Flysurfer Peak 4

[airsail]

On the 4 mtr, 45cm bar on 17 mtr lines.

[tomtom]

44cm 4 and 3m, 50cm for 5m

[Brian H]

50cm bar with 27m lines on the 5m -55cm bar with 30m race lines on the 8m

[Adventure Logs]

I’m using the Infinity 4.0 bar 50cm on stock lines (21m) with my 3. Very easy to one hand, loops and all.

Have had two more long sessions on it. Now down to roughly 18-20kts. I do enjoy it but I’m 0 for 3 on relaunches. I’m sure if I wasn’t on the low end of it’s wind range I may be more successful but there’s just no chance. I do wave hydrofoiling with it though so it’s slack line crashes which I think are more difficult with it.

Definitely the center of attention here in La Ventana. I think the loud flapping(when bar is sheeted out) gets their attention and the tiny size keeps it.

Last couple times I land it by reeling in the center lines. Pretty cool beer trick.

[Trent hink]

I'm 0/2 with the 8 and 0/1 with the 5. With the 8 I got it to back up off the water both times, but like a fool I let go of both steering lines instead of just one. Both times I crashed the 8 were messing around in light wind close to shore and trying to see just how far off the wind I could go before things went bad. I did get it to do some wierd stuff once or twice where I guess it luffed, but it recovered by itself when I quickly turned upwind. It almost looked like one of the tricks you sometimes see the stunt kite guys do -flat spin... or something like that?

With the 5, I just got confused and crashed it in shore break. Waves hit it before I had a chance to try to relaunch.

I have actually relaunched an old open-cell 5 meter kite off the water once after crashing it, but that was probably close to 20 years ago when the wind was blowing maybe 25 knots and I am no where near as quick moving/thinking as I was back then

Reeling in the center lines, do you just grab them and start winding them up on the bar?

[Brian H]

No don't try winding the lines on the bar , just start pulling in the 2 front lines and adjust as needed to keep it straight . You guys that are crashing your peaks need to try long lines .I have 40 days on my 5m and never near the water and I loop my kite a lot and during every gibe . The 5m is fast enough to use long lines and it gives you the good low end.

[PrfctChaos]

Spend some time in shallow water crashing the kite in different ways and learning to relaunch it. I don't think they relaunch poorly at all.

[pvb]

My dealer is saying Peak4 (all sizes) as well as Soul (10, 12) is back ordered. Anyone have any idea of delivery times?

Peter

[Horst Sergio]

Hi Peter,
if you can't get one from your local dealer, you may ask Mischa from www.Kitejunkie.com , he is one of the biggest FS dealers and I was getting my 4 m² Peak4 this weekend without ordering just of the shelf.

About relaunch,
I think when you have slack lines crashing in waves you are 99% out, but similar to a normal kite.
And also those 98,5% quote of successful relauches (beginning of this topic) was for sure just possible when testing it and crashing it willful.
It is hard to say where I am actually in practice as I just crash it so rarely. The two last I remember have been succesful:
- unhooked not yet with the described "full power suicide" leash, bar pulled out of hand, successful relaunch with the 3 m²
- coming back to shore preparing to put board down not seein the 5 m² crashed on windwindow, just 10% of one tip out of the water, enogh to get it up with one hand holding the board in the other...

But I recommend to spend some time in shallow water as PrfctChaos to learn it.

[F-Bear]

With my sweet 5m, am using an old Switch bar, about 52cm with the 20m lines. Works great. Even in winds where the kite can barely fly, turning was no problem.

Totally love this kite....the flapping is quickly teaching me to twizzle the sheeting on the bar to get max power. So cool....it literally talks to me ! Was just sitting on the ground ( to muddy to landboard) and practicing loops and sheeting to get enough power to stand me up. The wind was 2-5 kts and it would get my 200lbs up and standing...."dang, even in this low wind this awesome kite would be able to get me landboarding !". It is raining again today...STOP RAINING SO I CAN GET OUT ON THE LANDBOARD WITH THIS KITE !!!

It is just so fun to fly. Seems almost immune to gusts and swirly wind. NEVER fell out of the sky (a common event with other kites in my area). At times, the kite was at zenith and the wind was so low my heavy bar would drag the kite down...but if I held the bar no problem. And the kite would still TURN. Amazing. And wow does it float !!! perfectly balanced so doesn't tip forward or back when wind goes down to zilch. However designed the kite knows their stuff and just nailed all the details.

So glad I stumbled across this thread, the kite just works so well for me.