I finally got to try the 4 metre Firefly on my Hydrofoil. Prior to this I had only used it on the snow. I also have the 6 metre. I was very impressed with the range of wind that it can hold. It was a terrible day for kiting. Lows so low that I could no longer stay on the board and very high gusts. A very noticeable difference between the four and the six is the flapping of the material depowered is much less. Even when the wind got really strong and I depowered the kite a lot as I headed up wind it flapped much less than I would have expected. The really nice thing about the kite was that no matter what the wind did it just stayed in the air. There was no surging and falling back. I'm not sure about the wind range on the hydrofoil right now as the wind was so dirty you really couldn't tell much other than the kite was pretty stable with lots of depower. I launched it in a location I wouldn't usually have launched a kite but I felt much safer doing it with that kite.
I had better wind conditions yesterday on the fireflies. I started on the 6 meter. The local wind metre that is upwind from me read 13 to 17 knots. No problem getting going on the 6. After an hour the wind picked up to 16 gusting to 23. I could handle the 6 but wanted to try the 4. It was perfect wind for 4. Was not close to the comfortable top end and very little flapping.i definitely enjoy the 4 more than the 6 although I like them both. On my first run with the 4 when I got a good distance from my launch I fell on my back and crashed the kite straight downwind and the kite was in bunch. I pulled one back line and it opened spun and was instantly in the air. The 4 is also much faster through the air and easier to generate power while diving the kite. Both kites drifted nicely while heading downwind. I did not test the drift a lot as the waves were not that large most of the time. I started both the kites by walking out into waist deep water and drift launching. It was very easy to do including the 6 meter in fairly light wind. I weight 80 kg. and was using 24 metre lines on both kites and used a 1500 square cm. surf foil.
How does it compare with the Wave though? Other than the noise and vibrations difference, I’m not clear why someone would prefer the Firefly to the Wave.
How does it compare with the Wave though? Other than the noise and vibrations difference, I’m not clear why someone would prefer the Firefly to the Wave.
Different kites. The FF is a single skin/hybrid. It is very similar to the Peak 4 and weighs the same. It drifts as well as the Peak 4 but is water relaunchable. The Wave is heavier and is more like a standard foil kite.