Flysurfer Peak 4

[Brian H]

How's the lift on the peak 4 as you bring the kite up to do transitions on a hydro foil ? I love that part of a foil kite and I ride a 9m hyperlink ultra light and I was going to buy a 6m soul for higher wind but the 5m peak has got my attention.

[tomtom]

Soul is better for lift while transition, Peak has different set of skills that make them unique and perfect. Look at BRM Gregs videos - his kites doesnt give him much float, hi use kite speed and his own momentum to make himself weightless during transition. If you are inspired by this kind of riding than Peak are perfect. You you like powered more racing style of transition with unweighting by kite, then Soul is better.

[foilholio]

Exciting more people are using these on water. Hopefully it pushes the water relaunch development a little quicker.

[BWD]

We could end up with both extra high pressure kites like bruno has worked on, and super low pressure ones where the bladder is lighter and serves mainly to keep water out of the LE pocket...

[tomtom]

Yea this could be interesting - but Peak 4 is already very mature kite /its 4 iteration/ and there is almost no need to wait for future.

[daju]

I'm interested in buying two Peak 4's, either 11+5 or 8+4. I guess I would prefer 8+4 due to the better high end (and as a bonus it would be a little cheaper), but was somebody able to compare the low end of the 11 and 8 versions? Officially both windranges start at 3 knots, but what would be estimated realistically values for Landboarding on grass? Does the 8m² bonus from it's smaller size due to faster turning speed to generate more power?
An alternative would be to get the 11+4 sizes, but I think the gap would be too large.

[tomtom]

forget 11 - 4 too much gap. 8-4 will be nice quiver, 8-5-4 even nicer. Peaks have well thought sizes which just work as they are - there are no redundant sizes.
I weight 90 kg and have 4-5. If you dont want fly - soar downhill - which is anyway not Peak domain 8 is biggest peak you ever need. Today i was well powered on 5 - in knee deep snow on snowboard and wind was 7 - 10 ms /14-20 knots/ I was riding with guy on 17 LEI kite - hi was soaring downhill but otherwise i was riding just as fast - just as upwind and just as uphill /quite steep/. Of course i was working with kite more and there was time where i wish for bigger kite but in deep powder you just need power - maybe more power than on water. About twice as much as HF on water. Im thinking about 8 to add. Peaks works better powered than depowered - /they wont flap if you power them/ so IMO is better be on smaller size powered than bigger size depowered. I use 4 in wind above 11-12 m/s on snowboard. I wasnt overpowered yet on 4 and dont think i ever will on snow.

[jjjlaudenslager]

Another 10-20 knot day foiling with Peak 4, 5m. It handled the whole range well, as well as my LEI Cloud 8m normally would at the bottom end and Cloud 6m at the top end (almost). Yes the trailing edge flaps some when the kite is sheeted out. The kite munches gusts better than any LEIs I know. Maybe because it is not lifty. When sheeted out it stays pretty much where you left it - very user friendly that way. It gains less power when dived than any LEI I have used. Sometimes I have to move it around quite a bit to get my butt out of the water. I forgive it because it is so well behaved. "Mature" kite is what tomtom says. I agree with tomtom. Oh, I haven't put it in down in the water yet.

[Horst Sergio]

Another 10-20 knot day foiling with Peak 4, 5m. It handled the whole range well, ...

Exactly as for me with the 3 m in 12 - 24 knts. Maybe the 5 m would have been more fun more powered, but could also have been too much overpowered. And I agree here with tomtom that singleskin better are used more underpowered.

Is there any experience from the old peak2-3 users how fast you will find wear when riding them overpowered with a lot of flapping over longer time, especially for the smaller sizes in strong winds with much higher frequency flapping?

I would expect a single skin will die here much faster than a closed cell, but have no experience not even where to look at for the first signs of wear. If anybody can give some info, Thanks.

[tomtom]

I have lots of friend with peak 3 6 which was considered as one size do all mountain expedition kite /heavy overpowered riding on ridges/. They all still flyes. But thats not exact measurement of longevity you are looking for. Anyway - each generation of peak flap less and less - And this 4 flyed optimaly almost doesnt flap. Use of flaping as aerodynamic brake is part of peaks charm. It wont be peak without flapping. Im willing to pay for this. Most jawdroping thing ever is when you hold peak in mid to strong wind /about 18kts/ on brakes on ground in mid of powerzone. Then you release brakes by just letting bar go. With every other kite on earth this will be violent affair. Peak doesnt even fly all way to zenith it just stay somewhere in front of zenith without any pull at all in this whole maneuver. Flapping make kite slower and cancel all lift. I would also like to know if anybody use B safe 5 line. Me and my friends tried it and nobody liked. It is very prone to tangle and im perfectly capable of use normal front line safety without tangles - as reride - multiple deployment of kite in same session. We however did not tried original FS bar with double Y lines - just normal deep V + 5 line in Y. Only way to make it tangle proof was placing stopper very near about less than 1m for 5m which provide kite to hold shape somehow but this also lead to stronger rest pull. For now im using peak 4 lines only.