Flysurfer Peak 4

[Janus]

No prob Sailboard, My french isnt as good as your english.
It's not that black and white with the relaunch of the Peak's
I've had my issues but it's not a real problem, with just a littlte TE cloth in the wind is enough to get it reverse launch right after you put it in the drink.. be gentle and not hasty to turn it over to LE on top, the water must get away.
I've had a deep water repack and relaunch, just stated a few posts back.
Yesterday with the 11 also.. but a line over after a twist prevent it from taking of but normally I would have succeed.
If you dont'drop the kites you normally use I can't imagine that you will drop a Peak.. give it a try, I bet you like it.

[jumptheshark]

It's difficult to give you a simple answer. I guess its simple enough to say that the Peak is not designed for water relaunch at all. That is enough to dissuade a massive percentage of foilers, but as we clearly know that is not really the full story. Strutless kites were initially panned by the market on the same criteria, and now there are plenty of people venturing into strutless kites only to find they are some of the best relaunchers out there.

In short, for those who are competent swimmers and proceed with caution, patience and practice, relaunching the Peak is very much possible. It can never be considered 100%, but no kite is foolproof on relaunch, especially as the wind gets light. 11-12 knots is what I consider the minimum for a swimming drift launch.

I have crashed the peak, leading edge down and there was enough wind for the kite to keep its shape and simple reverse relaunch off the water. I have had the kite crash leading edge down and completely collapse onto the water. From here I have held one steering line aloft until a bit of trailing edge corner fabric catches the breeze and the kite then proceeded to fill and take its shape LE down with water in the tip cells. A few seconds held there to drain and then reverse launch or rotate relaunch. These relaunch techniques require a solid understanding of how the kite behaves on and off the water. Pulling a rear line say with the kite flat on its back is going to sink it and make relaunch more difficult. When it's on its back, it's about using the front lines to get it up off the water, but again understanding what is happening at the kite really helps as too much tension and you will ruin it. Patience to let the entire LE catch some breeze so you can get it to pull up off the water is not as simple as relaunching an LEI. The kite can also land in the water in a random crumpled shape. Again, this is generally from complete slack lining the kite in the air which is usually rider error. I am certain there are ways in which it can land in the water that no amount of jigging lines will get it to fill and relaunch. That being said, after nearly a full season on the peaks I have yet to swim in from a failed relaunch. Worst case scenario you can swim to the kite and reset it from nearly any situation for another relaunch attempt. (5m and smaller recommended) I have only had to do this while practicing drift launching the kites in light wind. In moderate wind the success rate is higher. I did screw up a drift launch just the other day that required a wet pack up and dry land reset, but it was due to not checking to ensure the bridle was cleanly laid out before swimming out, ie rider error.

So you can see that for those that expect LEI type of relaunch, these kites are not entirely appropriate. A major percent of these kiters would still have a great time on the peak but will be restricted to staying closer to shore. Many will likely get through a full season without dropping the kite at all. They are very easy to fly and keep in the air.

Not a simple answer, but I assure you and other readers that with a little practice time and patience, you can learn to get these kites back up off the water with acceptable success rate. Breaking waves are likely the absolute exception.

[gl]

I have the flysurfer peak 4 in 8 and 11 metres. I bought them for use on snow. Yesterday at my local spot the wind was very light. Too light to launch my 9-meter pulsion from the water. So I thought I would try the 8. The kite launched easily from the beach. I had to walk out couple hundred metres to get deep enough water to hydrofoil. The local wind metre said at its height the wind was 8 to 10 knots. I noticed if I brought the kite more than halfway down to the water there was far less wind there. A friend with a 14.5 ocean Rodeo Flite was not able to launch his kite. At one point I was hydrofoiling and his kite was still stuck on the water. Finally we got his kite into the air, he's a skilled flyer, once it was in the air he had no problem keeping it there and he was also able to foil. The wind dropped off so that I could no longer get on my board and his much larger kite was able to keep him going. An interesting thing for me was that jibing was much easier with the peak than it was with my pulsion in that light wind. I was amazed how hard it pulled in 8 to 10 knots. Like everyone else has said it doesn't go upwind as well but there was no problem going upwind. Next light wind day I will try the 11 as it has quite a bit more pull. The eight ended up being much more fun than I thought it would be. At no point did I seem to be at risk of dropping it even when the wind dropped almost nothing and the my friends larger kite had to be waved back and forth to keep it in the air, mine just sat there like a rock. If you are into speed then the pulsion would be a much better choice. I did find I cruised at a slightly slower speed but even in the low wind speeds I was able to S turn and play a bit rather than just travel in a straight line. The pulsion wouldn't have liked turning towards the kite in winds that light. I would not say one is better than the other they're just different both fun in their own way.

[azoele]

The Peak 4 is also my first foil kite. For launching I’ve been hot launching them from straight downwind - backstalling on the way up. For landing my favorite method so far is to drop the kite on a wing tip at the edge of the window and pull in the bottom front line.

I practiced a bunch of launching and landing methods on a light wind day to figure out what I liked best.

Thanks for sharing.
So, you land it similarly to landing an inflatable kite, only pulling the lower front rather than the higher one?
Makes sense: pulling the lower should get the kite to "unroll" to wind; on a LEI, pulling the higher front makes the kite fall on its leading edge.

I will certainly try.
Lopi

[azoele]

If your trying to land the bigger ones in light wind it should be a no brainer. Put it down at the window edge on either side. You can lay it down plenty soft and as you slack the lines by walking toward the kite. You can give a tug on the front lines just before stepping to it if you want, but I generally just lay it down softly. In 10 knots, If it moves it will be one flop. I generally jog to the kite and get it before it moves and am using smaller peaks in more wind. It's the easiest kite to land I have ever had. No impact, no power, no issues.
If your going to walk up a line, I would walk up one of the lower two lines, but I have only needed to do that in serious wind a couple times and even then, it was precaution.

Backing them down in a tight spot is only a little more difficult. You can do it nice and controlled, erring always on the side of too much rear line tension, not too little. You can crumple the kite completely and bring it down pretty fast by really pulling in the rear lines, the kite looks all funky, but just comes down. You can do it all nice and controlled too with the kite in shape, but your playing the front and back line tension on the cusp of it flying forward and at much higher risk of a yank. Get to know the kite a bit on an open beach before you put yourself in tricky situations.

Overall, the kite is way more versatile than you think. Water relaunch and even deep water drift launch are doable as long as you are paying attention to a few key details. Those having trouble with these kites in the water are not paying attention to the design. Water pack up is super easy if you do it right, and like any bag of water, super pain in the ass if you don't. Roll up the lines well into the bridle on the bar. put the tips together. Raise the LE to drain the tip cells. Roll tight with bar in kite from tips to centre only really worrying about getting the LE with the battens all rolled up tight. You will end up with a nice wet soggy roll that is easy to drain by raising up the LE. I just flop that part up on the board, swim in and drain it once in the shallows.

Tensioning lines in the water or bunching/rolling it with water in the cells is no different than trying to handle an inflated LEI kite by its Trailing edge on a windy day. There is a manner to handle them that is in accordance to the design and if you can ride a kiteboard upwind, it shouldn't take much to understand the do's and don'ts. Water pack down of a single skin kite does not need to be difficult. There is no panic is it going to take off on its own or tumble downwind, just be methodical and there is no reason you should get water trapped in the kite...... there really is no "in the kite". It only has one skin.

Thanks,
I will try landing as you suggest.
I am sick and tired of the Connect bar, it really is hurting my hands, and turning the big 13m takes lots of fumbling and pulling, or downloops end up as water crashes... I will use my 62m 4 lines bar, and learn to land the kite safely without 5th line (am already better at backstalling it).
Also, just setting up the 5th line takes me 10m (unroll the tiny cables, link them, then check their passages, then connect to the bar), so I'm just very glad to be able to shorten the time-to-water!

As to water packing, I will have to learn, and understand the procedure.
I crashed the 13m in the water, and it was not easy for me to recover it.

My strategy – fully improvised – was to lace the lines to the bar (as if I was packing it to go away), leaving just the kite bridles free.
Then I tried to grasp the kite underwater, and pull a piece at a time on the foilboard, being careful not to pull too hard for fear of breaking the seams.
Eventually, I could load almost all the kite on the board (a Groove Skate L), laid my body over it to keep it in place, and I waited for current to bring me back to the shore, with some leg kicking (more for boredom than real help...). In 30m I was ashore.

It was not funny, and often I had to re-capture parts of the kite that wanted to slip away from the board, but managed it.

I will re-read the suggestions on how to pack the kite in the water, it seems very sensible with the Peak.
Honestly though, the 13m is huge, am not sure I will be able to pack it neatly.
The submerged surface (which exerts lots of load due to the water) is very big creating all sorts of problems.
I'm sure packing the 5m is much easier. Even the 8m can be problematic (but learning with it gave me the chance with the 13m).

Thanks again, the forum is a great help in many ways, and especially when it comes to safety
Lopi

[slowboat]

It's difficult to give you a simple answer. I guess its simple enough to say that the Peak is not designed for water relaunch at all. That is enough to dissuade a massive percentage of foilers, but as we clearly know that is not really the full story. Strutless kites were initially panned by the market on the same criteria, and now there are plenty of people venturing into strutless kites only to find they are some of the best relaunchers out there.

In short, for those who are competent swimmers and proceed with caution, patience and practice, relaunching the Peak is very much possible. It can never be considered 100%, but no kite is foolproof on relaunch, especially as the wind gets light. 11-12 knots is what I consider the minimum for a swimming drift launch.

I have crashed the peak, leading edge down and there was enough wind for the kite to keep its shape and simple reverse relaunch off the water. I have had the kite crash leading edge down and completely collapse onto the water. From here I have held one steering line aloft until a bit of trailing edge corner fabric catches the breeze and the kite then proceeded to fill and take its shape LE down with water in the tip cells. A few seconds held there to drain and then reverse launch or rotate relaunch. These relaunch techniques require a solid understanding of how the kite behaves on and off the water. Pulling a rear line say with the kite flat on its back is going to sink it and make relaunch more difficult. When it's on its back, it's about using the front lines to get it up off the water, but again understanding what is happening at the kite really helps as too much tension and you will ruin it. Patience to let the entire LE catch some breeze so you can get it to pull up off the water is not as simple as relaunching an LEI. The kite can also land in the water in a random crumpled shape. Again, this is generally from complete slack lining the kite in the air which is usually rider error. I am certain there are ways in which it can land in the water that no amount of jigging lines will get it to fill and relaunch. That being said, after nearly a full season on the peaks I have yet to swim in from a failed relaunch. Worst case scenario you can swim to the kite and reset it from nearly any situation for another relaunch attempt. (5m and smaller recommended) I have only had to do this while practicing drift launching the kites in light wind. In moderate wind the success rate is higher. I did screw up a drift launch just the other day that required a wet pack up and dry land reset, but it was due to not checking to ensure the bridle was cleanly laid out before swimming out, ie rider error.

So you can see that for those that expect LEI type of relaunch, these kites are not entirely appropriate. A major percent of these kiters would still have a great time on the peak but will be restricted to staying closer to shore. Many will likely get through a full season without dropping the kite at all. They are very easy to fly and keep in the air.

Not a simple answer, but I assure you and other readers that with a little practice time and patience, you can learn to get these kites back up off the water with acceptable success rate. Breaking waves are likely the absolute exception.

This is really good info. Read it carefully several times.

[Slappysan]

So, you land it similarly to landing an inflatable kite, only pulling the lower front rather than the higher one?
Makes sense: pulling the lower should get the kite to "unroll" to wind; on a LEI, pulling the higher front makes the kite fall on its leading edge.

This is also how I land my Peak 4 5m if the wind is over 10 knots as I find it too hard to backstall land in that much wind @ 6:45:

[jumptheshark]

have changed up my in water packdown a little. I no longer bother with getting the tips of the kite together before rolling around the bar. I wrap up the lines all the way to the end of the orange and blue bridle lines. I don't wrap any of the really fine grey bridle lines on the bar. Get a hold of one kite tip and drain the cell. Place the bar on the outside skin of the tip and begin to roll the bar in the leading edge as compact and tight as possible making sure the grey bridle lines are not wrapped over the leading edge. Keep the bar up near the leading edge and wrap all the way to the other tip, drain it and finish the wrap. The bridle lines end up neatly in the kite. Have found this the easiest way to get the kite in a nice tight package for swimming. It drains very well when you exit the water and is easily laid out to dry with no untangling.

[Flamax]

I have been reading quite a bit in this topic and would love to try a peak4 sometime from a fellow foiler who can show me the ins/outs of the kite.
Is there any of the topic readers from The Netherlands and who rides in the South (Brouwersdam, Outdorp etc.) who is willing to show me there peak4 and even let me ride it ?

PS. Love the topic and good reads !

[Onda]

Flamax, Ouddorp is my main spot. So next time, let´s meet and you can test my 5 m Peak!
Have you been in Ouddorp last Saturday? I saw two guys, one with a Cloud / Flysurfer...

I have the Peak4 5 m² since recently (my first foil kite) and I´m super happy with it. Every session with it I discover another aspect of it and I get happier and happier
I have zero worries about relaunch, simply because it is very very unrealistic to ever put this kite into the water (unless you make a massive steering mistake). Even in the lightest of winds it stays in the sky stable as a rock, you can totally forget about this kite and focus on walking / dragging / swimming back to the beach in case the wind should not be enough to foil. My Naish Boxer 2020 10 m² (which I regarded a very nice foil kite, originally) feels like a sluggish stone in the sky, constantly wanting to fall down, compared to the Peak.
I think I´ll buy the 8 m Peak as well which, together with the 5 m Peak, will make the 10 and 8 m Boxers obsolete.

This kite is not for racing or traveling in straight lines. It is so super playful and turns so easily that I find myself doing gybes all the time. Even in super light wind it makes gybing super easy as you never have to be worried that the kite might fall out of the sky when riding into it.