Flysurfer Peak 5

[Oldman_Dave]

Personally I have about 50% luck relaunching peaks. 2 of the last 3 times have been successful. After some 18 months of flying them almost exclusively.

I dropped my kite nose down in a "washing machine" river mouth bar the other day after an unintentional slight pinwheel spun the kite further than expecting. I was pulling those rear lines as soon as I could get my hands to them, before I even had water clear of my eyes. With fast reactions the kite leapt backwards off the water, spun when I released one, and flew up.

So, they aren't all bad at relaunching in the smaller sizes. Plus there is the factor that they will stay in the air in sparrow fart so you won't be having to relaunch unless you fly it into the water, or have a gear failure.

We kite in oceans a lot here and for various reasons all of the crew have swim ins. I get some ribbing for peak swim ins, but last time I was able to point out that everyone had also swum in recently, either with twin skins or inflatables, for various reasons (bowtie, line failure, wind too light to launch, wingtip tangle, twin skin foil sinking, etc). Having said that there's value in having an inflatable raft when all goes to poo.

[haiku]

Personally I have about 50% luck relaunching peaks. 2 of the last 3 times have been successful. After some 18 months of flying them almost exclusively.

I dropped my kite nose down in a "washing machine" river mouth bar the other day after an unintentional slight pinwheel spun the kite further than expecting. I was pulling those rear lines as soon as I could get my hands to them, before I even had water clear of my eyes. With fast reactions the kite leapt backwards off the water, spun when I released one, and flew up.

So, they aren't all bad at relaunching in the smaller sizes. Plus there is the factor that they will stay in the air in sparrow fart so you won't be having to relaunch unless you fly it into the water, or have a gear failure.

We kite in oceans a lot here and for various reasons all of the crew have swim ins. I get some ribbing for peak swim ins, but last time I was able to point out that everyone had also swum in recently, either with twin skins or inflatables, for various reasons (bowtie, line failure, wind too light to launch, wingtip tangle, twin skin foil sinking, etc). Having said that there's value in having an inflatable raft when all goes to poo.

Hi. When I can hold tension in the lines I easily relaunch my Peaks (reverse or not) even in the lightest breezes. It's a quick process. If the kite lies on the water more than 5 minutes I'm done for.



Cheers
Carlo

[drsurf]

It rarely happens, but when I have dropped my Peaks I've probably had a 70% success rate in relaunching. The secret is keeping the line tension, keeping your foil board from running over your lines and staying calm.
I'm sure I could, and others could too, improve the relaunch success rate significantly by practising in shallow water repeatedly for a while until it becomes second nature. However I'm as imperfect as anyone else and just learn after I crash with the board running over my lines and swearing profusely

However it doesn't decrease my desire to use my Peaks. Just flying any other kite with a surf foil will quickly send me back to my Peak4's

[Adventure Logs]

Hi. When I can hold tension in the lines I easily relaunch my Peaks (reverse or not) even in the lightest breezes. It's a quick process. If the kite lies on the water more than 5 minutes I'm done for.

It rarely happens, but when I have dropped my Peaks I've probably had a 70% success rate in relaunching. The secret is keeping the line tension, keeping your foil board from running over your lines and staying calm.

And that is the "secret", keeping line tension. And that's my problem, I don't drop my Peaks with line tension, I drop them because I'm fucking around, looping or outrunning the kite or whatever shenanigans I'm up to that day. Also I'm always on the low edge of the window on these sizes which makes it worse.

I think it's giving people the wrong idea telling them its possible, better have in your head you won't be able to relaunch. Less kitemares that way. That vid above looks like the 13 barely touches the water before relaunch, more like catching it last second and reversing it before it happens. Also I rarely crash nose down like that as well.

[ChefPsychonaut]

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a 5m peak, which I'll use exclusively for snow. Others have chimed in with the finer points, but a few things for those thinking of picking one up to use instead of LEI for snowkiting:

-it really does fly in almost no wind, and doesn't really care about gusts (but on/off is v bad)
-the drift is fabulous. take longer, gentler turns... the kite stays ahead of you
-it flys a bit different: seems to want to rise to zenith, rather than sink like my LEIs... so a slightly less comfy hand position while riding to correct, but it's a small thing
-re: sizing, on a 5m I was similarly powered to others on 10m LEI. and the smaller size is quick to loop
-i've seen some mention of mediocre upwind performance, but on land, with skis, it's a non-issue
-all those lines scare me. but so far, after reefing with the b-safe line, nothing has gotten tangled, even after a very inelegant wrap up in the wind!

[Peter_Frank]

Have ridden a lot with the 6 m2 now, like it a lot

Have had one time where I flew it to soon to the new side in a jibe, and a turbulence in the wind had the leading edge fold in.
But it recovered itself immediately.

It might also have happened with Peak4, no idea

Yesterday we had beautiful weather, 10-11 knots and I had fun playing with a Max cam - just to see how a linecam at the Y can be used.

Video is just a strapless donut on the way ashore to call it a day - but it was just a fun session for me




Then backing the kite down, put my board on the bar, and took a picture in the beautiful winter sun, where one can see the "stripped" ribs as shadows:

Peter

[Flyboy]

Had a few unsuccessful water launching episodes recently. Couple of times dropped the kite in breaking waves on the reef. Not a snowballs-chance-in hell of relaunching as the kite was instantly swamped. The first time I was able to hang onto the board & use it to swim in with the kite. The second time the board was swept away & I had a longish swim carrying the kite. I'm wearing a full life jacket which makes swimming with the kite possible, but very slow.

More frustrating was dropping the 6m in light wind due to an incautious jibe. As the wind was light & the water pretty flat I was hopeful of being able to relaunch. Reverse launched but when I flipped the kite it settled back into the water on its back & I was unable to get it back up. Wrapped up the lines & swam to the kite thinking I would try to rearrange the kite on its back, however, while doing this I let go of my board for a few seconds & it took off. There was absolutely no way I could catch up with the board - the life jacket really impedes swimming & dragging a water logged kite makes it impossible to make any headway. A fellow foiler kindly held onto my board for a while allowing me to catch up with it, but still a very, very long swim in with the kite bundled on the board.

I have had better luck reverse launching the 4m. I think I need to practice reverse launching on the beach - being able to do it immediately & intuitively seems essential on the water, as often you only get one chance to get it right.

[kitexpert]

... for once there is significant changes compared to earlier version and you can even see they make kite better. ...

I've had all Peaks since gen.1, and theres been quite a few changes through the generations, I wouldn't say this last one is so big, more in gen1 -> gen2 and gen3 -> gen4

That is correct, I was thinking kites in general. Single skin kites have changed and developed quite a lot. This latest one is a bit surprising because it increases parts and amount of bridle line (which already was a lot). But I'm not saying it is wrong, it just shows how difficult concept single skin kite is.

[kitexpert]

5m Peak4 is comparable to 8m LEI. I was kiting with that combo and my friend couldn't quite keep up with me upwind with his Peak, which actually was a bit surprise for me. Difference was small though.

Earlier with 6m Peak3 it was more like other way around, my 8m LEI was weaker (but of course much more agile and nicer to ride)

In small kite sizes 1m makes a difference.

[Flyboy]

Had a few unsuccessful water launching episodes recently. Couple of times dropped the kite in breaking waves on the reef. Not a snowballs-chance-in hell of relaunching as the kite was instantly swamped. The first time I was able to hang onto the board & use it to swim in with the kite. The second time the board was swept away & I had a longish swim carrying the kite. I'm wearing a full life jacket which makes swimming with the kite possible, but very slow.

More frustrating was dropping the 6m in light wind due to an incautious jibe. As the wind was light & the water pretty flat I was hopeful of being able to relaunch. Reverse launched but when I flipped the kite it settled back into the water on its back & I was unable to get it back up. Wrapped up the lines & swam to the kite thinking I would try to rearrange the kite on its back, however, while doing this I let go of my board for a few seconds & it took off. There was absolutely no way I could catch up with the board - the life jacket really impedes swimming & dragging a water logged kite makes it impossible to make any headway. A fellow foiler kindly held onto my board for a while allowing me to catch up with it, but still a very, very long swim in with the kite bundled on the board.

I have had better luck reverse launching the 4m. I think I need to practice reverse launching on the beach - being able to do it immediately & intuitively seems essential on the water, as often you only get one chance to get it right.

So ...spent about half an hour backing the 6m on to the beach nose down (in very light wind), reverse launching it & flipping it to get it to go up. It's well worth practicing this. Don't know why it had never occurred to me to try this before. Not practicing reverse launching a Peak on the beach is like sending a newbie out with an LEI without getting them to practice water relaunches. I have got away with it because as an experienced kite flier I rarely drop the Peaks & when I do, I have managed to relaunch about 50% of the time even without "training". Controlling the kite on land - putting it nose down & relaunching it using the rear lines is valuable practice for doing it confidently in the water.