Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 6/28/2025

Late post.  This was yesterday's dawn patrol.

Really choppy conditions. And to compound the issue, the wind came up early.

Lower tide (I touched twice).

Confused and dropping swell.

Same gear as normal.

Despite the challenging conditions, if you just looked immediately in front of you - the rides were fun!

The crew was out in force - Andrew, Mark, Dean, Makana, Tim, Rick, Derek, Noel, another guy on Foil Drive (that I didn't recognize), and Dennis.

I think I was the last person to go in...

17 rides by the distance chart.

Fun, but I ended up going in with a considerable amount of battery left - with all the chop, I didn't want to make a mistake and get hurt.

W:48/FD:89/PW:12/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 6/26/2025

Weird conditions today.  At the airport it was blowing strong - 22 gusting to 29 mph.  At the Plains - not so much.  In fact it was glassy on the inside.  But once you got out to Foil Drive Country, it was blowing.

The tide was high and there was a lot of backwash in the water because of it.

And there was still some swell coming through.

I had originally brought the 4.8 and 5.0 wings - but after looking at the conditions, I went back home and grabbed the Foil Drive.

Set up the same equipment as the last session.

It was windy enough to make foiling challenging - definitely had several chop initiated wipes.  But if you chose wisely, there were some great rides to be had.

The lefts were super fun - the rights were bowled out more.

16 or so rides.  I know several of these are wipes or aborted takeoffs.

It would have been hard winging also - I think I chose well.

W:48/FD:88/PW:12/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 6/9/2025

After parawing practice, I set up the Foil Drive.  There were still some good sized waves coming through.  The tide was super high.  Unfortunately the wind was blowing at good speed.

I got to pick this foil up today - so of course I had to go and try it out...

I also used thhe Kaohi Invisi leash.

I used the regular Max battery today - needed to discharge it to storage levels (especially if the wind is coming back).

The water was so choppy that it was difficult to takeoff and ride.  And when I did get up, it was either spot on ride, defiantly pitchy or it wouldn't reach foiling takeoff speed.

I felt like a total kook today.  I went inn and grabbed a wrench so I could push the stabilizer back.  I also moved the foil forward a few notches.  

After the adjustment, the foil did start to deliver the goods.

I'm not even going to count - today was that difficult.

Although on the distance chart, you can start counting.

W:42/FD:84/PW:8/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 5/5/2025

From the last post, I had went in when the wind seemed like it was dying back (it was actually forecasted to at 2pm, but it didn't - and that's why I went out winging).

But I had originally intended to parawing or Foil Drive depending on the actual conditions.

After coming back in, I figured I should rig the Foil Drive and go tow in Norm who was stuck way outside. 

By the time I got out, he had just picked up a gust and was able to get back in.

Since I was out, and I needed to burn this battery down anyways... I stayed heavy on the throttle and got the battery down to just below 50%

Probably the shortest session in my history.

It was actually really difficult to ride - way too much chop.

Looks like I did manage to get 12 rides in despite the conditions.

Nice to know the tow in option is available should one of the crew bring their FDs on the questionable days.

W:36/FD:67/PW:1/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/25/2025

After missing two days because of the onshore south winds, I was going today regardless of the conditions.

The winds were there - and Roland and I went out anyways.

Nice high tide, pretty good energy levels in the water pulsing up from the southern hemisphere....

No.40 with some change outs - I used the original motor with the 15cm cable and the AFS Silk 850/142 rear stabilizer.

Once I got the characteristics of the foil down, this thing ROCKED!!!  The differences are well publicized - but you often don't get it until you experience it.

The Silk 850 is a devastating carving weapon - and it cut through big white water with zero drama.  I could feel the turbulence, but I never lost lift while moving through the aerated zone.  Not many foils out there that could do that.

The Enduro 900 also carves, but it isn't as visceral and it glides and pumps through the flats with ease. 

Today was challenging - the waves were really fat so they were hard to get on and stay out in front of.  And when I did get on them - they were jacking (and thus the opportunity to carve hard).

And Roland was finally getting up and riding using the Foil Drive.  He was getting up on both feet much faster.

He got even better (catching waves more consistently and riding) when the wind died back and we had moved over to the Cabins side.

22 rides on this choppy wave, challenging day.

I'm going to keep riding the AFS Silk 850 for a bit -

W:31/FD:60/PW:1/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 3/29/2025

And since we were getting Marlon out for an inaugural OC-1 run, we might as well get the Foil Drives out.

The unfortunate thing was the wind was up.  Not enough to wing - but enough to make the conditions not even desirable to FD.

But Norm didn't go out this morning, Marv wanted to try out a demo 860R, and I wanted to see if the Enduro 900 would work Foil Drive-ing

I think I got the foil into a decent position, but I'm also going to adjust the rear stabilizer to the rear position.

I did get some runners - pretty much downwinding.

I'm guessing there are fourteen rides in this chart.  I did wipeout several times - the chop was just too much (that even Norm and Marv just went in).

Marlon was able to launch and land without any issues.

Tomorrow morning I'll continue to dial in the Enduro 900.

W:22/FD:50/PW:1/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 3/19/2025

Today was as far as you could have gotten away from yesterday's conditions.

It was windy - which on Foil Drive translates to choppy.  But this was mega choppy.

The waves were bigger - but that made it even harder to pick rides (without blowing up).

Robby, Norm and Marvin were out - Dennis would have made it, but he lost his setup out of his truck (eek!!!).

Same lower assembly - but bolted on to No.40 today.  I wanted to test out the location of the recovery/landing footstrap.

Today just down right sucked.

First off as I was motoring out in presumably deep water, I grounded on the same high spot three times.  I put some good scratches on the bottom side of the front foil.

Then the whole session I was fighting water splashing in my face the whole time.  All the while the wind was getting stronger.

What I should have done was head back in and setup the winging gear.

I had the HO battery - so despite motoring the whole time, I got nearly an hour out of the battery (could have gone a little longer - came in at 37%)

I did manage to get some rides in.  Hard to tell what is what on the first graph.

Using distance traveled, you can more easily tell what were rides and what weren't.

17 rides (but maybe only six of them were noteworthy).

Tomorrow I may try dawn patrolling with the Foil Drive again, then get an afternoon winging session in.

W:21/FD:44/PW:1/S:3

Evening Foil Drive Session - 3/14/2025

The wind was forecasted to die back - but it didn't until much later than it was supposed to.

That meant a choppy surf session...

There was an aggressive shark sighting at WPB - that closed down the beach for the day.  Norm, Marvin and I ended up at Pavilions.

With the high tide, we ended up riding the inside break.

I used No.31 - to evaluate how the signal windows worked.

I could use the drive while the whole board was submerged if I had the controller over the windows.

Catching waves in the chop was hard.  Staying on them was even harder.

I did get a handful of decent rides - in fact the break in front of the first cabin is pretty gnarly.  I ate most than I rode.  The wave would jack quickly - which is when the bottom dropped out and I would usually eat it.  But when I made it and I was able to go right - well those were EPIC rides!

I'd say I got 7 rides - the rest of the spikes were wipeouts.

The wind should be light in the morning... I've got both batteries charged up and ready to go!

W:21/FD:40/PW:1/S:3

Dawn Patrol - 1/5/2025

Hit the dawn patrol today to see if there was any West Wrap coming in to WPB.

There was - but the Kona winds made for excessively choppy conditions.

Marlon and I were there - so we figured we might as well go out.

Same gear as yesterday.

This was one of the hardest days to get decent rides.

The chop made catching waves difficult - and riding any length after you got up (if you got up) was hard with all the disturbances.

I did manage to get some rides - but I came in a little earlier than I could have because I really wasn't in tune with the ocean this morning (it really was chaotic).  I figured I should quit before I got hurt.

Marlon said he was also having a hard time on the inside.

I'll give myself credit for 10 rides in the chart below.

Might be time to rest up a bit... I've been going non-stop for a long stretch -

W:1/FD:4/PW:1

Evening Session - 7/17/2024

This is a catch up post - and there are more after this one (I've been busy doing stuff at work and supporting the family).

This was from Wednesday afternoon.  Norm got a Foil Drive Max and I've been trying to line up a session with him.  He's been trying to get his board squared away - and the saga continues (no connectivity).

The waves were really choppy - there was enough wind to chop up the surface, but not really enough to have fun on the wing.

Still some left over energy from the recent south swell.  With the high tide it was an easy launch and recovery.

The waves were better on the inside.  Even recycled a few waves. 

17 waves in an hour - THANK YOU FOIL DRIVE!!!

Marlon was out on his longboard for a bit, then he switched over to flying the drone.  Thanks Marlon for the footage!!!

W:88/FD:49/F:4/S:13