Evening Session - 7/29/2024

Small surf this evening.  I came out late - Duke was standing on the beach.

He said he hit a tiger with his foil - he was kinda freaked out (I know I was when I hit that big hammerhead outside Firsts).

I said I was only going out to catch a few - 

But it was really hard to ride any of the handful of waves I caught because I accidently brought the Hammah Fish (I thought I grabbed the Boogie Fish).

I did get up a few times, so I guess I'm counting this session - 

If I had a longboard, I think things would have been different.

W:94/FD:52/F:4/S:14

Wing Foiling Session - 7/11/2021

Winged at Hickam today - wind was good back at the house, so I packed all the wings (you never know), the HS1850, HS1250 and HA1125 and headed out.  When I got there, Miles was coming in and he said it was better earlier.  I took a look at it and decided to pump up the 5.2 and bolt on the HS1850.

As I was finishing set up, Prayot and Roland drove up.  Brian was already out, and there were two other guys I didn't know (local guy on a F-One Strike and the older guy on the Slick).  I headed out and the wind was good enough for the combo I set up.

I made a shake down run since it had been a bit since I was last out.  After a few runs on the inside I headed out.  Brian had a new Score 5.2 - he said it was more powerful than the Ensis V2 (the 5.2 had the low end of the 6.0).  A gust came up and I headed out to catch some more waves.  A set was moving through and on the third wave I saw a huge dark object swimming a few feet under the rising wave... I thought it was a tiger shark 8' to 10' (Prayot later said he thought it was 15' - he used to lifeguard at this beach and he's run into several sharks before).

The wind had a few holes - if I had the 6.0 I could have sailed through the holes, but the gusts would have kicked my butt.

You can see the lulls in the chart below.  I got in a total of 16.64 nm and reached a top speed of 15.3 kt - this was on a pretty big wave where I was in the pocket and had the pedal to the metal.  Pretty good top speed for the HS1850.  I ended up riding a few really good waves - one of the better days I've had on the wing out here.

I headed in just in time to avoid the bigger lulls.  You can see a few wingers if you look closely at the picture below.

This week is supposed to be windy.  I'm actually going to skip tomorrow and rest (I have been out everyday for a long streak - should rest so I don't break).

Evening Session - 6/25/2020

I pulled a solo run this evening.  Earlier I adjusted the mast back in the tracks by a quarter inch - yesterday I felt like there was too much autopilot - I figured taking it back a notch would give me back more control.  I hit PTs - and as I was walking to the break, a girl with a longboard came up to me and said "there was a tiger out there".  I asked how big and she said "It was big - but that was about an hour ago so maybe its moved on."  I kept going and when I got to the berm, I looked and there was only one other person out - it was the SUP foiler that uses the orange Kalama Performance SUP.  I looked and didn't see any dark shapes so I paddled out.

Wind was down, tide was high at 1.8' and the swell was small - maybe waist high.  I had a couple of calibration waves and then it all clicked.  I was catching and riding bumps all the way in to shore.  Using the CF1600 again after riding the Go Foil GL wings for so long felt like learning to foil all over again.  The CF1600 has a ton of lift and on almost every wave I was riding with the majority of the mast up and out of the water.  It is not nearly as fast as the GL wings, but it is way smoother.  After about 7 waves or so, I did not see the SUP foiler - he had gone in.  I can live with 50-50 odds but being the only splashing entity out there, I figured I was better off going in.  The mast adjustment was spot on - a fraction less lift and the board needed just a hint of back foot popping to get it rise up - just the way I like it.

So pretty much the same conditions as yesterday, but none of the crowd.  I'm spoiled by this place - even if I get run out every now and then by the landlord. 

Kokee Museum (Day 2 on Kauai)

For such a small place, this was a very impactful museum! I'll let the pictures do the talking...