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

Evening Session - 1/30/2024

Marlon and I hit the beach later in the afternoon today.  There were good sized, clean waves breaking - definitely a West wrap!!!

Marlon brought his longboard - and he caught some fun waves.

I brought the Volcanic Sweet Potato -

And I replaced the Wayne Rich Nightmare Twins with the Britt Merrick Twins.

These fins made this board more playful than it had been with the other fin selections.  It is never easy to get the comparisons down with differences in swell, wind, crowds, and even time between usages.  I recall the Nightmares having more drive and hold, yet I could make a top turn and wrench the board around with the ability to recover on the rebound.

These BMTs trimmed off the sharp edges of the movements and made everything more fluid.  Kind of like the feelings I have when I wing foil with the Axis Spitfires (more visceral and snappy) and the F One SK8 (more fluid and flowing).

I caught some gems today - takeoffs were awesome, I got in lots of fun turns and made some long runs.

I love experimenting with fins on the Sweet Potato!!!

Roland was on his mini longboard (T&C) and Prayot was out on a shortboard.  Fun day!

W:8/F:13/S:5

Evening Session - 1/25/2024

I got in a late session today.  Prayot was foiling the AFS stuff, so I figured I would go out and see how he was doing on that gear.

I have not prone foil in quite some time.  And whenever I jump back to a different discipline, I usually eat it a bit until I get my footing/muscle memory back.

Today was no exception. 

There was actually some size today - and the waves were really clean.  Roland made the right call and had brought out a surfboard.

I brought out the short Cedrus mast (it was a low tide at 0.5') and the Progression 170.

I did eat several up front.  And even a few of the good ones - but I did catch a few nice rides - after eventually finding my "footing".  I did have some issue keeping the nose up when taking the drop.  I'm going to have to go back through my notes to see if I need to shim the base.

Good session!

W:6/F:12/S:4

Evening Session - 1/21/2024

I did end up getting a second session in - the onshore flow was pushing, so it was lumpy.  At least there was some size still.  You can't really complain about quality in the middle of winter - there are waves on the South Shore so just go surf!!!

I brought the Great White Twin out.

I caught a handful of waves in the short time I had (I came really late, so there wasn't much daylight).

A couple were really fun - lined up and I was able to get some turns in.

W:5/F:11/S:4

Dawn Patrol - 1/21/2024

The forecasts were chattering about the West swell wrapping into the South Shore - but they didn't say to what extent.

Well - on the outside it was barreling.  Most of my rides were overhead.  And most of my rides actually ended up in crashes.  

I had the Spitfire 960 on (~1200 sqcm) when I really should have had the SK8 950 on.

I was actually anticipating the waves to be smaller than yesterday (not almost twice as big).  The surface was a little bumpy (yesterday was almost sheet glass), still ridable (not like Friday) but super challenging with the size and speed.

To stay in the takeoff zone, I was using the throttle more.  I ended up at 49% battery when I was in.  That means for the time I was out, I was using more power than normal.  This is most likely due to the waves I missed because they were moving too fast.

Dennis was out, and he had the HPS980 bolted on - so he had even more trouble matching speed to some of the waves.  I did see him on a freight train (well overhead and throwing lip behind him).

Kalani brought the Dragonfly out today and Prayot was on a conventional SUP.

The reading on the speed chart will lead you to believe I had 16 waves.  But as I mentioned earlier, the speed at which this swell was moving and the form factor of the Spitfire 960 (drag), I wasn't able to catch several of the waves.

Also - a few of the waves I did catch had warbles in them and I ended up crashing.

I did catch a wave on the outside and decided to head in (because the outside was getting crowded with longboarders that felt it was ok to paddle on to the same waves I was already riding) - and ended up riding all the way to the inside.  I didn't quite make it (had to dodge and weave), so I went a little bit further out and caught one to take me in. 

I'm glad I had this session and the waves that I caught, but if I had known that it was going to be this big, I think I would have surfed on the inside instead (which I still may do...).

W:5/F:11/S:3

Sunday Dawn Patrol - 1/13/19

I got back Saturday afternoon - had a bunch of stuff to get done for work, so I did not get to go surfing, but I did notice the surf was breaking on the south shores as the plane was landing.  Marlon and I did go this morning and it was awesome!

Shoulder high sets and pretty consistent.  

Felt like summer time (minus the heat).  This swell is apparently a westerly wrap from the big surf hitting the North Shore right now.  I'll take whatever surf hits and enjoy every bit of it!