Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 8/24/2025

Nice conditions this morning on the dawn patrol.

Super light wind (at least to start with).  Mid tide (so paddling out was not too bad).  And there were still some really fun waves coming through.

I realized last night that I hadn't gone out to get some more duct tape - which means I really couldn't take out No.41.  So I figured I'd mix things up a bit - No.34 with the AFS HA Ultra 750 with the Glide 41 rear stabilizer (set in the rear position).

I made an initial guess on the mast position - and after each of my first three waves, I made an adjustment and got the setup dialed in.  There is just a hint of front foot pressure - but without it the foil tended to drop out.

No surprise - just like when I've winged with this foil there is a ton of glide.  No real work is needed to extract the glide - especially from a tuned setup - just occasional pulse or tap.

After I got the foil dialed in, the wind picked up and it was strong.  The erst of the session was spent wondering if I could get on foil with a parawing.

Lots of curves on the tracks - that's me surfing this foil!

I'm gonna call this 13 rides.  I know I missed a few, not innately knowing how this foil would behave.

This foil definitely occupies a different space than the Silk 650 and the Enduro 700.  I'm going to continue using this foil while Foil Drive-ing in the immediate future.

W:56/FD:106/PW:26/S:6

Garage Works - 8/23/2025

I did spend some time in the garage today.

First up was getting Marlon's foil board repairs forwarded.  I got the track block glued in place.  Tomorrow will see trimming of the glue and carbon installation.

Then I shifted over to No.42

I got the template cut out of the blank I glued up.

And I emptied the shop vac and cleaned up the garage floor.

I did that other stuff because I wanted to think about the nose rocker on this board and how I'm going to shape the bottom.  Sometimes it's good to think about other things so you can clear your mind before commit to cut foam.

Foil Drive Dawn Patrol - 8/23/2025

Dawn patrolled PW on FD this morning.  Nice waves coming through with very little wind.

Took No.41 out for a spin.  Also tested out the ABS plastic sheeting to cover the trench - it worked well.

Dennis, Grant and Eddy were out on FDs.  Prayot, Andrew, Noel and Mark were out on SUP foils.  There were others on prone - and tons of surfers. 

I got multiple really long rides today -

15 rides - with one false start (wave outran me at start up).

Eddy was taking video and posted to the WhatsApp group.

Fun session!!!

W:56/FD:105/PW:26/S:6

Parawing Session - 8/21/2025

Today has really good wind.  Not nuking, but solid and more (than less) consistent.

I want to test the upwind ability of the BRM Ka'a 4.8 - and I was originally going to go to WP to keep the location parameter the same as yesterday.  But Norm said he was going to wing PV so I figured I'd take the breaking waves out of the equation and join him.

I brought the same board-foil combo out, but like I said earlier - packed the Ka'a 4.8

With the super high tide and stronger winds, launching was easy.

I had paddled over towards CG a bit more to launch - wanted to give myself a head start and not start with a deficit and have to paddle in against the wind.

The Ka'a did go upwind.  But where I usually pick up the wind if I go down and drift at CG, I could break through that section.  PWs have a smaller range and once you go below that you drop off foil (if you aren't willing to pump around).

That happened a few times - and I'd have to drift a bit (once way out to blue water) to pick up the wind line.

You can see from the track I progressively went upwind - and I really didn't give up any ground.  So that tell me as long as you have sufficient wind, even lower aspect ratio, short lined PWs can go upwind.  It would be nice to get my hands on a Kanaha and do a back to back with the Ka'a to see how different they perform. 

This graph was the wind at Hickam - it was a notch less than this at PV, but this relation is shown better on this graph as opposed to the Kalaeloa graph.

So for me at my current skill level and body weight, with the board-foil combo - I need about 20 mph to takeoff with the Ka'a 4.8 (and I think it tops out at the comfortable level at 27+ mph which it was gusting to today). 

I happy that I was able to get upwind with the Ka'a!

W:56/FD:104/PW:26/S:6

Parawing Session - 8/20/2025

Decent wind this afternoon.  Super high tide.  Energetic waves.

Decided to parawing today.

No.34 with the 85cm AFS UHM mast, AFS Enduro 1300 and HA43 rear stabilizer.

The wind strength was good when it was good, but when it was down I had to sit and wait.  I took out the Maliko 5.1 to maximize the up on foil time.

This setup is so good!!!

It was a full house today.  Roland and eventually Prayot were out on wing.  Zach was on his windsurfing rig.  Koa was out prone.  And Robby was out on Foil Drive.   

I think this is my record for distance traveled on parawing.

And I was able to hold my line - I didn't have to paddle back once.

I am leaning towards the reason being the Maliko v1 parawings.  But it might be the wind speed - and if I take the Ka'a out its probably actually not strong enough for me to pull back up wind.

I'm going to pay closer attention to this.

When Greg Drexler discusses the V2 parawing range, he says the difference in the Kanaha and the Ka'a are pretty small.  Both being able to haul upwind and both being able to collapse down to very small packages.

I also focused on jibing while still hooked in.  Almost all of those attempts were successful (but I ate it a few times).

But perhaps the most significant thing today was my first tack!!!

Heelside and on to an incoming wave (is there any other way???).  I'm going to emphasize practicing this. 

I could hold the 5.1 down today - but there were several periods where I could have been using a smaller parawing (but then I'd have more issue getting up on foil - damned if you do, damned if you don't)

This on foil time chart is looking more and more like my winging sessions -

Super fun session today!!!

W:56/FD:104/PW:25/S:6

Foil Drive - Parawing Augmented Session - 8/19/2025

Following Norm's lead, today I brought out the Foil Drive, and brought along a parawing.

Wind was way up and down.  When it was up - it was easily parawingable.  When it was down it was almost glassy.

Super high tide made for easy launch and recovery.

No.40 with the standard Foil Drive setup.

And in the stash pouch is the BRM Ka'a 3.6 (first outing)

I had intended to take out the Ka'a 4.8 but I grabbed the wrong bag

In the end it didn't really matter.  My first wave I caught I reached in and deployed the parawing and it opened.  I was going along for a little bit and then lost power in the wing and came off foil.

That's when I noticed I was on a smaller parawing.

I did the same thing multiple times after, but they all got progressively worse

I did ride some waves without messing with the PW, and those were really fun.

16 rides - can't complain about that.

Koa was out also - and there was another Foil Drive-r guy who we haven't met before.

Good introduction session for the FD-PW combo.

W:56/FD:104/PW:24/S:6

Parawing Session - 8/19/2025

Nice high tide today - with some doable wind.  There were waves and they were at the not intimidating level.

I setup the same board-foil combo.  This time I brought the Maliko 5.1

Norm brought his FD setup and his Pocket Rocket 5.0 - the first to try this combo at WP.

Once I got up, I had a great time!

It did take a bit longer than I would have preferred to get up onto foil.  There seemed to be slightly more wind and it was more consistent.  I was able to complete all my jibes without too much drama.  I really didn't try exceptionally hard, but I think if it did I could have held my line.

Had three periods where the wind lulled out below my foiling threshold.  But those periods are good for practicing takeoffs.

These readings from the Kalaeloa Airport wind meter are consistently off by 5mph.

A little more than half the session on foil with the PW!

If the wind is up again tomorrow, I think I may bring the FD setup and also the Ka'a 3.6

W:56/FD:103/PW:24/S:6

Parawing Session - 8/18/2025

Norm and I did a WP-PV run this afternoon.  While I was dropping off the board/foil at WP, I saw this guy chilling at the beach.  When we launched (I go to PV to pick up Norm and whoever else wants to go, and we leave Norm's truck at PV for the recovery) - there was as second seal also chillaxing.

The wind was whitecapping when I dropped off the board.  When I launched, it was one of those days where the wind line looked like it kept drifting further offshore.

When you wing/parawing in shitty-shifty winds, you got no choice but to learn how to make lemonade.

This was the view at the start -

Norm was trying out the Enduro 1100 on FD.

I setup the same gear I've been primarily running for PW.

I want to downsize the foil set - but whenever I do I regret it.  I need to just accept that the Enduro 1300 is fine.

And this is the PW I should have taken out - Maliko 5.1.  Instead I used the Ka'a 4.8 - not wanting to have to wrestle a PW.  But I was being optimistic with the wind strength.

And this is what the finish looks like.

While I was out, the wind was getting worse and worse.  I knew I brought the wrong PW almost immediately.

I did get up early - and I actually went a considerable distance, but when I tried to jibe the PW didn't have the wind to stay up and thus started the long drift across the Campgrounds area.  The wind across this stretch is usually weak - you either plow straight through to get across, or you drift and try not to get hammered by rogue sets. 

After CG, the wind does fill back in and I was able to get up twice.  The first post CG run was long with multiple jibes and lots of waves ridden.

I had one wave that had plenty of push so I retracted the PW and just surfed the wave.  And I even redeployed the PW successfully!!!!

Definitely made the session worth it!

I was perfectly powered at this point.  But I still think I should stop over-estimating the wind strength and go bigger.

Norm gelled with the Enduro 1100 right away.  He looked like he was going faster, turning harder and still running with plenty of glide.  He said he likes it!

W:56/FD:103/PW:23/S:6

Garage Works - 8/17/2025

In between the morning skunk and the afternoon session, I did some work on two projects in the garage.

First up was Marlon's prone foil board repair.

The tracks were leaking from the around the back of the boxes.

This board has a substantial wood stringer, so there was a lot of routing in lifts to not over stress the router.

The block fits nicely, but the port side has some overage (nothing that brown gorilla glue can't handle).

And I planed off the excess gorilla glue on the blank for No.42.

And I traced the template that I made to pull characteristics from the latest downwind boards - notably the tail of the board.

This is probably going to be one of my biggest experiments -