Evening Session - 12/19/2024

Introducing the AFS Enduro 1300/HA43 combo - 

I wanted to test this out... and the guaranteed way was with the Foil Drive.  This will eventually support my parawinging - but I'll still Foil Drive with it to get the feel of this foil down and then wing with it to get the foil position set on the Dragonfly.

I had the HA43 on the longer fuselage position - I'm going to switch it to the shorter position next session.

This foil can glide - when I got up and settled, I did not have to pump much if at all and I was getting long rides.  The HA43 stab did make it a little hard to get push out of the pumps I did do, but I think that has more to do with getting the feel of the foil.

I could turn the foil, but again I think it will be easier when I move the stabilizer forward.

The west wind was actually wingable - especially with the Enduro 1300.  But I always look at the thermals as suspect - and they can drop out at any time.  They actually stuck around today - it would have been nice to fly around with the wing.  I'm going to keep an eye on the wind... but the forecast says Monday and then the weekend after Christmas. 

I think there are 11 rides in this.  I did have a lot of false starts, and had to make a lot of adjustments on the foil position.  The foil ended up forward of the Spitfire 960 position.  Might be the Center of Lift location on the narrower chord E1300.

Hopefully the west wrap keeps getting bigger...

W:152/PW:2/FD:94/F:5/S:29

Wing Foiling Session - 1/16/2024

Yesterday was incredible!!!

Nuking winds from the west, wind swell from the same - just had to paddle out further to launch on the low tide.

I think these conditions are my favorite!

I brought No.32, the Spitfire 840/350P, and the Reedin SW2 3.6

I met one-eyed Harold - and he, Prayot, and Norm were pumping up 5m wings.

There were 3 wingers (not sure who) out already when I was setting up.

I never had an issue getting up - and my arms weren't getting ripped out of their sockets.  The SW2 3.6 was perfect!

Roland, Duke and 3 others we didn't know also came out.

Waves were breaking in different spots than normal.  If we had a downwind pickup, the runners would have been awesome.  But I held my ground to avoid a paddle back to the launch (even with the nuking winds - there is always a chance of getting blown downwind with small gear).

Super fun rides!!!

SW winds - pretty locked in the whole time.  There were clouds for the most part, but the winds were on.

Because of the turbulence and cross chop, every one was falling a bunch.  Some of the guys brought out their tall masts, but they were still falling

El Nino has been delivering the goods!!!  Sessions like this get burned in my brain!

W:5/F:7/S:2

Wing Foiling Session - 1/11/2024

Challenging conditions today.  It ramped up from the west and was fairly strong.  By the time I showed up, Matt (from Hickam) and Norm were out and they were powered up.

I had high expectations of getting nuked and riding fully lit up.  I pumped up the SW2 4.2 and setup No.32 with the Spitfire 840/350P

But as I was finishing my setup, both Matt and Norm had come in.  They both saw the squall (that hit while I was setting up) and knew the wind would drop off for a bit immediately after the dark clouds passed.

This picture was taken when I first got there.

The wind did pick up again, but it had swung more northerly and dropped a notch in intensity.  I chanced it and went ahead and paddled out.

The wind eventually got strong enough to wing on the gear I had - but it was up and down.

With the wind completely opposite of what it normally blows, I've been reluctant to tack (don't want to fall and have to deal with getting back up; and my brain is confused about the muscle movements since everything is backwards), so I've just been jibing.  But with the Spitfire 840, I can roll way easier than any other foil and it is so much more fun to turn.

Waves were hard to come by - it was mostly hunting for bumps and milking as much as you could get (it is winter... I'm just glad there are bumps!) 

Short session - just enough to tickle the adrenal gland and move the counter.

Even with the smaller wing and the flukey wind, I managed to eek out a decent session.  It was just hard to make out the waves from the background.  

Pretty chaotic.

I'm calling it 50-50 today.

I didn't get blown down towards Hau Bush, didn't have to paddle in, and I didn't break any gear.  Let's call today a win!!!

W:4/F:4/S:0

Wing Foiling Session - 1/9/2024

Westerly wind today!!!  I love me my Westerlies!!!

In my mind, today was the perfect wing foiling session!

With the forecast calling for a hard drop after 3pm - I did set up for the trip back in (lighter wind equipment - No.25/Eagle 1090/SW2 5.2). 

The stats speak volumes!!!

The swell and wind were coming in from the W-SW, making for some challenging conditions.  But I caught plenty of head high breakers and the rides were all the way from the outside to inside the surfer lineup.

I did not tack at all today - everything was backwards from the normal tradewind pattern - so I figured I'd take one source of falling out of the equation.

So many awesome rides...

You can see the decline as time went on.  Looks like 2pm was the start of the strong winds.  I cannot say how lucky I was to catch the wind when I did!!!

The chart above is the Kalaeloa one - this seems to read accurately when the westerlies are blowing.

And you can roughly see a correlation to the speed chart below.

Words cannot capture how good this session was today!

W:3/F:4/S:0

Wing Foiling Session - 3/8/2023

I picked Marlon up from UH and we beat feet home - after which we beat feet to the beach.  The west wind was nuking!!!!  White caps abound, a rising tide, and some unexpected rather large wind swell.

I used the WWFB because I didn't want to have to struggle to get on the board.  I bolted on the Kujira 980 figuring I had way more than enough power in the wind to get up on foil early and fast.  And lastly I pumped up the Reedin SW 3.6 - again there was plenty of wind.

I stayed out over an hour and a half.  There were plenty of waves, but most of them would start to show, but then petered out.  There were some sneaker sets (way overhead) - I had two large waves that were breaking behind me for a really long distance, but most of the other rides were running along with the swell, but having the waves not break was a little odd.

From this chart, the wind was pretty much coming from the west.  And from riding, the swell was bending in from the SW.

Looks like the wind broke the anemometer...

The first generation Super Wing is a back hand biased wing - to keep it powered and not backwinding when you are pulling upwind, it needs the rider to place a lot of back hand pressure input.  It does drift/luff well - but I think the Super Wing 2 is a much better balanced wing that pulls upwind easier.  I'm curious about the Neilpryde Fly in the smaller sizes also.  I'm saying all this because I think this wing wasn't optimized for today's conditions - not sure if it is this wing starting to stretch out (look at the first picture above), or if it is the overall design (but this to me has always been a back handed wing), but things change really quick in this sport.

The 980 did the trick.  I'm pretty sure if I had a smaller Kujira that would have worked today easily.  Top speeds were had while racing down wave faces.

There were several other wingers out today - Marlon had spoken with them and it seemed like they were all down from Mokuleia (looking for their normal sailing tacks with the reversed winds).  Marlon had several subjects to chase with the drone and he got a lot of good footage.

The forecast calls for the strong westerlies to fade - I truly consider winds like this to be a gift!!!

W:27/F:14/S:13

Wing Foiling Session - 3/7/2023

The west wind arrived today in full force!!!  I got to the beach late - Eli had already come and gone, and Kalani and Roland were already out.

In the interest of time, I grabbed the foil that was already put together - the 1095/178 from the last prone session and headed out the door.  I could see white caps - so really I should have pumped up the 4.2 - which I did not have, so 4.7 it is.

More on this in a minute, but I think the 1095 is perfect for prone foiling and winging in cleaner water - not for excessively choppy conditions.

I was well powered today (definitely could have used the 4.2), and I had a great time riding swell back in REGULAR FOOTED AND LUFFING THE WING!!!  I love west winds at WPB!!!

I only got an hour in - slower pace than normal.  I believe it was the 1095 - it was really pitch sensitive and keeping it calm in super choppy conditions was a challenge.  I did appreciate it when riding waves in and needing to glide through (or muscle through) a fading wave and on to the next one standing up.  But when going straight, I could feel every bump - I guess exercising muscles I normally don't use isn't a bad thing...

Nice strong consistent wind!!!  It would have been nicer if it had more west and less south - but it was still great!

Kalani and Roland were having difficulties with the different direction - but it was perfect for me.

Tomorrow is supposed to be stronger!!!  I'll likely use the 980 tomorrow...

W:26/F:14/S:13

Wing Foiling Session - 1/10/2023

The wind was not supposed to be up today - but it seems as if the VOG layer trapped a lot of heat and it popped the bubble and a thermal flow developed - but from the West...

I could see the wind in the trees all along my way home.  I took a chance and figured the wind would still be up over at WPB.  I went ahead and setup the WWFB/PC85/1210/178 while I was still at home.

When I got to the beach at 4pm, I could see a lot of texture in the water outside the break and it was coming from almost straight west - dream scenario for regular footed individuals.  When I had finally paddled my way to the wind line, The 5.1 I pumped up was enough wing to get going.

I felt wobbly while I was out - I had doubts that I had not tightened the front foil bolts enough for them to seat properly - but I attributed the feeling to my being rusty.  Well - I wasn't rusty.

The wind was a little fluky.  It would start out in channels, then the whole field would open up.  Then the direction would shift - from side off to side and even side on.  All this made for challenging conditions - you never knew if you were going to drop off foil and get stuck.  I actually was drifting down wind for the first few runs.  When the wind picked up I was able to pull upwind and get above the cabins (and not worry about having to land in front of rocks to the east of Fenceline. 

I only stayed out for 45 minutes.  With the twitchiness of the front foil I decided to go in while to going was good.  Brian was out there before me, and he stayed out well after I got out.

You can see the forecasted wind strength - sub 10 mph.

I'm glad I got this session in.  When I got home I removed the old shim material from the fuselage I was using, as well as from the inside of the front foil mounting section.  I fitted on new shim material - this time Gorilla Clear Tape instead of the aluminum duct tape.

I also got ready for tomorrow - wind should be up and I want to see if the F One Eagle 1090 is still singing under wing power.

Fun first wing session of the year!!!

W:1/F:2/S:6