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Flysurfer Peak 4

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elguapo
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby elguapo » Sat Mar 27, 2021 7:36 pm

jumptheshark wrote:
Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:01 pm
cwood wrote:
Fri Mar 26, 2021 6:30 pm
Can someone point me to the best water relaunch posts from this massive thread? :-)

Horst has put together a thread guide here:

https://kj4l.com/?p=418
thanks for the link...

this was pulled from that same website of Horst
https://kj4l.com/?p=291
How To: Launch Peak4 in the water
Caution:
I do not recommend to fix the bar to the board and then swim to the kite to correct the canopy. I have made a lot of experience with this maneuver 15 years ago, but in comparison to sitting on a floaty foil board and winding up lines, to swim around free floating half sunk bridle lines can be extremly dangerous to tangle here with your legs and to be drowned, please don’t try and also don’t even mention this risky and also ineffectiv method. Just learn to sit stable on your floating foil board and to wind up and off lines and the rest will get easy without to much risk.
As already said, if you drop yourself and the PEAK4 the most important

first reaction is to pull in the bar and keep it pulled in all the time
keep all line tension and bring the kite as fast into a downwind postion, by swimming around it
if there is just 10-30% of the kite out of the water, most time then it will be possible to relaunch
For relaunch itself it is important not only with the Peak4 to first bring as much canopy into the wind as possible, mostly pulling in both back lines.

The most typical error done here is to sheet in to fast and to wide till the canopy collapses due to this. It is important to find slowly the point of maximum back line tension and maximum upwarts pull for the kite but not having the canopy collapsing.

If you made it till here but the PEAK4 often will not start due to water inside the leading edge, try to make some carefull movements to pull the lighter half of the kite upwards and to slowly turn it around in place. This can need some caution and 1-2 minutes but if you trying to fast oversheet to much it will be more likely to have the canopy collapsing and to bring it into a not relaunchable position, means:

go back to step 4

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Horst Sergio
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby Horst Sergio » Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:08 pm

jumptheshark wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:54 pm
...
Feels strange to go back to chicken loops, but after unhooking the Peaks on snow all winter am stoked to unhook foiling. Have shifted the bars for both the 4 and 5m kites back to CL.

Was surprised at how well the Peak4 flies unhooked. Wasn't expecting that.
Yes, me to, already started remove chickenloops but then only unhooked with Peaks and haven't find a better solution yet. Even if I am sure there are some quite easy updates possible to todays chickenloop + trimmer strap. A trim strap that releases back to full length when hooking back in and releasing pressure to the lower bar stopper should be easy to build for example and very helpful, when shore comes to close and you just want to go back upwind through the shore break with full depower control....

And yes the Peak4 behaves realy well unhooked, compared it long time with the Firefly which I also liked but that was just significantly worse in any unhooked terms as stability and windrange.
Foil_Adict wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 4:40 pm
How much shorter are you riding on your front lines when riding unhooked? Thinking I need to try some shorter lines and more unhooked soon.
Nobody can give you precise numbers of how many cm to pull in, as this depends on your normal hooked setup and the used depower travel stopper points, line length, line thickness, etc.
As well as "all lines equal" for bars is just a basic orientation but not the end of the truth. But to give you some more orientation values:
The original FS Peak Bar with its trimmer works quite good for unhooked at least on the smaller sizes up to 6 m². For my 5 m² with a normal hooked setup where I can back stall the kite when full powered hooked, I need an around 16 cm long trimmer, and the trimming range positions from powered to low powered unhooked trimm is somewhere around 13-15 cm pulled in.

But as As jumptheshark said, try to find it out yourself during riding:
- the Peak should not backstall and should not significantly flap in any normal riding situation. As said this trimmer range for the smaller sizes is around 2 cm long, where on top you can trimm it to a bit more or less power to use it unhooked in a compfortable wind range, even if not as big as when hooked for sure.

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Flyboy
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby Flyboy » Tue Mar 30, 2021 10:32 pm

What is the point of unhooking when you're foiling?

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jumptheshark
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby jumptheshark » Tue Mar 30, 2021 11:58 pm

Off the wind it just takes it to another level. Unhooking on snow when its very low drag riding is fantastic and I imagine foiling is much the same.

Have you never done a long downwinder riding unhooked for extended periods?........ you should!

Where on a tt (unless you want to lose loads of ground downwind) you have to pretty much hook back in directly after landing before burning your arms out, on low drag scenarios like foiling you can tool around unhooked for extended periods both drifting off the wind, on a beam reach and even upwind a bit. Gets your upper body into it and just feels free compared to a tether. It's basically all the rage amongst the winging crowd and what they often sight as the big advantage to wings. I would imagine kite foiling unhooked to be similar to that where off the wind is the primary reason to unhook and feel the freedom to move your torso rail to rail untethered. but also just to tool around in circles before needing to hook back in to get upwind efficiently. Even on a twin tip or surfboard, feathering the power by finding that magic line on a broad reach, where the kite is pulling you enough to plane along unhooked bar in one hand with a relatively slack arm ..... yeah that's a pretty dope feeling I crave. Power a carve and then carry on like that ..... I guess you gotta try it to find out. Kiting waves unhooked taps into a level of synchronicity that is tough to explain, but once experienced is super satisfying. Problem is its a pretty narrow range of conditions that allow it on a surfboard. On foil I imagine you can unhook and have fun in a much broader range of conditions.

Personally plan to use it to spice up super light wind/flat water days as well as get the most wave driven surfing I can get out of the wavy days.

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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby Flyboy » Wed Mar 31, 2021 12:38 am

I guess it seems like foiling downwind with a Peak you're already feeling pretty "untethered". I'll have to give it a try this summer.

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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby borist » Wed Mar 31, 2021 4:45 am

Smaller Peaks (5m or smaller) are not that hard to reset and relaunch even in larger chop as long as there is enough wind and the kiter is able to sit on the board (helps to have both hands free). I've done it several times since I bought Peaks last fall. The first time I was on 4m, was in similar conditions as in the video (Sea of Cortez near San Felipe), chop 1 to 1.5m, wind ~ 20 kt. Looped the kite into the water, would not relaunch. I used similar technique to relaunch as the one described by Horst https://kj4l.com/?p=291. Worked every time so far.
elguapo wrote:
Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:24 pm
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby oldkiter » Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:41 am

Finally decided to learn kite foiling. Have tried maybe 5 -6 times over past 2-3 years with 2 diff setups in low wind ( with 3 and 5 strut kites) with little to show for it except porpoising.

Now have Moses Onda 633 gear and SS 5'6" foil board. Also ordered an 8m Peak 4 because of this thread. Have Solo 9, 12, and 15.5m. Wind will generally be from 8/9 mph to 16/18 mph.

I weight 155 lbs (70KG) plus gear BUT very old. I have kited for 17/18 years, and windsurfed for prior apx 25 years. I will dedicate the necessary sessions.

I will start learning in mid teens using 12 or 9 Solo (minor wave action), and learn the Peak 8m on land or shallow water.

I am getting from this thread that the Peak 8 should have an apx range of 8-16 mph. Is that about right?

Also that you mostly have to send it into the water otherwise it should fly, and it should fly down to 4-6 mph for self-rescue. Is that about right?

Planning to use either of 2 current bars with 15m or 22m lines. Is either one better than the other?

Thanks for any responses and/or comments!!

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Flyboy
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby Flyboy » Thu Apr 01, 2021 1:54 am

oldkiter wrote:
Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:41 am
Finally decided to learn kite foiling. Have tried maybe 5 -6 times over past 2-3 years with 2 diff setups in low wind ( with 3 and 5 strut kites) with little to show for it except porpoising.

Now have Moses Onda 633 gear and SS 5'6" foil board. Also ordered an 8m Peak 4 because of this thread. Have Solo 9, 12, and 15.5m. Wind will generally be from 8/9 mph to 16/18 mph.

I weight 155 lbs (70KG) plus gear BUT very old. I have kited for 17/18 years, and windsurfed for prior apx 25 years. I will dedicate the necessary sessions.

I will start learning in mid teens using 12 or 9 Solo (minor wave action), and learn the Peak 8m on land or shallow water.

I am getting from this thread that the Peak 8 should have an apx range of 8-16 mph. Is that about right?

Also that you mostly have to send it into the water otherwise it should fly, and it should fly down to 4-6 mph for self-rescue. Is that about right?

Planning to use either of 2 current bars with 15m or 22m lines. Is either one better than the other?

Thanks for any responses and/or comments!!
You're doing the right thing learning to foil! It will come to you with some patience & the right conditions. My recommendation is to start by using the 9m Solo in 12 - 15 mph. Enough wind that you don't have to worry about keeping it flying when you fall awkwardly (which you will).

The 8m Peak would more or less duplicate the wind range of the 12m Solo - which is to say around 8 mph - 12/13 mph. I am 80 kg & use the 6m Peak in 10 knots up to 14 knots. More than that & I use the 4m Peak. Below 10 knots becomes tricky with a tube kite because in lulls & while gybing your kite may have a tendency to Hindenburg. On the other hand the 8m Peak should hang in the air better in sub-10 knot conditions. So ... the 8m Peak may serve OK for those sub 10 knot days, but will have a relatively small range before it starts to feel big. But you shouldn't be learning to foil in anything under 12/13 mph anyway ... so the 9m Solo would be the place to start & then figure it out from there.
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby irwe » Thu Apr 01, 2021 12:14 pm

From my personal experience I think it will be easier when learning to Kiteboard Hydrofoil (KBH) regardless of Kite used is to have long lines (even add 5 m extensions to your 22 m lines if you have them). I remember when first learning when setting up the board to start in the water I would be concentrating so much on the board that I would forget about the kite position and it would start to drop from the sky. It was easier for me to recover the kite back to 12:00 with the longer lines.
You can also find more great tips on learning to KBH on other threads on Kiteforum.
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GTC
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby GTC » Thu Apr 01, 2021 1:35 pm

Hi all,
I am considering adding a Peak to my quiver for those 15 kt days.
I have a Naish Pivot 10, which I can't barely use it on hydrofoil because it pulls like a truck. I also have a Wainman 7.5 but in those low winds it feels a little heavy and slow.
Should I consider a 4, 5 or 6m Peak? I weight 72 kg.

Thanks in advance
Last edited by GTC on Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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