Author Topic: Wing Maui  (Read 3250 times)

PonoBill

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Wing Maui
« on: January 16, 2020, 12:19:15 AM »
Easy money today, 25-30mph and a little north in the wind so making way upwind was easy at Kanaha. I stayed out for about two hours on my 4.2M wing and 1020. I kept over foiling with the big 1020. Should have come in and got the 920. One day on that thing and now it's my goto. I switched to the short fuselage and I'm using the 440 stabilizer. I may actually be pumping in a manner that is visible to other people.

Or not.

So much fun chasing the waves at uppers. I do need to do a little tuning. Whenever I foil over the top of a wave I come right up on the very edge of blowing out of the water, and have to hang there on my tiptoes, pressing hard on my front leg and praying that I'm not going to faceplant.

I've got a HUGE improvement in my foiling jibe completion rate. I've gone from 1 out of 40 to 1 out of 20. Amazing. I still don't know WTF I did when I make one, but maybe that's okay. Maybe they'll just go straight to muscle memory and I'll be 1 for 1 without having any idea of what I'm doing. That would work for me.

For some reason, I was really tired when I got out of the water. Not muscle tired--fall asleep on the beach tired. No idea why. I was a danger to all around me when I drove home, so I pulled off and took a short nap. Way better than wandering across the line into oncoming cars.

I did do my highest speed ever crash today, but it was in the water, on a wave. So I got that out of the way.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2020, 02:27:48 AM »
Sounds like you are shredding, Bill!  How light have have you used the 920 in?  That is a great wing.

Dwight (DW)

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2020, 04:33:32 AM »
You and Jacky are in the same place with jibe skill. She flies around the jibe and blows the wing handling, or forgets to surf the board and stalls it.

I’m trying to get her to surf the board first and stop freaking out over the hand exchange. The board will hover at near zero speed and you can pump it on the jibe exit. Picking a wave to exit the jibe on helps a lot. Modify course and steer the board on exit for that wave to slide down. Holding the front handle underhand makes the hand exchange much easier. Even when I’m riding overhand, I’ll switch to underhand before the jibe. It’s just more fluid.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2020, 04:37:32 AM by Dwight (DW) »

PonoBill

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2020, 09:15:43 AM »
Sounds like you are shredding, Bill!  How light have have you used the 920 in?  That is a great wing.

I've only used it once, so 35. At that wind speed I couldn't tell any difference in the lift, but I went faster and dropping into a wave by driving over it was more controllable.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

supkailua

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2020, 12:56:35 PM »
Bill, I am just starting to get my air jibes and here is what works for me.

I bear off a bit heading more downwind and make sure I have enough wind in the wing. Once I do I make my foot switch but keep heading the same direction. Sometimes my foot switch needs a bit of foot shuffling to get it right. Once that is done I again power up the wing making sure I have good speed, then I start the turning. As I come around the hand switch kind of comes naturally because of the change in where the wind is coming from. Once I sheet in with the new direction I have a tendency to head up wind which is OK. I then adjust my feet again if needed and keep going.

As I mentioned I am just getting it so it is not as smooth as I would like it to be but I think that will come with more practice.

They key for me is not to start turning until I have the foot switch done and have the wing fully powered and am going fast. When I would start the turn too soon I would not have enough energy and the board would drop.

One other key point for me was learning to control the height of the board with the wing instead of my feet. During the foot switch and foot shuffling there is a brief period where you need to use the wing to control things instead of your feet. This is especially important when the board gets too high during the foot switch and you need to bring it down before your feet are in the new position.

PonoBill

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2020, 07:41:51 PM »
Thanks, I've been trying about everything. I should settle in on a technique and just work on that. My friend Art does switchfoot foil jibes so smoothly that I can't tell what he's doing. when he explains it, it sounds very different from what I'm seeing.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

Adolfo

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2020, 05:39:33 AM »
I learned to kite almost 20 years ago, before twintips. Back then we used boards that were like little and narrow surf boards with 3 straps.
So we had to learn to kite and jibe at the same time, and it wasn’t easy.
I remember trying to switch my feet during the jibe as I did windsurfing, but it was almost impossible on a 5’ narrow board.
But then I read an article about jibbing technique, with interviews to different  pros. One of them was Robby Naish, who said something that helped me a lot. He said: “always favor your strong side”.
I’m regular, so for me  that means that I always turn regular. If I’m riding regular, I turn and then switch my feet after the turn. If I’m riding goofy I change them before. But always switch feet when the board is going straight.
Doing just that helped me to start nailing my jibes back then and it’s the same technique I used when I started kite foiling 4 years ago and now wing foiling, and it always worked.
Perhaps you can give it a try.
Regarding what to do to keep the board foiling, what I do, is to make it point down, and up again, and switching feet as fast as possible when its going up. So, when both feet are at the front of the board it is pointing up, and the weight at the front makes it start to point down again. 99% of the times feet are in riding position before the board touches the water and it keeps flying. If not, it touches briefly, but with enough speed for the foil to fly and I’m flying almost immediately.
I hope it helps.
Starboard 12'2 x 26
Naish Javelin 14 x 26
Naish Nalu 9'6 x 28
Starboard Hypernut 7'4 x 30 + foil
Starboard All Star 12'6 x 26

PonoBill

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2020, 12:50:40 AM »
I went to Ka'a and then the harbor this morning and considered foil surfing, but Ka'a was empty and nasty looking, and the harbor was crowded and a little windy. It looked like fun, but I checked the wind at Kihei, saw 25mph on iWindsurf, and headed for the south side. I wanted to do a downwinder.

I got to the Canoe Hale and the wind looked pretty good. I called Bill Boyum to see when he was going to go, and it sounded like I might be able to get one run in and meet up with him and Steve Ross for a second run. So I launched. As soon as I got far enough from shore I realized the wind was a lot zippier than I'd thought. My 5M wing and 1020 Axis foil were both a bit big. I thought about going back to my truck and getting a smaller wing, but decided I was just being a sissy and I should go for it. Of course, the wind came up even more (20 gusting to 30 when I launched, 30 gusting to 40 as soon as I moved an inconvenient distance to return and rerig) and I was grossly overpowered and had too much lift. I could turn downwind and start catching bumps, but I couldn't get the wing to stop adding power even luffing it fully and holding it with just the front strap. I'd ride over a few bumps and then come off a particularly nice one, so much lift from the wave and the wind just pushing on the wing that I couldn't keep from over-foiling and crashing. With all the crashing to took me over an hour to go from the canoe hale to the Andaz--probably about 6 miles. Pretty slow. I still got some really fun rides though and learned a lot. I think if I'd had a smaller wing and the 920 foil I would have had a much easier run.

Diane picked me up at the Andaz and we had lunch at Maui Brewing. I considered heading home, but I wanted to try my 3.5M wing and 920 foil. So I went back to the Hale for some back and forth. Of course the wind dropped a bit as soon as I got out, and since I wasn't chasing bumps I really needed the bigger foil wing, but I made it work, and it was fun.

« Last Edit: January 19, 2020, 01:22:50 AM by PonoBill »
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

MLB

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2020, 02:36:02 PM »
Wish I'd seen you while we were there! Saw a couple of kiters but no wings. We mostly went south to the beaches or north to Lahaina.
 Wanted to take surf or windsurf lessons while there but couldn't sleep before 4ish am all week. (damn insomnia)

Dwight (DW)

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Re: Wing Florida
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2020, 05:38:13 AM »
Here is my knee start (5’1 x 26 wing board) heading out for my down wind run yesterday. It took two attempts to get out. My first attempt I popped onto foil right away, then got taken out by a big wall of whitewater. I asked the guy who took this, to send the crash video.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7lTwy2HwEY/?igshid=mdwrsfz8b6vc

This is me on the Surfline Cocoa Beach pier cam passing by.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7jtvVfH4zR/?igshid=1g5rjtzi7xbwc

This is me after the Ebike ride back to my van. I think the Ebike ride was the hard part. The wind was knocking me around so hard on the bike, it felt like my tires were flat.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B7jotCuHfFc/?igshid=1il2rxuvlwnza
« Last Edit: January 21, 2020, 06:16:00 AM by Dwight (DW) »

VB_Foil

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Re: Wing Maui
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2020, 10:18:51 AM »
You should see me riding back to my house on my onewheel with the 5'11" SUP and Foil slung over my shoulder, two Swing Backpacks, and a spare foil wing in my free hand  :D  I get quite a few funny looks and 'your balance must be amazing' comments. 

I’m a 5’9” 65kg rider:

Boards:
   4' 27L Armstrong FG Wing/Surf
   4’5” 34L Armstrong FG Wing/Surf
   4'11" 60L Armstrong Wing/Sup
  
  

Foils: Armstrong HA525, HS625, HA725, HA925, HS1050, HA1125, HS1250, HA1325
Wings: BRM 2M & 3M, FreeWing Nitro 4M, OR 5M & 7M Glide

 


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