Flysurfer Peak 4

[mirza23454]

Bar and line management in water is key too. Wrap as clean as possible with no line tension all the way to the grey. Hold it way out to the side and reverse exactly and fast enough to avoid ever tensioning the lines before the very last and your unwrap will go smoothly. Accidentally tension while drifting and the outer lines bite in and it’s more of a pain in the ass from there.

Huh now I’m confused. When I do my drift launch, lines are always tensioned, because that’s how I keep the kite’s leading edge up! When the kite “drifts” in the water, it isn’t lying flat, the LE is up in the air supported by the wind and lines, and half the canopy down on the water. The kite does not launch until I’m done because the lines are trimmed for backstall.

[jumptheshark]

Interesting. Am not certain my way is better, but I drift the kite completely on its back with only the upside down open leading edge catching wind. That will pull downwind and pull the rest of the canopy up along the surface. The lines are drag enough to keep the kite oriented properly to the wind and the pace is pretty sedate so unwrapping while back-pedalling upwind to expedite is easy to do with no tension. Lines only tension once I have the board in position and the bar ready for launch. A totally cresting wave will force a do over, but any less than a real decent wave and the kite will recover its drift nicely. If anything I sometimes have to move towards the kite to avoid line tension if the kite gets semi swamped for the bit of LE that’s still exposed to pull the rest back up and along the surface

I hate it when the lines bite into the wraps on the bar and try to do it all without that happening.

[mirza23454]

You don’t get tangled with semi-slack lines? I’ll give it a try! Main issue with tensioned lines is that it can get a little tiring

[Sceotend]

Sergio Horst has a great page / video how to make Peak relaunch:

https://kj4l.com/?p=291

[Janus]

Interesting. Am not certain my way is better, but I drift the kite completely on its back with only the upside down open leading edge catching wind. That will pull downwind and pull the rest of the canopy up along the surface. The lines are drag enough to keep the kite oriented properly to the wind and the pace is pretty sedate so unwrapping while back-pedalling upwind to expedite is easy to do with no tension. Lines only tension once I have the board in position and the bar ready for launch. A totally cresting wave will force a do over, but any less than a real decent wave and the kite will recover its drift nicely. If anything I sometimes have to move towards the kite to avoid line tension if the kite gets semi swamped for the bit of LE that’s still exposed to pull the rest back up and along the surface

I hate it when the lines bite into the wraps on the bar and try to do it all without that happening.

I do it the same way.
When you have to wind up the lines to reach the Peak, I first set the cleat or strap to full power, then bar at full power till CL and I Make sure that the flying lines are set equal and then wind up the lines.
This works for me, keeps the peak nicely on the water after reset and unwinding the lines.

[djdojo]

Hi all, just signed up to kiteforum to participate further in Peak 4 discussions. Many thanks to all contributors so far! I've been strapless foiling on Clouds for years and just got Peak 3, 4 and 5m a few months ago. Absolutely loving them (especially 3 and 4 -- 5 is more of a session saver). I make my own bars and running them each on their own bar, on 12, 14 and 18m lines respectively. Relaunch and deep water reset have been easy to learn; again, thanks to the pioneers who've worked this all out.

Two questions: for those who have many more sessions in than I, what parts of the kite start to wear out first with normal use launching and landing on sand? I'm very gentle with my gear, and happy with my ground handling so far, but curious if there are any things to be avoided that only become apparent after lots of use?

Secondly, for those who've totally removed the b-safe line, are there any longer-term effects on how the kite canopy stretches? I presume the A-level span lines take a bit more load when the b-safe span line is removed? Any longer-term issues you've noticed?

Many thanks, Brendan

[jatem]

I found that the yellow mixer line can wear if the pulleys get sand in them, so I check the pulleys are running freely as I lay it down for launch setup.

[jumptheshark]

I assume flapping is the key determinant of canopy wear. I put effort into minimizing it. I think running them on progressively shorter lines in higher winds helps in this regard. Have yet to notice any wear but expect to see it first in the ultra light canopy material somewhere near the trailing edge. Will be interesting to see what the longevity of these kites is like. Having multiple sizes to avoid spending time overpowered feels intuitively important.

Other than that I’m careful with weighting the tip cell for self launch and find using the entire edge of my board along the entire edge of just the end cell that is made of slightly thicker material on grass or sand to be working well with no signs of wear yet.

I guess the only other thing is line management. Been wrapping just up to the yellow mixer and loosely half hitch there on the bar.

[elguapo]

Highly recommend that you do not skip sizes from 5 down. They are sized and spaced well and skipping the 4 will definitely leave a gap in proper non flapping perfect range. You will either be over done on the 5 or under on the 3.

Besides, the 4m is definitely my favorite Peak4. Perfect amount of cloth in this design for my 80 kg and 1100 cm2 foil.

personally.. i feel like i cant skip from 3 to 6.

i though ta quiver of 4m and 6m peak.. (and 6m and 12m double skin kite).. was all i needed..
but i missed that 3m once the island thermals start kicking in... and a 5m is often the sweet spot for those 13-15 kt days (which was freq recently)

a 5m was my 1st peak... i sold it(i thought i was good with a 4 & 5)... but recently ended up getting another one.

[Peter_Frank]

Ha haa, I know what you say - my friend has a 4 and a 6.

And many times we are out, it is 5 m2 wind, so he has to make a difficult choice, while I am in the sweetspot

Peter