Rejuvenated Parawing Interest

There has been a lot of parawing development going on - and it has peaked my interest again.

I had originally planned on Foil Drive-ing - but there was a light onshore breeze that was making the water pretty choppy.

Instead of heading home, I went to Pavilions to check out the conditions there (I was talking to Scotty about it when he was at the house picking up the big board).

And I decided to breakout the parawing and fly it.  

It's hard to break this out instead of a wing when the conditions are supportive of flying the PW.  But again with all the videos coming out of people doing pretty much the same stuff they do on wings with the PV, it has been drawing my attention.

I did make a commitment to myself that I was going to learn to parawing this year... probably time to start acting on that.  I need to remind myself it is ok to suck at something if it helps me develop more. 

Garage Works - 4/24/2025

I got this board back out to its owner today.

And then turned my attention to getting Roland's board all fixed up.

I sanded the epoxy work from yesterday (2 windows and a footstrap insert on top, window on the bottom), then added a fill coat of epoxy on the bottom work.

I also found some cracks up near the nose and got those opened and filled.

Here's the first fill coat on the bottom work.

I'll do another sand and fill tomorrow.  I'm hoping to get this one back to Roland by Sunday - I've been formulating No.41 in my head and want to start shaping it.

Garage Works - 4/22/2025

I spent a little time this afternoon working on the repair boards.

Here are the tracks opened up on Roland's Orca board.

And here are the tracks opened up on Uncle Joe's board.  I only need to sand and spray clear coat on this one and it is done.

And I have been researching the parameters to try and get better prints from PETG - this driver holder actually came out really nice.

Behind it is a whistle - but it isn't as loud as the description made it out to be.  Going to have to print out a bunch of the other one I printed so the downwind crew can be all whistled up (for safety).

Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/22/2025

Good energy in the water today (101 kJ being reported).  Unfortunately it was a pretty low tide.

Roland and Marvin out Foil Drive-ing!!!

And today was the first day I Foil Drove with the AFS Enduro 700 (Mahalo to Mark for letting me borrow it).

Using the last setting from Sunday's winging session, I looked at the differences in the Enduro 900 positioning - wing and FD - and used that to position the mast for the first run.

We all headed out - but Roland and I had to turn back because our drives weren't picking up throttle signals.  After resetting the batteries, we headed out again.

I rode the E700 as is for several waves - but it had that same sense of "stickiness".  I pulled it back a 1/4" and it felt much better.

I was hooking some good turns with this foil - tomorrow I'll try again and push the rear stabilizer up to the forward position and see if that helps loosen up the turns. 

Roland is getting more rides every session.  He was on the Vyper today and he didn't get thrown/bucked off once.

17 rides for me in under an hour.

Epic!!!!

W:31/FD:59/PW:1/S:4

Garage Works - 4/20/2025

Instead of dawn patrolling this morning, I went ahead and got the board repairs in the garage forwarded.

I trimmed the slot in Roland's board so the mast track reinforcement block would fit.

Then I laminated a layer of fiberglass at the bottom of the slot.  And I went ahead and got the block epoxied in place.

While that was hardening, I sanded the big board and got one last fill coat in for good measure.  I'll sand this tomorrow and open up the tuttle and the track slots.

After that, this one should be done.

And after the winging session, I found myself back in the garage.

I used the small Bosch electric planer and got the corners faded in and the lip on the tracks removed.  I used the sander and took down the remaining high points and got this ready for laminating.

Nicely faded in

Same lamination schedule I've been using recently.

And here it is all laminated.

I'll drill in the bottom deck signal window tomorrow.  I'll also sand the edge of the carbon and fill the signal window and the drainage hole Roland cut into the tail.

Then there are the fill coats, sandings, cutting open the tracks, footstrap inserts on the top deck, signal window up top, sanding, filling, sanding, and clear coat.

Probably will be done by next weekend.

Wing Foiling Session - 4/20/2025

The wind came up early today - when I got to a stopping point on the garage work, I headed over to Hickam (since the tide was pretty low).  I also wanted to dial in the AFS Enduro 700 -

This is where the foil balanced out for me.  I had it set further forward for about half the session - but it seemed like I was having to exert some front foot pressure.  I didn't want to make the adjustment earlier because I didn't want to have to deal with the up and down shifty wind to get back up.  But eventually I did pull the mast back and what a difference!

Getting up on this foil did take a little more effort than the Enduro 900 - but that's to be expected.  As long as the wing was powered, it wasn't an issue.

I had actually wanted to cycle through the stabilizers to see what would work best for the E700 - but I just used the HA40 in the rear position.

The E700 surfs - no surprise and no complaints.  I think next time I'll push the stabilizer up to the short fuselage position to see if it loosens up. 

Pretty up and down.  But at least there is wind that is wingable.

I think with the HA38 I can get this foil over 25mph.

The 23.1mph came from the inside speed runs.

Fun session!!!

W:31/FD:58/PW:1/S:4

Wing Foiling Session - 4/19/2025

And after keeping an eye on the wind, it did come up enough to wing.  Zach was already on it by the time I pulled into the parking lot.

There were whitecaps - but I didn't trust this wind (it was not forecasted to be like this, so these were likely thermals).  I pumped up the Nova Pro 5.0

The AFS Enduro 900 is so versatile - that I had the confidence to get up in light wind with it if needed (FORESHADOWING).

With waves in the picture, I went ahead and setup No.40

The tide was on the lowish side - so that meant paddling out a ways to get to clear water.

There were waves - and with patience there were some good ones.  The first half of the session was surprisingly good.

But the back half had me wondering if this was going to be a long paddle back to shore day.

Luckily I picked up a gust and was able to get back in.

Tomorrow may be another double session - I want to try out the AFS Enduro 700 that Mark let me borrow.

W:30/FD:58/PW:1/S:4

Dawn Patrol Foil Drive - 4/19/2025

You could feel the wind in the air this morning... it wasn't blowing down low, but you could sense it was going to come up.

The tide was pretty low and the swell was FAT (and not running down the line). 

I switched boards today - back to No.34 - I just felt the need to mix it up.

Kalani, Dennis were out of FD.  Dean, Andrew and others were out on non-motorized foils.  And the inside was infested with Wavestorms....

Despite the hard to ride conditions, I still got plenty of fun rides.  I'm gonna say No.40 is a more versatile board - easier to turn, catches waves nearly as easy as No.34 (but not as easy), and better at pumping.  No.34 is still a pleasure to use - and keeps pace well - this is just nitpicking.

Twenty rides

W:29/FD:58/PW:1/S:4

Afternoon Foil Drive Session - 4/18/2025

Smaller waves (but some decent ones would come in periodically) today.  And when I first went out it was glassy - then a squall came through and it was wingable.

After the squall, it was still a little textured, but still nice.

Medium tide.

Same gear as the last several sessions (it's just that damn good!!!)

Prayot and Duke were out when I got to the beach - they were out DW SUP foiling.

I used a 1/3 of the battery before the squall hit.  I headed in for a break while the wind was howling.  By this time Prayot and Duke had left, and Kalani and Roland were setting up.

Roland had several good FD rides today (3rd session).  But there were still times where he was getting up way too slow and would end up losing it.

29 waves - but this time over a larger time band.

I was able to borrow Mark's Enduro 700 - but this afternoon seemed too small to really get to try it and see what it can do.  I'll try and wait for bigger surf.

W:29/FD:57/PW:1/S:4

Garage Works - 4/18/2025

I had some time today - so I got the mast track reinforcement block installed in the board that Scotty brought over for Uncle Joe.

There is a 6 ounce cloth patch surrounding the block (which is on top of the 6 ounce patch covering the bottom of the slot).

This hammer drill is heavy - and made a nice weight.

This shows that the track block is in straight.

And here is the track all taped up and ready for lamination.

This is a direct overlay of a 6.8 ounce uni-directional sheet of carbon, and an over sheet overlay of a 4.8 ounce carbon cap sheet.

Tomorrow will be sanding and filling.

Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/17/2025

On shore breeze today.  Smaller waves.

I used the same gear.

Similar results!

Roland's second day out on FD - and he made some good progress.

Duke and Prayot were out on their DW SUP foil boards.  And they were catching.

But I caught a shit ton of waves!  29 rides - with a hand full of double dips.

I'm going to try and borrow Mark's Enduro 700 and see if I can make that foil turn even harder than the Enduro 900.

But I do need to spend some time in the garage to get the repair orders completed.

W:29/FD:56/PW:1/S:4

Evening Foil Drive Session - 4/16/2025

I got out later than normal this afternoon - was talking with the contractor who is painting our house.

I did want to get out so I could help Roland get through his Foil Drive learning curve.

I brought out my new standard gear - No.40/UHM 80 cm mast/E900/HA40.

And Roland setup the Nugget with the Uni Progression 140

Roland did get close to getting up on FD - he just needs to get up faster to avoid the "I'm up on foil already and can't control the board because I'm still laying down" issue.  It does take time to get used to all that is going on and to develop muscle memory.

I was ripping!!!  Clean conditions and a nice full tide.

Walls lined up that I could just carve up and down for hundreds of feet -

28 waves - this is way over the ridiculous limit!!!!

Should be similar conditions tomorrow!!!

W:29/FD:55/PW:1/S:4