Way too much work to arrange the photos in a meaningful order, I'll stick with the chronological one.
All style on this one instead. He's goofy like me and he seems to like the paddle on the back side. Trying to caress or touch the water on the inside of a cut back is always a good idea. Ask Tom Curren.
In this front side cut back, without switching hands on the paddle, he moved it to the inside of the turn again to achieve the same shoulder twist.
I like to have the paddle on my front side instead. That's the side I use 99% of the times I paddle for a wave, often switching to it only for the very last stroke if the desired angle of the board requires me to do so. I'm just stronger and more balanced on that side. It doesn't help the shoulders twist in the backside cutbacks though, if I keep it there.
This mini sequence illustrates one of the advantages of the footstraps, particularly the back one in this case. Pumping a foil board is very similar to jumping up and down, with a slight delay between the timing of the two feet.
Something like: front up - back up / front down- back down. Here I'm pulling the back foot up against the strap and that helps greatly to lift the whole tail of the board.
Here I'm about to start loading up the front foot.
Other advantages of the front foot strap are:
1) a nice sensation of a solid connection to the board
2) it can be used to leverage against it also in the cutbacks
If you ask around instead (as I did, before deciding nonetheless to add some stick on inserts to give it a try), most people will tell you "so I'm sure the foot is in the right position". That doesn't make any sense to me, as there is no right position. The biggest advantage of not having a strap is that you can move your foot according to what the ride and the wave demands.
I installed it like two weeks ago and I'm gonna use it till the end of February and then try again with no back foot strap. I have a feeling I'll miss it and put it right back on, but I'll let you guys know. Too bad that won't mean anything, as it's a very personal choice.
Jason's first attempt to the air chair. Flash and Austin are the best ones I've seen at this peculiar way of foiling. I've never tried and I'm honestly scared about it.
This one illustrates the leash system. My board is 6.6 and I'm 5.9 and I can get away with an 8 feet leash. 9 or 10 would work better for bigger boards/riders. Not ideal for novices, as you wipeout more often, but still better, IMO, than those coil leashes. The estimated amount of time I take to tack it back in the shorts after I wipe out and I get back on the boards on my knees, is less than a second. I do it even in front of approaching white water in the middle of a set.
Looking cool wasn't my first priority on this relatively big drop. Keeping the nose down was. And that was a good idea, as I managed to control it and enjoy a very long glide. Underfoiling better than overfoiling.
Same wave. I just like the water in this one.
A different perspective. Thanks to my visiting friend Gianfranco for all the great shots.
I remember this one, as I thought I was going down for sure. Instead a miracle happened and I managed not to overflow and to somehow continue the ride. I think the paddle touching the water helped (I'm not leaning on it though, my weight is still centered in the middle). If anything, at least it made me crouch down and keep a low stance.
Didn't do as good here. The moment the foil breaks the surface of the water, it looses all its lift and the nose of the board crashes back to the water surface.
I'm pretty sure I'll end buckling my board at one point (it wasn't build for that), but at least the Gofoil (current) mast is only two feet long, so you don't crash as hard as if it was longer. The other advantage is that you only need two feet of depth. The main advantage of a longer mast would be more play before overfoiling. On the other hand, when you do overfoil, you crash from a higher height and you will touch the bottom more often in shallow waters.
It's always a treat to end a session with a very long one, aiming for the dock.
I'll end with a quote from the best book I've ever read: "The untethered soul" by Michael Singer. I've read it 4-5 times and I keep learning something every time.
Consciousness has the ability to do what is called "focus". It is part of the nature of consciousness. The essence of consciousness is awareness and awareness has the ability to become more aware of one thing and less aware of something else. In other words, it has the ability to focus itself on certain objects.
Right now, all I'm aware of is the water in front of me. The incessant chatter of the voice of the mind inside all humans' head is temporarily silent and that is what for me is bliss. That happens in any form of wave riding, but somehow it's enhanced by the lack of water noise while foiling.
4am significant buoy readings
South shore
No indication of southerly energy at the buoys, the Surfline forecast calls for 0.8f 15f. There were waves in the waist to occasionally shoulder high on the Lahaina side already yesterday.
North shore
Pauwela
9.1ft @ 10s from 87° (E)
East swell still pumping, but with a slight turn more to the east.
Wind map at noon.
North Pacific shows a couple of small NW fetches and the usual E one.
South Pacific shows a nice fetch partially blocked by New Zealand. Next weekend's south swell swell could be bigger than the actual one.
Morning sky.
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