Garage Works - 12/17/2021

I'm trying my best to get these board repairs finished before Sunday (when the wind starts to come up again - and I tend to just ride and not repair).

These pictures were from this morning - the first two are of Arvin's board with the fill epoxy in place.

This evening I sanded the fill down so I can laminate some patches on tomorrow morning.

On Marvin's board, I pulled the peelply and I couldn't have asked for better results!  I sanded the transition around the perimeter of the board, and also grinded out the footstrap inserts out from underneath the carbon cap sheet.

This board is also ready for a final fill coat.  I'll try and get these epoxied in the morning so I can finish them in the evening tomorrow.

I need to route out the old track boxes that cracked on the NWFB, and also get the 4'8" wing board boxes setup (get the reinforcement blocks in, the boxes in, and the bottom deck laminated)... it is definitely cheaper to make a great board yourself instead of buying a mediocre board from the name brands - but man does it take time to do things right... 

Garage Works - 12/16/2021

I actually worked on Marvin's board yesterday - got the board sanded, then prepared the carbon for laminating.  I was going to get it epoxied on, but decided to wait until today.  I wanted to use peelply to keep the edges of the laminate flattened.  This is curing in the garage - I'll pull the peelply tomorrow (and I'll fair in the edges, apply a fill coat and let that cure as well) - I want to get this board back to Marvin by Sunday.

I also had enough daylight to sand off the cracked parts of Arvin's board in preparation for the repair.  The laminate on this board was interesting - fiberglass over wood over fiberglass over really soft foam.

I didn't take pictures, but I got the fill placed this evening to take up the gap space.  Tomorrow I'll sand to remove the excess fill, then laminate glass and carbon.  I'll have to fair all that in, then paint and resand to try and get close to the original finish.  I want to get this back to Arvin on Sunday as well (I want to work on my boards now - but there is a lot of wind headed our way this coming week....). 

Garage Works - 12/14/2021

I did not bring my winging stuff today for a few reasons.  First, I am really tired from all the winging I've been able to get in - I figured I needed some rest.  Second, I took on Arvin's board repair job, so I really need to get Marvin's board done.  Lastly, the weather looked like it would not be an exceptional wind day.

Instead I got back to work on Marvin's board.  I sanded the epoxy fill coat from yesterday.  Then I added more resin and fummed silicate.

Tomorrow I'll sand again, true up the last of the fill coats.  Then I'll get the caps sheet down.

For sure this one will be done by this weekend.

Wing Foiling Session - 12/13/2021

Today was even better than yesterday - stronger, more consistent wind.  The only downside was the tiny waves - every now and then a good one would come through, but in general micro waves were what was on tap.  Same setup as the past several sessions. 

I have had the Kujira 980 in the truck all of the past sessions - but all I really wanted to foil on was the ART999. 

Honestly with the Cedrus mast, I could have easily switched out the foils.  I just wanted to keep pushing the ART999...

I spent a lot of time out at Firsts today.  Waves weren't terribly exciting, but the wind was solid, and it was a good chance to practice turns and timing.  Back on the inside I was finally able to nail some flying tacks.  Still need more practice.

The OR A 5.0 truly has a super wide range - never had trouble in any of the conditions from this day.

Pretty respectable speed out of this combo.

And with this session, so goes this last round of wind.  Super fun opportunity to get really familiar with the ART999!

Wing Foiling Session - 12/12/2021

 Full on breezy today!!!  Knowing the pattern from yesterday, I opted to wait a little bit before heading out today - and it paid off.  I was at the parking lot at Hickam by 1:30 and it was blowing strong.  Same setup as the past few days - but this time I tightened the fuselage-mast bolts a hair more than in the past (wanted to make sure it wouldn't loosen).

Interesting fact - the winds were definitely stronger at the front end of the session which made foiling that much easier.  But at the end of the session, as the wind was dropping, as long as I didn't drop off foil, I did not have a problem moving.  If I was losing power from the wing, I would pump the foil and I could cut right through the lulls and dead air zones.  I haven't been able to do that with any other front foil as efficiently as I have been able to with the ART 999.

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my watch so I don't have track/speed data - but this was a great wing foiling session! 

I also picked up Arvin's board - he cracked a rail (he thinks with the Armstrong carbon mini boom), so I've got another repair job.  This is motivation to get Marvin's board repair done (so I have room for this repair).

Wing Foiling Session - 12/11/2021

Finally more steady trades have filled in!!!  Mid-morning session at Hickam to do more training on the Axis ART999.  Setup was the WWFB, the ART999/HA420 mounted on the 85cm (+4cm) Project Cedrus mast.  Pumped up the OR A 5.0 (which at times felt great, and others felt under powered - makes me think I need to get a 6.0).  I brought Tim out for his second session - he is well on his way through the long journey to becoming a winger.

This was the best wind we've had in quite some time.

I had stuck on the inside to keep an eye on Tim, but got drawn out by the waves breaking at Firsts.  The ART999 is fast, stable, efficient and a wonderful foil - except when trying to get going.  It needs a good strong gust to get it up, but after that it doesn't want to go down - just a few pumps and it glides through the lulls.  I have my technique down for the jibes, but I am still feeling my way through the tacks - I can get it to go around and onto the other side of the wind, but then I drop off foil.  I need more practice...

After a few waves on the outside (I was the only one out there), the wind started to back off a hair.  I rode in and hung on the inside until a few more guys showed up - Harris and Jim both headed out.  The second run out there saw some good waves still (amazing considering the time of year) - early Christmas present from the Southern Ocean.

Up at the front end of the session, I think a 6.0m would have been perfect.  A few gusts came through - but in general I had to be careful to either come up on foil or stay up when driving through dead wind zones.  A 6 would have just made riding in those conditions stupid easy (as well as the conditions of the past few days - 12 to 18 days; the 5 is turning out to be more of a 15 to 25 wing).

Nice top speed!!!  I think I can still push this one a bit faster...

Wing Foiling Session - 12/10/2021

Hit Hickam again after work.  As I was driving up it looked pretty good, but by the time I was rigged and headed to the water, the wind looked like it nose dived into the low teens.  I only brought the Axis ART999 so off I went.

I had the proper bolts on this time and this foil (during the second half of the session) worked phenomenal!!!!  It takes a bit more wind and board speed to get up on to foil, but once you are up you need less wind to stay up.  And it pumps so easily through the lulls.  This is a really magical foil - so much glide and it allows you to carry speed through jibes (it was pretty light winds for most of the session so I was hesitant in trying to tack this foil - I didn't want to drop and have to start over).

The blue schlogging was the whole first half of my session.  Eventually the wind did pick up and I was rocking (see the red tracks on the right of the chart below)!!!

I mostly jibed today - I didn't want to risk coming down off foil (like I said earlier - it was far easier to stay on foil in light wind than taking off in the same wind).  I really didn't see any of these gusts...

Interesting to see the top speed from today - 20.8 mph and I wasn't anywhere near the potential of this front foil!  Tomorrow is supposed to be windier, so hopefully I can get more out of this foil.

Wing Foiling Session - 12/9/2021

Hit Hickam after work again - wind was better than yesterday, but still on the light side.  Same exact setup as yesterday.  

I made a beeline out to Firsts - there were chest high waves coming through - remnants of the storm earlier this week (I'll take it!!!  Waves coming from the South in December!!!).  I made one really long tack out to get into a solid wind field.  I tacked back and rode a wave all the way in to the second red channel marker.  I caught a few more - a couple of which I even got to ride regular footed with the wing flagging.  But I did botch two really good top turns (jibes onto a wave with an immediate drop into the pit) - pretty much the PNL185 not keeping up with the faster top turns like I had been executing with the NL160. 

There was a lot of wildlife out today - the big monk seal was swimming in the line up - had to continuously do double takes to make sure it wasn't the other long, dark colored friend...

There were also a pair of rather large turtles constantly popping up in the outbound line.  Kept things interesting.

Just like yesterday, you can correlate the wind graph with the speed chart - this is really cool!

Tomorrow the winds are supposed to be a hair stronger again, and it is forecasted to build up from there into mid next week!!!!

Wing Foiling Session - 12/8/2021

The trades started to fill back in today - light, but still wingable... mostly.

OR A 5.0, Go Foil PNL185, WWFB.  The wind was just on the cusp of being totally wingable.

The wind was more northerly than the graph indicates.  I had some long stretches where the lulls kept me schlogging.  When I finally did get up on foil, I did stay up for a while - and the waves were actually good sized - head high on the sets.  Although the wind was blowing almost straight into the waves - so they were hard to ride.  I did get some really fun ones.

I did get caught outside on a long lull.  I saw the wind outside so I kept schlogging out - but the wind kept luring me out... I was way outside before I got into the wind field and up on foil.  I carefully tacked and headed back in - picking up a pretty big wave and milking that energy to get through the dead wind zone.

I got back to the inside and spent the time trying to pull as hard as I could to get to the upper part of the inside (where the wind was more consistent). That was bait and I got stuck outside again.  Oh well - 

You can totally see the correlation of the wind graph above with my speed chart below (this is so cool!!!).  

The wind is supposed to be building from now until the first half of next week - it will be good to have wind again!  I think I'm going to try the Axis ART999 again tomorrow.

Evening Session - 12/7/2021

Got in a late afternoon session - wind died off and left behind a decent shoulder high swell.  I setup the 4'8" prone foiling board with the GL140 - perfect for today's conditions!  I got several really long rides with carves and switchback turns all along the way.

Roland was out and nailed a flip while Marlon was filming with the drone.

The incredible sunset was a wonderful backdrop to this awesome south swell in December!

It really doesn't get better than this!!!

Evening Session - 12/5/2021

And after all that I got done today, I also hit WPB for a quick jump in the water.  4'8" prone foil board, Go Foil GL180, 16.25" Go Foil rear stabilizer all mounted on the short Go Foil mast (24.5" + 3" adapter).

It was cold, rainy and a tad bit on the windy side (just not strong enough for winging).  I got in about 5 rides then called it.  Marlon stayed on the beach and was kind enough to take some pictures with his cell phone.

It was a little harder to foil with the shorter mast - especially on some of the drops I attempted 

Always a great time!!!  Tomorrow the waves are supposed to be bigger ....                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Garage Works - 12/5/2021

What better thing to do on a rainy weekend day than get some work done on long standing projects.  I got the footstrap inserts epoxied into Marvin's 4'1" Majek Bash and the 4'8" Wing Foiling Board (which looks giant compared to Marvin's board). 

Routed out the slots on both, then had to go help La with something, then came back, prepped the inserts (by sanding off the lip tabs and getting a scarification on the insert surfaces), and got them epoxied in their slots in both boards.

With this the hard part is over with Marvin's board - I've still got to deal with the mast track inserts on the Winging board....

Garage Works - 12/4/2021

I wasn't feeling well this morning - bad headache (might have been from the water issue at Pearl Harbor...).  I opted out of the dawn patrol (and from the internet postings I don't think I missed much) and rested a bit.  When I did get up, I went ahead and got the footstrap inserts installed on the 4'8" Wing Foiling board and also on Marvin's board.

Marvin's board work was a little more complicated than my new build install.  Had to fill the void left when I pulled out the old inserts - this had been done to reverse the footstrap alignment from goofy foot to regular.

I still had some time after doing some chores, so I leveled out the splicing blocks on Marvin's board and got the slots for the footstrap inserts marked.  Tomorrow I'll route out the slots, grind off the tabs on the footstrap inserts, then epoxy them in.  I also sanded the entire top deck to prepare it for some innegra patches and a cap sheet of carbon.

And I got the slots drawn in on the wing foiling board as well.

Tomorrow will see some early morning routing.  I still need to dig out the mast tracks on the NWFB and make that repair - I want to get these done so I can just go to the beach.