Flysurfer Peak 4

[Atte]

How about the Peak4 on snow? What size should I get for my light wind kite? I'm 140 lbs, on skis and very experienced.

Light wind ,uphill, deep powder = 13m
Light wind, flat, packed snow, = 8m or 11m

Thanks,

Have you ever used the 5m on snow? What kinds of winds? Can't imagine I'll get much use of the 4 &3m in winter! Maybe on skates.

Only used the the 4m and 13m on snow but the 4m was just for testing the setup with bar, not for real riding.

[Strekke]

Thanks for the review Peter. So if I understand correctly, if you consider the 5m's sweet spot from 12-16 knots for your weight, the 6m would bring that down to 10-14 knots, and maybe even rideable on longer lines in the 8/9 knot range?

True 10-14 knots instead of 12-16.

Dont know about the 8-9 knots, havent tried longer lines.
Will probably use my 8 on 27 m lines, instead of the 6 though, and as soon as possible if sufficient wind, go with normal lines 21 m on the 6

So I am not the one to answer this question, sorry...

Also, we measure/determine wind strength very differently all over the world, when sub 10 knots, so not a very clear view on this, for many reasons.
Low wind windstrength is something we try to share, but often it makes no sense, and lead to misconceptions instead, so I'd rather not go down that road

Peter

Thanks for the feedback. For me 9ish knots is when there is a light breeze and once in a while there is a hint/attempt of a small whitecap that you can occasionally spot. This wind gets me going on my 9m Airush ultra, but only barely, really pushing the low end and no room for any mistakes or downwind shenanigans, just straight line mowing the lawn. The 5m cannot get me up out of the water in those winds, low end there is 11-12 knots for me with clearly formed occasional white caps. But it doesn't really matter what windspeeds we are talking about. With your explanation I assume I will get a 2-3 knot better low end on the 6m peak, allowing me to leave the 9m ultra at home, and that's all I needed to know

[jaros]

With your explanation I assume I will get a 2-3 knot better low end on the 6m peak, allowing me to leave the 9m ultra at home, and that's all I needed to know 

Well, i do not have the 6, but for me the 2-3 knots difference in low end is between 5 and 8... so if that is true for the 6, that would make my 8 obsolete...

[tomtom]

How about the Peak4 on snow? What size should I get for my light wind kite? I'm 140 lbs, on skis and very experienced.

Light wind ,uphill, deep powder = 13m
Light wind, flat, packed snow, = 8m or 11m

Thanks,

Have you ever used the 5m on snow? What kinds of winds? Can't imagine I'll get much use of the 4 &3m in winter! Maybe on skates.

4m is last size im using in winter - but surprisingly quite often - 86kg snowboard. Anything above 20 knts 4 is better than 5

[Peter_Frank]

With your explanation I assume I will get a 2-3 knot better low end on the 6m peak, allowing me to leave the 9m ultra at home, and that's all I needed to know 

Well, i do not have the 6, but for me the 2-3 knots difference in low end is between 5 and 8... so if that is true for the 6, that would make my 8 obsolete...

Hardly, thats why it is risky to compare numbers....

Of course I can not ride as low with the 6 as with my 8, eventhough I have not used longer lines on the 6.

The difference gets more and more infinitesimal the bigger you go IMO, just like an 18 m2 kite does not start earlier than an 11, it just goes upwind better.

So there is something about it, but still a lot more power in an 8 than the smaller ones.

Peter

[Oldman_Dave]

Hi guys I just wanted to back in Peter's observations with some further thoughts on the 6m. I had 2 sessions of about 3hrs total over the weekend.

In short I agree with Peter's feelings - it's a thumbs up from me. Lovely kite to fly. It's not the eager puppy like the smaller sizes, but it is a great size and does everything beautifully.

I am over 95kgs and was riding axis Tray 94 with 820 front wing.

In this wind I had a fantastic ocean session with the 6m. My friend was on a 12 Soul. He changed down to 8 Soul but was struggling sometimes. For me this was the perfect opportunity on the lower end of the 6m range. Kite was great start to finish.



The next day I had an ordinary session. Surf was very big and gnarly to get out through. I got out and could only get going in absolute gusts (5 mins of looping before I caught a gust, then up and away). Unfortunately I came in to change to 13 as it picked up a bit (the little peak in the middle). I was messing about with setup & a bridle tangle on the beach and eventually felt it had picked up so I changed back, and then by the time I got back in the surf zone it dropped back away and had I missed my chance.




Definitely loving the 6m and highly recommend.

[a99]

I am over 95kgs and was riding axis Tray 94 with 820 front wing.

In this wind I had a fantastic ocean session with the 6m. My friend was on a 12 Soul. He changed down to 8 Soul but was struggling sometimes. For me this was the perfect opportunity on the lower end of the 6m range. Kite was great start to finish.

Definitely loving the 6m and highly recommend.

Looking from you chart seems that you can get Foiling with 6m peak on also 8-9 knots easy?

[Oldman_Dave]

I think with my 95kgs 8-9 knots is not easy. It is doable but really scraping the bottom end, so maybe a couple of loops one way, a couple the other, a couple of foil pumps, and with some luck you're up and away. Once moving it's all good. I would call 10-12 knots easy where it's scraping with the 5m. Also a large board would lower your bottom end, I'm on less than 1m board.

On the 2nd day above we measured 8kts at the beach with a gust of 10 at one point while watching meter. I think that I couldn't get up in 7-8kts and once it reached 9-10knts then I could. Hard to really say though without a built in real time wind meter streaming to your eyeballs.

[Cefirmeza]

Hi guys I just wanted to back in Peter's observations with some further thoughts on the 6m. I had 2 sessions of about 3hrs total over the weekend.

In short I agree with Peter's feelings - it's a thumbs up from me. Lovely kite to fly. It's not the eager puppy like the smaller sizes, but it is a great size and does everything beautifully.

I am over 95kgs and was riding axis Tray 94 with 820 front wing.

In this wind I had a fantastic ocean session with the 6m. My friend was on a 12 Soul. He changed down to 8 Soul but was struggling sometimes. For me this was the perfect opportunity on the lower end of the 6m range. Kite was great start to finish.



The next day I had an ordinary session. Surf was very big and gnarly to get out through. I got out and could only get going in absolute gusts (5 mins of looping before I caught a gust, then up and away). Unfortunately I came in to change to 13 as it picked up a bit (the little peak in the middle). I was messing about with setup & a bridle tangle on the beach and eventually felt it had picked up so I changed back, and then by the time I got back in the surf zone it dropped back away and had I missed my chance.




Definitely loving the 6m and highly recommend.

What is the 6m Soul bottom end and its limitations?
Is it the weight?

[Flyboy]

It sounds like a 6m/4m combo would be ideal. For 80 kg rider, 6m starts at 10 kts. with sweet spot from about 11 kts. to 14 knots, but ridable comfortably to 15 kts. 4m starts at 14 kts. with sweet spot from 15 kts to 19 kts, but rideable comfortably to around 20 kts. Does that sound about right? That would correspond more or less to my 8m & 6m wave kites with the foil.

Unfortunately, the 6m does not appear to have arrived in north America yet.