One problem with forums...

[PonoBill]

Is that great stuff disappears into the past and new folks don't get to see it unless they really dig. Foiling has grown tremendously, and for those new to the sport, or those about to start who wonder why everyone is so hooked on this--here's the answer: about 25 minutes of mesmerising foiling on Maui's famouns/infamous Maliko run. For that matter, if you're wondering what the big deal about Maliko is, here's your answer to that question too:

https://youtu.be/fpuE8hKdHJA

[Hilly]

Prone super keen, paddle keen, wingding looks like fun  . Great vid

[Beasho]

Wow! There is a reason all of this 'coolness' starts in Hawaii. 

The size and heave of those swells as displayed by the drone footage is a total different animal.  Picture a 20,000 foot mountain rising from the bottom of the sea floor.  Swells traveling unfetched, 1000's of miles.

I tried to downwind in Connecticut in 50 mph winds and could only fly on my big slow Maliko M200 wing.  Think 8 miles of fetch in 25 feet of water.  No comparison.

[LaPerouseBay]

The size and heave of those swells as displayed by the drone footage is a total different animal.  Picture a 20,000 foot mountain rising from the bottom of the sea floor.  Swells traveling unfetched, 1000's of miles.

I tried to downwind in Connecticut in 50 mph winds and could only fly on my big slow Maliko M200 wing.  Think 8 miles of fetch in 25 feet of water.  No comparison.

Here is the windiest day we have had so far this year.  Solid 35mph gusting to 50, slightly offshore. 

I escorted a relatively new outrigger paddler.  Strong guy, he windsurfs 60 foot faces at Jaws.  Super fun day.  I kept us in 100 feet of water, barely skirting the reef, which drops to 25 pretty quickly.  If you look left at the last part of this video you can see the east rollers moving thru the 'shallow' water. 

1 outrigger from our group was in there, very strong, very experienced.  He said it was an all time top 5 scary Maliko for him.  These are the days we really don't want anything to go wrong. 

We had so much fun.  Solid 12 foot east swell - zero north swell to cross it up.  Next day the wind was less offshore, almost as strong.  So fun.

https://youtu.be/JOVhfv-1hPk

Here is the bathymetry of Spartan reef, overlayed into Google Earth.  Pins are at start and finish of video.  It gets very knarly on that reef on big days.  That's why I started tracking this data many years ago.  Those numbers are fathoms.   

[surfcowboy]

This is a classic. I do want to report that here in LA there is a 4 mile downwinder that multiple guys are doing (and more attempting) on prone and SUP.

There are a few runs starting to be found. On our coast. So while Maliko is the gold standard, know that a lot of coast should be downwindable. Try it. Our crew (and the Oahu bunch) say you need to be able to do a 4 for 1 pumping to really downwind. Or cheat with a wing!

[Hdip]

I tried the la one prone downwind. Yeah that’s hard. You get lost out there real easy.