Flysurfer Peak 4

[Janus]

Had my first deepwater missery with the 5m.
Crashed it for the first time, relaunched almost but due to my un patientenceness, I tried to flip it on its back to early (a little wind on the TE is really enough to let it open up) and had to swim.. to the kite.. little waves on the lake I kite (0,7 m) tried two times. Second attempt was succesfull.
My findings..
Be patience to drain the water out, don't flip it to early.
The lines get in the way if you don't wind up the lines and try to get back in launch position, so winding up is better IMO (in full power mode / backstall and equal line setup.
Its a bit tricky with the briddle lines in the rough water when setting the kite up for relaunch position.
It drifts fast downwind so really be fast with the unwinding the lines
The board get in the way, I had an extra leach to keep it from dissapearing or getting in the lines, this works but it is annoying.. sitting on the board was not possible due to the "waves"

[pvb]

I found that submerging the back edge of the kite gives plenty time to unwind lines. And unwind quicker than drift so no pressure is on the lines. My board stayed completely level with me. Total drift was about 40 m.

[Adventure Logs]

I just put my board on its side and the 633 will float that way and basically stay still. Then I just put my bar on the wing, swim up to the kite while loosely holding the lines and take care of everything and swim back. Works for me.

[ieism]

I tried the reset technique a few times last week in shallow and deep water. Ive learned a lot from more experienced posters here, so thanks for the detailed plan.

Its quite easy to do on the 5m, a little hard with the 8m but with the 11m im sticking with my other technique of using plastic bags in the leading edge to prevent it from sinking in the first place. I cannot empty the tips and flag the kite downwind easy with the 11m, its just too big and heavy for me . Maybe with a lot of wind i could but then ill be riding my other kite.

[Janus]

interesting.. where do you put them and are you succesfully relaunching the 11 every time?

[ieism]

interesting.. where do you put them and are you succesfully relaunching the 11 every time?

I put them halfway between the tip and the middle in a cel with white flaps to hold it in place. A ziplock works but i lost one so im now using small bin bags (pedaalemmer) with a string that I can tie to the kite, they are also bio degradable and recycled.
I'm relaunching much easier because the leading edge doesn't take on water, it only takes a minute to install. Give it a try.

[jumptheshark]

Killer session with a lifelong windsurfing buddy at a non kite launch with non refracted perfect lake/river swell. So strange to realize, I'm back to windsurfing sail sizes! We were both on 4m sails. His place: treed in and steep down to the water. Spent half my life growing up in the wind and phat waves there, so its really nice to recover that spot for kiting. Have attempted drifting LEI's there before, but this was orders of magnitude safer. Swam to a swim raft and drift launched from that with zero drama. A couple hours later just dropped it in the water for a safe/quick wet exit. Kite was dry by the end of the second beer.

After practicing with the 5m for wet launch and land, the 4m is soooo much easier. I can only imagine the nightmare it could be dealing with the 8 or even 11m in the water. The plain truth is that water launch is not really feasible in big kite weather anyway and I am pretty confident the 5m is the logical cut off for that kind of stuff. It's really nice to realize how calm and uneventful drift launching in 20 knots can be. With the kite glued on its back to the water and just the cupped LE acting as a sail, it was a nice slow unwrapping of lines as not to outpace the kite's drift. For launch, am one hand at the low V split on my fronts to get the kite up off it's back and the other on the bar to keep it all pointing skyward. In real wind like that it was pretty easy to keep it oriented straight up while the tips drain. Was off the water at zenith before the were empty trailing spray out the tips for another few seconds before game on.

It ramped to 25 knots with gusts to 29 knots (local wind meter). Totally doable on the 4. It's much easier to overpower at the top end compared to the 5m, but I definitely recognize while I'm oversheeting and taming the kite, I could be much less restrained on a 3m! That's the second time I've had those thoughts.

Gonna get one.

[Slappysan]

I tried to drift launch my 5m in about 8-9 knots the other day ... not gonna happen. I think you'd need about 12 knots (which is perfect 5m wind).

[jumptheshark]

8-9 is too light for me to get going with a dry 5m on long lines. 11/12 sounds about right for wet launch. Normal lines.

[Sailboard]

Hello all ,
Excuse me for my English !
To read you I am really tempted by a 5m for the Foil wave. I'm not the type to drop my wings, but the relaunch questions me! (On the lake among other capricious winds ..)
On the leading edge in reverse the peak does not take off again?
On the trailing edge: full window from the front is that right?