I know the 8m Peak and up don’t get much love here, but I’m really impressed with my new 8m Peak 5! I have a 6m Peak 5 and usually use a 10m Soul if too light for the 6m Peak.
I used 17m lines on the 8m today and it was way more fun for me than my Soul. After a rain storm went by the winds dropped significantly. My Soul would definitely been in the water, but I was able to get back to shore with a dry Peak.
Note: I’m only intermediate foiler and played in chop & some incoming swell (no waves).
It’s a keeper for me
Hi martrench, nice you like it.
But I must say, if you ride the 8 on short lines, and the 6 on normal lines (like I believe most do, 21 m or something like that), then I honestly think the low end will be the same?
I use 28 meter lines on my 8, to push the lowend 1 knot down.
If I did not do that, I would have the same lowend, as the 6 is so much faster genreating loads more peak power, and feels natural for carving and waves as it can be whipped around fast.
If you are relatively new to these kites, my advice is to learn to loop the 6 m2 "precisely".
You can not do that right away, takes practice - you need to loop it in a wide arc with exact sheeting.
Quite easy with the 6, but if you are new to this kite, it is not - believe me, have seen others struggling, as they are thinking it is just like looping a tube.
More difficult with the 2.5 or 3 or 4, but most will have learned now with the 5 or 6 as the small ones are usually not the first purchase.
So I finally had a lot of sessions on my flysurfer Peak5 6m (I am 90 to 95kg) and it's been a blast. What a kite.
I've flown it in what seems like no wind at all to demonstrate to my buddy who owns a kite school that it is ideal to teach with, never drops, never really misbehave like a trainer kite does and it behaves like an inflatable, it's ideal to teach the first few lessons to newbies on days that no other kite can fly, buddy ordered 2 for his school straight away.
Despite my size/weight, around 10 knots it gives you enough strength to do a water start and get on the foil, loops feel safe and are powerful and predictable. A guy who flys souls exclusively loved it, described it as a 12m in terms of generated power when you work it.
Had it in close to 20knots, it flaps about a bit but still feels incredibly safe (launching and landing alone are dead easy) you can just tell that if you were to always fly it at max range it would not be too good for its longevity despite this being built with a cloth that feels pretty much indestructible despite being light.
Sure you should not crash it in the water, that's not what it is designed to do but it will not overfly you, it drifts like crazy and you can feel where it's at, it just behaves. Their are drawbacks: the long bridle lines that if not put together correctly before packing can be a pain in the ass to untangle or the fact that if you use your own bar the power point is halfway down the stroke on my ozone bar.
It's an amazing kite, I tried surfing with it but unlike what others said found it lacked that grunt to get going at speed so I'd rather use my Reo for that... Now I am stopping foiling for the foreseeable future as I have a baby on the way and therefore will sell it because I won't get time to use it but I am sad to see it go. It did live up to the hype, incredible kite, love it.
Nice, but then the whole idea with superfast setup and packdown is lost?
My main reason for using larger Peaks instead of double skins, lazy as I am
But it would make sense in order to make it easier to just drift ashore maybe?
Especially as the bigger sizes takes more effort to water packdown, and the risk of downing the kite is way bigger
Can't see the point of condoms in the Peak in the conditions in the video. With such flat water you can even do a drift launch with a Peak without the help of condoms. Also as could be seen in the video the inflated condoms were stopping the water from quickly leaving the wingtip pockets by blocking the water drain points. This would not be helpful for water relaunch.
In big chop and ocean waves there is a possible benefit for some floatation in the Peaks as the waves can swamp a downed kite when you're setting up a relaunch. However I think the benefit would be more for keeping the kite floating rather than assisting relaunch. You have to be careful how you bring in the Peak if you drop it so it can't be relaunched. Doing it incorrectly will cause the kite to dive under the water rather than stay on top.
Still you have to actively put a Peak in the water. A bit of practice in shallow water crashing and relaunching the Peak will help you with relaunching the Peak in deep water if you drop it. I've also found the Peak5 kites are a bit easier to relaunch as well compared to the Peak4's. Have fun
So I finally had a lot of sessions on my flysurfer Peak5 6m ...
A guy who flys souls exclusively loved it, described it as a 12m in terms of generated power when you work it.
I think your buddy was a bit over-hyped. Peaks are grunty but in my experience in terms of max power when flinging it round, 4m Peak = 6m Soul, 6m Peak = 8m Soul. At the most - the larger Soul will still go better upwind than the smaller peak. However I have to say the 12m Soul is sooo slow in light air that the 10m Soul is almost always as good for foiling, except maybe in 6-7kt conditions.
So I finally had a lot of sessions on my flysurfer Peak5 6m ...
A guy who flys souls exclusively loved it, described it as a 12m in terms of generated power when you work it.
I think your buddy was a bit over-hyped. Peaks are grunty but in my experience in terms of max power when flinging it round, 4m Peak = 6m Soul, 6m Peak = 8m Soul. At the most - the larger Soul will still go better upwind than the smaller peak. However I have to say the 12m Soul is sooo slow in light air that the 10m Soul is almost always as good for foiling, except maybe in 6-7kt conditions.
He was talking about a 12m inflatable, I should have been more precise.
So finaly on board. As you maybe know im one of first peak foilers. I have 3 4 5 6 p4 and 4 5 p5 now.
Im spending summer in windy place so lots of time for comparing.
So here is my take p4 vs p5.
Firstly its not all positive. Almost oposite. Im little bit sad.
This kite lost for me its most important feature. Instant power off.
It can no longer be safely started from power zone without quite violent slide. We have tight rocky launch here and it is a problem.
They get rid of flaping, yes but depower is cost. This kite depower to some extent and after that you are just slacking back lines like old grunty kite. Kite still hold profile but doesnt change aoa and doesnt depower.
Residual power on front lines is much bigger on p5 vs p4. We are switching kites in air and i estimate that with slacked back lines p5 pull 20 % more than p4.
This is big issue for me. This lead to non peakish behavior in transition where you must obey kite and resist force instead to just surfing "kiteless".
Other than that, positives:
Kite pulls more. Hold power in turns better. Powerspike better. Goes upwind tad better.
Turning speed is same. Drift is same maybe tad worse.
Relaunch untested.
I have two sizes and they behave same. Otherwise i suspect bad trim from factory.
Im now playing with mixer to make it more like p4
Moral of story
I like to buy new old stock p4
These users thanked the author tomtom for the post:
Peter
