peak 13 vs chrono/hyperlink 13's

[tomtom]

Peak magic sizes are 3,4,5. In bigger sizes i much prefer other kites

You dont like the 6?

I find it (6 m2) the perfect light wind wave kite for average weights - 11 and13 are only for ease of getting out fast, and no risk that they drop, if wind drops, and the 8 goes somewhat lower so in between but also slow. Use it a lot though.
Agree, big Peak4s are not pushing the low end compared to efficient UltraLight double skin foil kites.

Peter

I dont have 6

[papasmerf]

Interesting question, I’ve just purchased a 10 mtr Soul for this coming light wind season. I have a 15 mtr Sonic 3 but it becomes a handful in the ultra light stuff. I’m planning to put the Soul on 30 mtr lines to give a good power spike and use with an 800 sqcm very thin front wing. Aiming for a good session in around 5-6 knots.

What does your sonic 3 do in the light stuff?

[airsail]

Interesting question, I’ve just purchased a 10 mtr Soul for this coming light wind season. I have a 15 mtr Sonic 3 but it becomes a handful in the ultra light stuff. I’m planning to put the Soul on 30 mtr lines to give a good power spike and use with an 800 sqcm very thin front wing. Aiming for a good session in around 5-6 knots.

What does your sonic 3 do in the light stuff?

The Sonic 3 is brilliant but a 15 mtr kite is harder to fly when the wind gets really light, It’s just under a kilo heavier than the 10 soul so I’m hoping the Soul will stay flying longer.
Being a thicker profile the soul has more low down grunt than the sonic. But I’m only talking about ultra light, 8 knots and above the Sonic 3 is a rocket ship, a real improvement on the Sonic 2.

[joriws]

As my personal experience I can easily go with Sonic3-15 on Moses 633 when Speed4-10lotus stops getting me on top of foil board. I'd say Peak4 5m and 10m Lotus are quite similar in low wind range but I've never actually compared them head-to-head because I usually go to beach, select my kite and ride whole session with it. But once wind dropped when riding with 10m Lotus below "getting top of board" -true wind speed, just swap to Sonic and session continued as I got enough impulse to rise on board and accelerate hydrofoil to flying speed.

I found in person Sonic drifts nicely too on light wind. So I don't have "handful" experience but I consider myself as expert foil kite flyer. Sure in full wind lulls there might be.

[jumptheshark]

Not specific to Peaks, but I've had some time on snow with the 6 (I know its small for this discussion, but the principle applies).

Playing with that kite in it true traction low end the way snow allows is a real education. I will be much better with it come spring.

You have the time and can really focus on the kite and bar feel to learn where exactly max performance is. Seems more evident with the peak than certainly LEI, but must be just as important with double skin foils, is not to corrupt the kites "best" shape while also trying to work the kite as fast as you can through the power zone in a way that leads to apparent wind.

The Peak (6) is nice. It's a very light feel, but there definitely is feel. You can work the kite effectively with power generating turns for nice feedback, but get just a bit too aggressive with either sheeting or turning and you sense the drop in power as you go from crawl to stop (on snow). It's gotta be the same with other foils. Getting progressively more important as well as harder to feel as kite size goes up and wind speed goes down. Skill is a big enough component to make up for meters of kite size for expert vs novice.

For expert vs expert, I would guess the Peak is less tolerant of shape distortion at the bottom end than the other mentioned twin skins. Less cells, larger cells and that open but tucked trailing edge are power and performance killers when even slighlty over worked.