Huge board, huge wing, small kite

[tomtom]

And at the end you can see that kite is even flapping so its depowered. This 12 knots at least.

[Horst Sergio]

...
But anyway, thanks for the clip. Could you upload some more, especially from the kite flying characteristics (turning radius and drifting). That would be great because I didn't find any of these clips online...

About Peak4

here you go:
viewtopic.php?f=197&t=2401224




...
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=peak4

[foilholio]

I would love to see videos of the peak wave riding, with drifting and slack lines. Flysurfer has a rider that can do strapless tricks, send him off somewhere to make some videos!

Wind was also stronger on water not only higher up. People should have basic wind estimation skills. If there are white caps its 10 knts+ teritory

White caps start at about 7knots. You can get a variance though depending on how long and how strong the wind has been, what the swell is doing too. It is perfectly possible to have a short lull of no wind and then still have white caps. You will obviously feel this at the kite and the water can start to show signs of it.

[grigorib]

16 knots as far as I recall for white caps

[foilholio]

No way they start at 16knots in the open sea. Maybe on a lake or wind shadowed location.

[tomtom]

No way they start at 7

[foilholio]

Except they were documented to start at 7 knots before your father's father's father's father's father's father was born. I.e. there is some history to this observation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale look at number 3. 7-10knots

Large wavelets; crests begin to break; foam of glassy appearance; perhaps scattered white horses

[drsurf]

No way they start at 7

According to the scale used to determine when whitecaps start they do start at 7 knots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaufort_scale (Oops,post posting edit: I see someone has just posted this)

However I think the "how low can you go without someone disagreeing" has become a bit of a pissing contest. I have been to places where I have measured the wind strength and there are plenty of knots on the windmeter and whitecaps on the water. However when you take the kite out the wind is gutless and you can't get going on the board at all

As I mentioned in my post, the place where I and all the other locals kite, the wind is most of the time a cross onshore seabreeze, very smooth and easy to kite in, regardless of your type of kite, board or foil. The beach is approximately 1km long and the land behind this beach is relatively flat with a mix of one and two storey dwellings. We kite at the northern end of the beach where the good wind occurs. However go 100m south or further and the wind weakens progressively and can become more gusty. This occurs for a substantial distance offshore as well. So I'm doing my testing where the wind is about as perfect as you can get, stands to reason my results may not tally with others experience.

However I do have a commercial interest in Peak4 kites and curious people ask will it do this or that, show me a video of light wind, kite turning, wave riding etc. Hence my post with the video, you can read it for what is is. My most common answer is buy the damn thing! Peak4 kites are half the price of inflatables and one third the price of a good twin skin foil kite which I also sell. There are so many positive posts about the Peak4 and you'll rarely find one secondhand, you just can't lose by buying and trying one if you use a surf foil. (If you also kite with a landboard or snowkite you have absolutely no excuse for not having a Peak4)

I suppose what I should have shown in the light wind Peak4 pissing contest was the collection of inflatable kites behind me, up to 17m in size waiting for the wind to pick up. Granted many were TT kiters who just need more wind anyway, but some are foilers who although they may get going on their foils, one mistake and/or a lull and their inflatable kite would be in the water, waiting for a gust to hopefully get it flying again. I'd have to say the Peak4 had made me unconcerned about lulls and lightwind where I fall off, as the Peak4 is easy to keep airborne and even if the wind dies to the extent it can't pull me up on the foilboard, it can still quickly pull me to shore. And always remember, never kite out further than you are prepared to swim!

[Peter_Frank]

Ha haa, really interesting in fact, the "low end pissing contest" is one thing, nothing new about that, but the whitecaps topic is another.

And drsurf is correct, very stable seabreeze winds can have loads of power, compared to more "cheasy" wind.

Wont comment on the "how low can you go", but whitecaps


In my experience:

Whitecaps starts in miniature to be seen widespread and very rare, in 8-10 knots.

In 14 knots it is what we call just covered with whitecaps (meaning all over and quite okay wind).
In Danish we call this "Kattepoter" which translated means "Cat Paws".

BUT, the visual around 8-10 knots depends hugely on the sun too, as if sunny, you can see these glimpses of whitecaps a lot earlier and be tricked into thinking there is wind, maybe even in 7 knots yes, where there isnt wind.
And opposite, if overcast, a bit more wind is needed till it looks like rare whitecaps.

The very water surface can also influence how early/late whitecaps start, so if it HAS been windy t.ex, and less wind now, there can easily be lots of whitecaps from the water "tops", cresting in less wind than usual now.
Besides shear wind (wind layers), wind gradient, and turbulent wind of course.


Meaning, in my experience on open sea during the last +40 years, whitecaps depending on conditions and how you define it, can be in the range 7 to 15 knots depending on sun and sea state and how covered you want them.
But they most often start in 9-10 knots here.


Current does not change whitecaps, as we ride in the same water as the surface, so wind has to be measured/felt relative to the water of course, not land.
As this determines how early we can start

Peter