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Messages - PonoBill

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31
Random / Re: GPT 5, Sam Altman, What's coming
« on: February 17, 2024, 12:01:38 AM »
This is fun, and fucking spooky. It makes me thankful I'm retired. It's ostensibly a video about disturbing AI trends. And then you realize...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE7fcWpvZyg

32
The Shape Shack / Re: Wetting out S-Glass Efficiently
« on: January 27, 2024, 12:04:40 PM »
Nice video. And I'm going to adopt that look. I'm going to clean the garage here in Maui today (light kona wind, weird swell) and I plan to wear a collared shirt for no good reason other than solidarity.

33
The Shape Shack / Re: Wetting out S-Glass Efficiently
« on: January 22, 2024, 09:35:27 AM »
More specifically, Maui-based brands. The shop is in the old cannery building on W. Kuiaha street, about two miles from my house. This post makes me realize I haven't been there this year, and I need to go wander around and spectate--it's better than going to the aquarium. The cannery is a wonderland of innovative craftsmen. And then there's Mark Raaphorst's JungleWRX in a gulch behind his house, which is even closer and, in some ways, even cooler, though the hike down the muddy hill is treacherous, and the mosquitos do their best to drain me completely. Mark has his own CNC machine now, which he keeps adding interesting bits to. By this point, he could have had a Ferrari or a CNC machine.

I forget the glasser's name at Nelson (Tiger, Spider? Something like that) but he's a fucking magician. Astonishing to watch. And they have lots of nice toys in the shop, including a big CNC machine. They do custom work for any knucklehead that walks through the door--including me. They glassed a SUP surfboard for me that Dave Kalama shaped as a favor about ten years ago. It's a bit hefty, but it will still be here when I'm long gone.

Dave Daum's shop in SoCal is equally fascinating.

More to the point of the thread, I use rolled, not folded plastic, stretch it tightly on a steel table, and hold it flat with magnets, tape, and some long pieces of 3/8" X 2" steel bar stock. I fiddle much too long with it to get it flat because, yeah, wrinkles screw up the process. I get it tight and then let it sit for a night with a piece of plywood on it. Clearly, I'm not doing anything like production. For fiberglass, I wet it out and then squeegee the shit out of it until it looks almost dry. Then bag it. I think of bagging as a way to get glass and carbon to consolidate nicely that would be too dry for a conventional wet layup.

I'm writing this like I just did this yesterday, but it's been a few years since I've done anything complex with composite. My steel table currently has seven 3D printers on it, and I've never built a board. I did a lot of motorsport stuff, and I don't do that anymore.

Incidentally, I think your glass work would go much better if you wore a tie. A bow tie will stay out of the way.

34
The build of a wing is similar to a kite.  Snowkiting has been going on for decades and I have never heard of icing causing problems with kites.
If you are concerned with the coating of the wing, I have used the product Aerospace 303.  It is a uv protectant that makes the kite/wing look brand new.  Think of it like armor all.  In fact I prefer it over armor all for my car.
Perhaps contact BigWinds to get there input.

True--the first wings I saw were for Ice skating--well designed and high-performance. Brett Lickle tried one for wingfoiling by attaching floaties to keep it from sinking--no inflatable parts. It worked but wasn't worth the effort.

35
Random / Re: Ready for the Metaverse?
« on: January 01, 2024, 06:46:19 PM »
Nah, I dream in Qubits. Or FORTRAN.


36
Possibly. The icing won't be even so it will create hard spots with soft edges that flex. The resulting stress risers will probably damage the fabric fibers. Probably no more than when I stuff a damp, sandy wing back in its bag, toss it in the back of my car, and pile other stuff on it. But yeah, I don't think it would do the canopy any good.

I will never know definitively. I consider cold rain to be an intolerable hardship.

37
Random / Re: Ready for the Metaverse?
« on: December 30, 2023, 11:29:14 AM »
Damn, I left my Quest Pro in hood river. I never use it there because it doesn't work well in water or on dirt bikes. Maui is a different story. Here, it's just water, and that gets a bit monotonous when it's all I do. I also didn't bring any 3D printers and took all the ones I had here home--so that was particularly stupid. So I've revived the towbot effort, not the bot itself (I left that in Hood River (duh)), but I'm working on the navigation system. Our friendly geek crack dealer LillyGo released this new version of the Zen board (they call it the T-Beam, but it's one with everything) in a particularly elegant form factor. It's not waterproof, but I can fix that. The explanation of why this is so cool is long and tedious. Suffice it to say, it will make bringing the towbot back to me or having it follow me much easier. I still have to write some code to keep it from running me over and doing the steering, but I can handle that, especially once I go through all the CS50 classes--thanks for that; another timesink. In theory, I already know Python; in practice, I've forgotten all the hard stuff.

38
Hi PonoBill, I’m on blood thinners and got the same advice, wear a helmet as a head bump can be serious. Only wore one intermittently when winging before but mandatory now.
Goodwinds

Yes, it is absolutely mandatory. My cardio doctor said if I bump my head, like if I just trip and fall, I need to go to the ER right away and get checked. I told him I was doing wingfoiling and adventure dirt bike riding, and he just shook his head. He didn't really know what wingfoiling is, so he found a video while we were talking. He finally said, "I think if you hit your unprotected head doing that, you wouldn't make it to the ER." So yeah, helmet.

I questioned the wisdom of being on anticoagulants when I do so much crazy shit. He said (I'm paraphrasing, not quoting), "You've had AFIB, and you have deep vein insufficiency in your legs, so the likelihood of you getting a clot without anticoagulants is fairly high. If you have a stroke, your life will change, and you probably won't be doing anything you enjoy. The anticoagulants are a calculated risk; you can manage the risk to keep it fairly low, and the outcome of an incident could be minor and can be mitigated with medical care. The risk without them is high, you'd have no control over the risk, and the outcome of an incident will absolutely suck."

So: anticoagulants and helmets for everything but sleeping.

39
General Discussion / Re: EZ-Plugs
« on: December 18, 2023, 01:23:55 PM »
Ditto on the superiority of the NSI tie-downs. The only problem with NSI tiedowns is you have to be certain of the location before you let the tie-downs touch your board. Once it's on, it's on. Immediate scraping might get it off, but after even just a few minutes, the hot coat or paint will pull off before the adhesive does.

40
A few suggestions--I'm reasonably capable in light wind despite weighing 230 pounds. The keys for me in moderate wind are a big wing, low drag foil, and low drag board, or in very light wind, a huge wing, somewhat draggy foil, and the board drag doesn't matter too much. Those two choices require different techniques.

I use either an F-one 5.5, 6M CWC, or a 7M CWC. The 5.5 is not a CWC (compact wing), and I prefer it for moderate wind (10-15). Under 10, I use the 7M.

I use Axis foils, and in moderate wind, I like either the 999 or Spitfire 1010, both of which are high aspect. In light wind, I use the 1150, which is a moderate-aspect wing and, therefore, quite draggy.

In moderate wind, I use a Kalama-style downwind board (8'4" X 26", I think) and low-drag foil to get up to speed. Since the board and foil are relatively low drag, I don't need a huge wing to reach foil speed. High aspect, low drag foils require speed to get off the water. You can't just shift your weight back and pop them up; you must fly them off the water like a heavily laden airplane. As the board drag drops away, you accelerate quickly, and things stabilize.

In light wind, it's hard to reach foil speed for a high-aspect wing--there isn't much potential for creating apparent wind with board speed and reach angle. You probably need to go almost straight downwind, which means you will be moving slower than the wind speed. I use the 1150, which is draggy and slows me even more, but it's a wing designed to pump, which means it stalls at very low speeds. I don't pump for shit, but the board can be yanked out of the water with torque from the huge wing, and then a few sharp wing pumps, plus my weak foil pumps, keep it going since there isn't any board drag. Not elegant, but it works. Once you're up and flying you can turn into a reach and keep accelerating. In the lulls, raise your back hand a little and the wing tip will move closer to the board and increase the wing efficiency.

I'm unfamiliar with the GoFoil 2600, but from the pictures online, I'd guess it's probably even more draggy than my 1150. It should be OK with a huge hand wing and the second technique, but it won't work well with the moderate wind method.

41
The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board II – SUP Foil Bumblebee
« on: December 07, 2023, 04:20:55 PM »
Then again Mark Raahorst told me he uses Costo paper towels as breather. I think he protects his bag with cheap painter's plastic tarps--the super thin kind that will lay flat or at least be so thin the wrinkles won't turn into lines on your surface.

42
The Shape Shack / Re: Ultralight Board II – SUP Foil Bumblebee
« on: December 07, 2023, 04:09:47 PM »
A release layer is standard practice for a number of reasons, one of many is to reuse breather. If you do a particularly wet layup, it can also save your bag. According to the video dude at Easy Composites, it prevents uneven bag pressure that happens when the breather gets too squashed.  I don't quite undertand that, but I take it as gospel--those folks have never steered me wrong.

43
The Shape Shack / Re: Chinook 16" tracks
« on: December 07, 2023, 04:02:03 PM »
It's fine that something else fails; just try not to make that easy by not introducing stress risers in critical places. An ultralight downwind board should be downright flimsy everywhere but where you stand and where the foils lift--which is, fortunately, the same general area. If you're clumsy and heavy like I am that's a recipe for disaster, but if you take care of your boards the unstressed area to the front and rear of the standing area should be as light as you can make it.

I ran into Dave Kalama at the beach recently and we were talking about his board designs. I confessed that I had Mark Raaphorst build me a Kalama-style board, which I'm fairly certain didn't bother him at all. When I was admiring one of his recent builds, he said, "These are probably not the best for you, Bill; we both know how hard you are on boards". Damn. And then the conversation pivoted to what a careless klutz I am. I guess I'm at least famous for one thing.

44
I'm officially back in the water. My infection turned out to be a leaky blood vessel, probably got squashed from kneeling on the board, and I'm on blood thinners, so it has sort of a steady trickle. Doesn't look like a typical hematoma. There's no reason to stay out of the water, but it's a good reminder that I should wear a helmet. The doctor says if I hit my head, I need to go straight to the ER. Of course, every sport I enjoy other than foiling requires a helmet--now I guess foiling does too.

Anyway, I've been doing some measurements on my Flying Dutchman barracuda-style board and realized how much it resembles one of the fastest downwind boards I ever owned, the Penetrator. the board was 28" on the deck, but had big, steep chines and a rounded bottom, so most of the time it was really 19" at the waterline. It was hard to ride because it would roll a little, catch itself as the roll made the board wider on the side I was rolling toward, and then it would roll the other way and catch itself. After it got damaged badly, I had it repaired; it was heavier and, therefore, sat lower in the water. The difference in stability was surprising.

My new long skinny board is 125L, and I'm about 105kg, so it sits fairly low. The stability is remarkable. This afternoon, I tried paddling it without a foil. It wasn't easy, but I can do it.

The prediction for tomorrow is light (10-15) winds in a good direction. I'm going to put all this theory to the test. Pumped.


45
Very interesting thread, and thanks for all the detail. I have a new Flying Dutchman "Kalama style" board--I don't recall the dimensions and it's in a bag on my car, so let's guess 8'5" X 22". I wasn't impressed at first because I tried it with my usual setup for my 5'11" X 29" board. I'm heavy and old, so I tend to use larger wings more so I can get up on the board rather than needing power once I'm standing--it's either that or a walker frame on the board. A week or so ago I tried it with a 4.0m wing, 890 foil, and 400/60 stabilizer. What a difference. The 890 has always been a chore for me to get flying, though I love it once I'm up. With the long board, I was up and flying before I was ready and before I even did the first pump. The 890 is a very "turny" foil, and it felt great.

I'm out of the water for a week or so with an infection on my shin from winging in the skanky Kahalui harbor (idiot!). No cut, just probably micro skin tears from kneeling on the board. I can't wait to get back on the board. Lots to learn. I just need to stay out of the fucking harbor.

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