Garage Works - 9/14/2026

Marlon, La and I were up on the North Shore yesterday - and I found this set of Neal Purchase canard fins.

Quite a bit more compact than even the FM canards

And just a tad bit more portly about the midsection

I liked the way the FM canards made the twinzer setup on the J Splee Big Fish more playful (compared to the conventional canards).

This is definitely another step in getting a better understanding of how these canards work.

I also tied up four sets of bridle line anchors for relocating the connection points of the front lines on the BRM S3/L1 parawings.  Not sure if I'll convert them all, but all the videos Greg Drexler has released on modifying his parawings have all been good for improving performance.

And the last small project I'm going to work on is trimming the big Marlin rear stabilizer.

Straight cut on this one.

Garage Works - 9/15/2024

I got the coarse sanding (maybe the only sanding) done on No.38

This is the top deck

And this is the bottom deck

I'll cut in the slot for the track block tomorrow and get it glued in.  Then I can get started on glassing this blank.

I also got the patch completed on No.34

The enamel clear coat didn't like something on the repair - that's fine, I don't need to chase ghosts.

And while the crew was winging today - every time I passed Prayot, it sounded like a 747 was going through a landing sequence.

And here it is going through a tuning to try and get rid of the really loud noise.

There were a couple of deeper gouges - I filled these (some twice) and sanded to 1000

And here it is all sanded.

I'll look at the front foil (AFS Pure 900) tomorrow and see if it needs some sanding.

Garage Works - 4/20/2024 (part 2)

La and I ran some errands and I picked up this cool bucket - that is 1" too short to place the Foil Drive in straight.  That means I'll still have to dismantle the unit/mast to soak it in fresh water post session.  It's still a really cool bucket!

And I had ordered a set of M7/M8 wingscrews for the Foil Drive board.  The straight M8 set I had gotten previously did not fit properly because the port rear bolt had an ever so slight angle to it.  These have a touch of wiggle room and it all fits perfect now!  Which is great so I can start to try out different foil sets!

Worth every penny!

And Prayot paid Jeff a visit, and he picked up some stuff I was needing - the 3-blade propeller kit for the Foil Drive and a n Axis Skinny rear stabilizer.

And here is the 3-blade propeller all assembled.

Going to try this stuff on the dawn patrol tomorrow!!!

Evening Session - 3/23/2023

This afternoon La and Noe dropped me off at the beach so they could run errands.  I used the same setup as yesterday, but switched out the KD rear stabilizer for one of the thin ones I made.  This one was just under 15" (14.875") and it is one of the easier tails to flex.

The waves were cleaner, but a little smaller and less consistent than yesterday.

I was still able to grab a few handfuls of juicy waves - and ripped them apart with the Vyper 170.  I had an easier time despite the smaller conditions - and I attribute that to the swapped out rear stabilizer.  The flex really worked to bounce out of turns.

I'm beginning to wonder if I was able to move the mast forward, would I be able to pump easier... time to build another 4'8"/4'7" and get the track boxes further up.

I think the swell energy is going to start backing off - might be time to get the Eagle 1090 dialed in...

W:28/F:19/S:17

Dawn Patrol - 12/26/2022

Marlon and I dawn patrolled on Monday.  I was hoping for some residual surf similar in size to Christmas Day (evening), but even if it was there the super high tide drowned it out.  It was still ridable, and in fact it was pretty fun - but it wasn't the same as the evening before.

Marlon brought his longboard, but opted to pilot his drone.  Funny story - his girlfriend's family saw him sitting on the other side of the fence and went over to chat with him.  I was wondering why the drone wasn't out for a while.

I brought out the Kujira 1095 mounted on the direct bolt Stringy fuselage, one of my thinned out rear stabilizers and had it on the 75cm Project Cedrus mast.  I had a blast catching several waves.  It was funny that the 178 rear stabilizer can pump, but with my rear stabilizer I have to work it.  I did get several doubles - but it got crowded.  I called it when newbie longboarders were moving into the foiling spot and were complaining about wavestormers pushing them out...

W:127/F:100/S:44

Tuning DW210 Rear Stabilizer

When I've used the Eagle 1090/XXS Fuselage/DW210 combo, the setup sings in two to three tones.  The harmonics are pretty impressive, and the people foiling around me say they can hear me from far away.  Kalani tried sanding last time I had this setup out - but it seemed like it actually made the third harmonic resident.

I've been plying YouTube and I found a couple of references to the Donaldson Trailing Edge (where the flat side has a rounded edge).

I got the edge tuned on the DW210 this evening.

I'll have to wait a few days or so before the wind comes back and I can take this out to test it.

Prior to this week, I had never heard of the Donaldson trailing edge.  This is pretty much the opposite of what Alex Aguerra was doing in his video from a couple of years back (he sanded down the edge from the low pressure/suction side at a 45 degree angle).

This is the side where the "curve" is imparted.

Always - it all done for a first pass.  I'll test this on the 890 to see what the difference is.

I did check the 1090 trailing edge and there were two anomalies that seemed like that they could cause some vibration.  I'll take this one item at a time.

Wing Foiling Session - 12/9/2022

Repeat of yesterday (maybe even stronger winds).  There were tall whitecaps on the water and all the trees were blowing around hard.  There was surf on

Same gear - except, I used the same rear stabilizer - just shimmed negative 1.5 degrees.  I should pull the front footstraps back a set of holes - that'll make my footing feel more planted.  The shimmed tail felt a lot better.

It was really crazy outside at Firsts - I could have used the Cabrinha Mantis 2.5

I never felt underpowered on the Reedin SW 3.6

And here's is the top speed I've hit on the Eagle 890 - 23 mph

Tomorrow is looking like a dawn patrol at WPB (super high tide), then maybe an afternoon session to test out No.28

Hopefully it'll be another one of those legendary Super Nuking days!

W:121/F:96/S:40

Garage Works - 12/8/2022

Got some work done in the garage this evening after getting home from UH.  Pictures are in reverse order.

I sanded down the leash plug on No.25.  Then I sprayed the clear coat on.

Then I wetsanded the rear stabilizer I used today (want to run some testing).

Lastly I sanded down the repair area on the Kujira 1440.

This one turned out really nice!

Wing Foiling Session - 11/24/2022

Thanksgiving morning session.  I brought the winging gear, but given the conditions, I should have brought the Viking.

Offshore wind made for pretty clean conditions - but this being winter, there wasn't much surf coming up from the south.  There is a big swell coming down from the north - and I'm surprised there wasn't much wrapping around to WPB.

This guy had a KT Ginzu board.

Originally I pumped up the 6.1 - but the wind that was forecasted to be present early on did not show.  I had to cook for Thanksgiving so I had limited time.  I asked Marlon to go to the garage and bring the NLW 8.0.

This is the first time I had the 6.1 and the 8.0 together - here is the size difference.

Rounding out my equipment was the WWFB, Kujira 1440 on the 85cm Project Cedrus mast and one of the stabilizers I built last year.

Kalani, Tim and Roland were also set up.  

Although not nuking like it was supposed to, I figured this session would be a good test of the lower limit of my equipment.  I paddled out at Fenceline in really light offshore wind, and drifted over to Cabins.  Eventually a gust came along - probably 10mph and was able to get up on foil.  After a couple of runs, I was back in front of Fenceline.  I made a few more runs, had gotten upwind of Fenceline - by this time I was short on time and headed in.  I managed to pick up a wave and rode it like I ride the inside at Firsts (goofy foot, carving the face like windsurfing).

At least I got in a session.  Roland didn't make it out, but Tim and Kalani were still there when the wind did hit and they said it was nuking - definitely echoed by the chart data.

W:116/F:94/S:38

Kalani's Rear Stabilizer Pau

Here is Kalani's chopped down rear stabilizer sanded down to 1500 grit.

I'll get this back to him tomorrow morning (and he'll use it even on the low tide...)