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Flysurfer Peak 4

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Slappysan
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby Slappysan » Tue May 11, 2021 6:54 pm

Flyboy wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 5:56 pm
Question: best technique for self landing a Peak in strong onshore winds? My last effort was a bit of a mess. All my previous attempts were in lightish wind & a bit of a wind shadow. I'm thinking to try positioning the board down wind & landing the kite against it. Anyone tried this successfully?
I've never had to land in strong wind yet but I would probably just go with pulling the lower front at the edge of the window like I do in light winds @ 6:46:


Your idea about using the board to backstop the kite sounds kind of crazy TBH. Sound like a good way to wreck your kite, especially in stronger winds. You'd be better off just pulling the safety IMO.

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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby junebug » Tue May 11, 2021 8:04 pm

jumptheshark wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 2:25 pm
Have to retract a bit of sentiment from my last couple posts in this thread. Had a weird session yesterday. Wind was strong but dying a bit. It only really died down to 15/16 knots, but it wasn't filling into the launch very well. Thought I'd be fine on the 5 but struggled. Switched up to the 6m and was fine, but it looked like 4m peak weather. Anyway, rode some really nice residual swell and really had my first good play on water with the 6m. It drifts just fine. Out where the waves were I could have been on a smaller kite, but the 6m handled it well and heading down swell it was awesome, just like the others.

I ride the 6 on stock line length and the others are on shorter lines so the 6m felt a bit like a waltz, but super fun session, and I'm super glad I got it. Wont really lower my bottom end so much as improve it.
I'm glad to hear this. I ordered a 6m a few days ago to try it out. We have a good number of 10-12kn days with small but relatively clean, fun swell where the 5m just isn't quite enough to get the job done. I assume the drift won't be as good in 10-12kn as it was in 15/16kn but I'm looking forward to trying it out.

I've got 20m lines on both 4m and 5m and I'm going to go a little longer (24m) on the 6m to help capture those 10kn days.

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jumptheshark
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby jumptheshark » Tue May 11, 2021 8:10 pm

I just pull the safety with the kite low to the edge and walk to that side until the kite is directly downwind. Hold the safety line low and the kite will flag and sit stationary enough for you to walk the line. Generally wont roll more than once. Pretty easy to just flip before weight the tip. One more reason for short lines on the small ones.

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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby tomtom » Tue May 11, 2021 8:19 pm

Today I was consistently self landing Peak 3m /switching wing - eat - etc./ together with my son on Peak 4m /he was on surfboard/ in quite nuking wind /there was tree falling near - unrooted not break/
Not even sign of danger or discomfort. Just hard crash it on side. It must loose shape instant - so you must send it. Luxury of peak is you can crash flatten it without damage.
Just go for it

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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby tomtom » Tue May 11, 2021 8:20 pm

I dont have any safety on Peaks there is no point. Just QR
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby bragnouff » Tue May 11, 2021 8:34 pm

I used to land it against my board, just because it would never stay still on my exposed beach after landing, always rolling and twisting. It was interesting to gauge the right distance, do a few attempts to fine tune the length then go for it, crashing it on edge of window a couple of meters in front of the board. It worked, it stopped the kite from rolling back into the window too much, as it was stopped by the foil board. But it was surely risky and a few times I had some bits of bridle wrapped in bits of the foil, which could lead to damage, or at least required cautious unwrapping.
Now I tend to attach my CL to something and walk to my kite on edge of window. It's very stable and well behaved, and it makes for some clean landings/packdowns. However, if I were to be very powered, then I'd happily use the flag line.

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jumptheshark
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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby jumptheshark » Tue May 11, 2021 10:22 pm

Seems like we keep answering this one.

I'm with Tomtom right up to the point I'm not :wink:

Most times I just crash is and go to it. Every once in a while it will flip or slide even once totally slack lines and shape killed on the ground. Kite is just thick enough that 25 knots of wind is gonna move it.

Have used the safety with min fuss on the days it's actually difficult to crash.

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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby Flyboy » Tue May 11, 2021 11:32 pm

Landing in lightish wind is completely different than when you're really powered up on an exposed beach. Full disclosure: I did flag the kite (in about 25 knots). Unfortunately, the safety did not work properly & only released the length of the bungee flag line before getting stuck in the part of the QR it's supposed to slide through. As a result, I no longer had control of the bar, but the kite was still pretty powered up & started a death loop sequence dragging me along the beach. It did eventually slip through & all was intact - other than my dignity. :roll: I need to replace that bar - I'd been using for foiling because up to now I've never been that powered up.

Was out on the 6m today in a gusty 10 - 14 knots. The 6m is confidence inspiring in light wind because it really doesn't feel like you can drop it - even when you come around in a gybe without much power in the kite, it will still float around nicely. The 3 times I have dropped a Peak so far have all been when underpowered waterstarting - looping the kite into the water accidentally while trying to generate power to get up on the foil.

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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby Trent hink » Wed May 12, 2021 3:27 am

Landing I always just grab the outside lines and back the kite straight down.

In hyrdofoiling wind I just wrap the outside lines once or twice around the bar (depending on how I have the lines trimmed), push the bar a bit into the sand and casually walk up to the kite.

If I was way overpowered on the hydrofoil, or out on my surfboard, I do the same thing, but if the kite won’t sit still I just grab one line and keep it tensioned as I walk towards the kite.

It might flip around once or twice as I am doing this, but if I keep tension on one line it can’t pull hard or take off, and at the very worst it settles into a slightly twisted pile that will take no more than 5 minutes to straighten out, at the very most, and usually way less.

I don’t understand how anyone ever has a problem putting one of these down. Landing the 5 in plenty of wind to rip up wind well-powered on my surfboard seemed like it was gonna be sketchy on my first try, but the reality is it was, and is, super easy.

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Re: Flysurfer Peak 4

Postby jakemoore » Wed May 12, 2021 4:30 am

jumptheshark wrote:
Tue May 11, 2021 8:10 pm
I just pull the safety with the kite low to the edge and walk to that side until the kite is directly downwind.
I would hesitate to land foil kites in this way. While it is effective, I have broken Flysurfer kite cross straps by having the pull suddenly isolated to the few safety bridles. Even more insidious, I have had Flysurfer kites develop asymmetric bridle changes that might drive a person so mad, they would go back in time and sort through Foilholos old posts. Peak must be less likely to have these problems compared to closed cell kites in big air jumping winds but there is no reason to think it is completely immune. Asymmetric bridle changes really are a royal hassle so I would use the front line safety only in emergency
tomtom wrote:I dont have any safety on Peaks there is no point. Just QR
.

I'm also not a fan of safety-less bars if for the minimum reason to be a good role model. If the wind really changes then sure it would be easy to dump a peak or open cell in the water But on land maybe not so lucky. And worse case scenerio maybe not so lucky for somebody downwind. I have in the name of simplicity gone BRM style on my bars and thats an especially nice choice for small peaks.

Landing for me from 3m peak to 15m Chrono:

I put the kite at the side but then backstall the kite down onto its trailing edge. Certainly this is easier with a peak than the high performance foil kites that will really launch you if you don't commit. Even relatively powered for hydrofoil riding, the Chronos Soul and Sonic backstall landing is easy.

The Peaks unlike closed foil kites also offers an option to tether. If I was truly overpowered enough to have a concern about safe landing with any foil kite I would simply do the landing near shore in the water with a good exit plan.

A friendly catch is always welcome.
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