set this up with the EA's in fiberglass and see if that makes this board flow better.

W:6/F:6/S:11

Fins for the Hayden Shapes Hypto Krypto 6'0"

And since I was in the garage, I dug out some fins so I can install them in the HS Hypto Krypto.  The fronts are the Futures Akila Aipa twins.  And I found a trailer in the EN fin bag.  I also got this thumb nail trailer from Hawaiian South Shore...

This trailer (I got this one from Surf Garage) may be too big for this twin + 1 setup, but I may try it when I surf the board in bigger waves as a thruster.

I also want to try this board as a quad with the Grennan fins I have been sitting on.

Evening Session - 9/15/2022

This is what I did yesterday evening - I took a nap after getting home from work.  This seal was chillin on the beach when I came out to get some exercise.

The surf was waist to chest high, with the occasional shoulder high set.  The tide was lowish (under 1.0').  And the wind was almost calm - which made for really glassy conditions.  I decided to break out the Everyday and go longboarding.

I switched out the 9" GL Flex fin for the 8.5" Randy Rarrick Blacktip Flex - as good as I've always thought this board/fin combo was, the Blacktip made this setup even more fun!  I would hug the wave face on multiple waves and would ride perched on the front half of the board just flowing across the face.  I would also ride on top of the fins and the board just flowed where I leaned.  I'm not sure if it was the fact that I hadn't surfed this board in a while, or if this fin truly unlocked more potential out of this already great board - but this was one incredibly fun session! 

W:92/F:78/S:20

Dawn Patrol - 4/10/2022

Dawn patrolled today with the Fire wire Sunday.  Bigger surf settled in - solid overhead.  I wanted to get a different set of fins on the board - but with the bigger surf, the VF4 Hatchet set I had on was completely wrong.  I'm thinking a bigger single fin may be the way to go in bigger surf.

I did manage to get a few decent rides so this wasn't a skunk session.

Kalani was there this morning.  I loaned him my Axis Crazy Short black fuselage so he could try out the BSC 810 he recently got.  It's good to see him back in the water trying out new things again!

If the swell is still here tomorrow afternoon, I'll try the Sunday as a single fin.

W:23/F:35/S:12

Garage Works - 2/12/2022

Rumor mill had everywhere but north shore at none to 1'.  Instead of trying to fight for waves at a single takeoff spot, I opted to catch up on some things that have been on my mind.  First up was changing the fins on a couple of boards (so I can get the keels on the Sunday).  I took the Eric Arakawa's (and the Solara) off the Greedy Beaver and replaced them with the Grennan quads.

And I took the fins off the Pigfish (these actually came from three different sets of fins). 

After that I checked on the OR A Series Glide - came back from the repair shop.  I went ahead and got the leash and harness line back on.

I'll do an inflation test soon.

Marlon also got restarted on shaping his performance longboard.  He did not want to use the electric planer, so he was making lots of passes with the surform.

We also had to pick Noe up from her Laser racing, so we took off a little early so he could purchase a board that caught his eye yesterday - the Firewire Seaside at 5'2" in Helium construction (with a cool paint job to boot).

Stopped off at Kailua Beach Park on the way to Noe - not a single kite, wing or sail out...

We got home and Marlon and I waxed up our boards.  La noted we have different styles and methods for waxing boards.

I prefer my method - just look at the consistency and the tight, tiny wax bumps.

There is supposed to be a swell in bound - hopefully it gets here soon - I have a bunch of things to get done and I might actually do them all if there isn't any wind or surf.

Next Step - Finboxes

Probably the most critical of tasks in building a surfboard is determining the fin placement.

I'm still researching this, but I'm hoping to converge later this week on a decision so I can get the boxes cut out and at least the bottom laminated before next week.

FIns to the Left, Fins to the Right...

Fins

Sunday Dawn Patrol - September 16, 2018

Or not so dawn patrol - I woke up late and we left even later because we took some time to switch out the fins on our surfboards.  I opted for a Greenough Stage 6 and Marlon went for a smaller banana fin.  Marlon was not happy with the water quality - it was noticeably acrid and there were protein bubbles everywhere - so we only stayed for about 45 minutes.

This Stage 6 seemed really sticky to me - not as fluid as the 8.5" flex fin I've been using for a while now.  

I went ahead and swapped out the Stage 6 for a 9.5" Stage 4C.  More of a conventional fin, with more surface area than the flex fin - we'll see next time if this one feels better than the flex.

Marlon's New Fins

This post and the previous one about Noe are out of order - the Kauai posts are the latest, I just forgot to get these posted timely. I got Marlon a new 4" center fin for the Charlie Board. I couldn't follow him out to the main break because I was sticking close to Noe - but from the look on his face, I think he likes it!!!