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The 5m and 8m are a blue colour that blends into the ocean color as you get further away. Brighter colours would be ideal.

Yesterday the wind was gusty, with some big lulls, and I was on my 4m peak. I retrieved several boards for people who had dropped their kites. One was using a closed cell that had bowtied. Another was using an inflatable, and they couldn't get it to relaunch. The inflatable was being pulled out to sea with the tide, and it he had a long and tiring swim, hauling a big draggy kite. My peak 4m never threatened to fall into the water.

One of the skills that's useful for hydrofoiling is an awareness of where the kite is in the sky, and this includes while you're crashing. If you have good kite awareness, then you're not going to steer a peak into the water very often, and it has to be extremely light wind before it will fall out of the sky. How well the kite relaunches becomes much less important in this scenario. As with any type of kite, things can go wrong, the wind can drop, you might not be able to relaunch and you should be able to swim your gear in.

Getting intrigued about this thread, since I am looking for a kite for wave foiling that actually stays in the air with minimum wind while riding towards it on a wave. What size would one need to comfortably ride sub 10 knots (minimum 7 knots) on a 1300cm² low AR surf wing, pocket board, @75 kgs? And do these Peaks work on any bar (not taking into account the safety system)?

While being happy with the great response here on the kite,
it is important to also respect the limits of the construction, these are in my eyes:

- if the relative wind drops under 2 knts while you overtake the kite in lowest winds on a wave under 10 knt of wind it may colapse imediately on the wind window, with low chance to relaunch directly after.
- if you try to use the kite under high load application as medium to heavy twin tip riding, it will shake a lot and can colapse when depowered,
- if you take single skin kite sizes as normal LEI 1:1 and use for example an 8 m² in over 25 knts, than it may start to be dangerous as every kite that is abused.

Always keep in mind that the kite was designed for low to medium power application on snow, which is similar to foil wave kiting, maybe also big surfboards and designed to allways stay in the air, but never lift in its normal range. Then you can see why it is also great for foil surfing above 10 knts.

Could not write it better. And as much as i love peaks these are not best LW kites. L/D is just too low. Peaks are 12+ knts kites for me

Horst Sergio wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 8:53 am

While being happy with the great response here on the kite,
it is important to also respect the limits of the construction, these are in my eyes:

- if the relative wind drops under 2 knts while you overtake the kite in lowest winds on a wave under 10 knt of wind it may colapse imediately on the wind window, with low chance to relaunch directly after.
- if you try to use the kite under high load application as medium to heavy twin tip riding, it will shake a lot and can colapse when depowered,
- if you take single skin kite sizes as normal LEI 1:1 and use for example an 8 m² in over 25 knts, than it may start to be dangerous as every kite that is abused.

Always keep in mind that the kite was designed for low to medium power application on snow, which is similar to foil wave kiting, maybe also big surfboards and designed to allways stay in the air, but never lift in its normal range. Then you can see why it is also great for foil surfing above 10 knts.

From your point of view , would you think that the Marabou as a SS will behave the same way as the Peak does other than be better with relaunchable ?

Strekke wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 22, 2019 7:48 am

Getting intrigued about this thread, since I am looking for a kite for wave foiling that actually stays in the air with minimum wind while riding towards it on a wave. What size would one need to comfortably ride sub 10 knots (minimum 7 knots) on a 1300cm² low AR surf wing, pocket board, 75 kgs? And do these Peaks work on any bar (not taking into account the safety system)?

They work with a standard 4 line bar, and they fly with low or high v, equal length lines, with larks head onto all 4 bridle attachment points. Lines should be tuned well, peaks are sensitive to bar pressure.

5m is a good size to try out, to see if you like it. Sub 10 knots in waves is pushing it. A 5m can get me foiling in ~10 knots without waves, but won't get me out through a shore break with 10 knots of onshore wind. On a slow wing you'll be able to cruise downwind on small swell with minimal effort to keep the kite in the air, compared to a LEI wave kite that'll be falling out of the sky unless you loop it. The peak is playful and almost invisible on a hf in rolling swell.

I wouldn't expect to be able to relaunch a peak in <12 knots, unless you've got a buddy on the water that can promptly sit the kite on its trailing edge for a hot launch.

Had another go on the 5m Peak 4 on the weekend, this time in worse wind. About 8-9 knots, onshore.
Also this time swapped the NP Surf L wing+stab for the S wing+stab.

It was more of a workout than it was a kite session, especially with the 1-2 knots of onshore current with the incoming tide. At 75 kg I'm able to make about 8 knots work with the 5m but it's not fun. I would say 12-14 knots would be the ideal range for me on the 5m.

This is just my findings with the kite, I am gybing on the foil and rarely drop a kite, but in sub 10kts i always struggled with relaunch of my Solo 12m.
So i have had 3 sessions on the Peak4 8m now. I bought it to use for snowkiting and hoped that it would work well to replace my LiquidForce Solo V1 12m. I am very happy with the kite, it is a joy to just lay it out on the beach, roll out lines, step back and its away. Its straight forward to land as well, using a single front flag out, parking it on a wingtip, pulling a front line and walking towards it seems to have it down without too much tangle. It definitely stays in the air when other single strut kites are falling, and this has allowed me to body drag ashore when the wind drops. It will get me up in 9kts, so about the same as my 12m Solo, but has no tendency to drop from the sky as i enter the water. It has been very confidence inspiring.
But it does sit along way back in the wind window, my upwind angles are a good 10 degrees less than with a foil kite, i suspect similar to the angles i could achieve powered up with a surfboard. I tried foiling 360's but just get pulled off backwards, you have to keep some line tension to keep the kite turning and this tension doesn't help...Downwind is a hoot! double what i can do with the Solo, the kite just drifts incredibly.
This is with an Onda wing and me at 90kg. My Solo was always a compromise, so is the Peak4 8m, but i prefer it for now, and it seems to give similar grunt to the 12mSolo.
I have not tried the relaunch, you would have to steer it towards the water to get it wet!
For use on snow, i think it will be great, especially as i weighs next to nothing so the hike to the site will be far less painful!

Any more experience with water relaunching these kites?

My Peaks haven't touched the water yet. My brother once relaunched his Peak 4 in no time. Awesome kites!


Cheers

Carlo