Flysurfer Peak 4

[LeoLeal]

So tangled bridles, you tease and toss at them like mixing pasta or salad with your hands in a way. The main problem is things that catch like pulleys or pigtails, you fish them out but you need things to stay loose to do it and if they become tight you have a problem. You pull at things while keeping them loose. You can do it quite quickly sometimes without much thought. Other times you need to carefully thread a pulley out. Just remember you can use your lines to find the way in and out of the mess. Where they go in it has to come out from. This is where ELCs are good cause they catch less....but people wanted to remove bars.... The customer rarely knows best...

In general to avoid bridle hassles it is best to launch and land downwind.

How do you land you Peak4 downwind when the wind is strong?

[kiteykitekite]

No Peak. But I usually always land into a wind shadow. So easy to walk up lines or often don't need to. As kite will stay put with no help. All foil techniques apply to single skins, yes they have more stalled pull but they also flag really well. You hold onto a single line or say both from one side and the kite should just collapse.

Have you read this viewtopic.php?f=197&t=2405848

[ice]

I have had a few sessions on a 3m and a 5m.

I am using a 120 cm board, surf foil at 1125 cm2 and 90 kg.

Rather than talk wind speeds I would like to compare to my three strut wave lei’s

The 5m peak 4 has the same preferred wind range as my 9m wave lei

The 3m peak 4 has the same preferred wind range as my 6m wave lei

The peaks have insane drift and work incredibly well for swell riding

[Flyboy]

Here's a photo of my situation. This is a recently constructed break wall built to protect the shoreline from erosion. The path is probably abut 10 feet wide. Previously the shoreline had rocks, trees & bushes coming down to the water making it impossible to access the water with a kite. The wind direction would be side-on coming from the ENE (on this day I took this photo it was actually from the opposite direction approximately WNW). It would be impossible to launch an LEI here as it would have to be a hot launched in extremely hazardous circumstances.

I'm guessing that hot launching a Peak4 would be possible (a bit off straight downwind) as I don't think I would have to worry about the kite blowing onto the rocks & it would not pull violently (from what I understand) as I steer it to zenith. I would then have to clamber over the rocks to access the water - again easier than with an LEI (I suppose) as the Peak4 wouldn't be pulling as much as an LEI. I'm thinking that I would do this in around 12 - 18 knots. I wouldn't bother in really light wind & the wind is rarely strong from that direction.

It would also be tricky getting the foil in the water & away from the rocks before the wind pushes it back onto the rocks ... but I think it could be done. Landing would be too difficult (at least without damaging the foil) but there is a spot about 800 metres downwind where I could come in, possibly having to dump the kite in the water as it is in a bit of a wind shadow.

What do Peak4 users think about this?

[Adventure Logs]

So tangled bridles, you tease and toss at them like mixing pasta or salad with your hands in a way. The main problem is things that catch like pulleys or pigtails, you fish them out but you need things to stay loose to do it and if they become tight you have a problem. You pull at things while keeping them loose. You can do it quite quickly sometimes without much thought. Other times you need to carefully thread a pulley out. Just remember you can use your lines to find the way in and out of the mess. Where they go in it has to come out from. This is where ELCs are good cause they catch less....but people wanted to remove bars.... The customer rarely knows best...

In general to avoid bridle hassles it is best to launch and land downwind.

How do you land you Peak4 downwind when the wind is strong?

Unlike a double skin foil kite, a single skin will sit very nicely at the edge of the wind window like a LEI. So if you attach to object like a post, you can walk up your lines and easily secure it.

[jatem]

Here's a photo of my situation. This is a recently constructed break wall built to protect the shoreline from erosion. The path is probably abut 10 feet wide. Previously the shoreline had rocks, trees & bushes coming down to the water making it impossible to access the water with a kite. The wind direction would be side-on coming from the ENE (on this day I took this photo it was actually from the opposite direction approximately WNW). It would be impossible to launch an LEI here as it would have to be a hot launched in extremely hazardous circumstances.

I'm guessing that hot launching a Peak4 would be possible (a bit off straight downwind) as I don't think I would have to worry about the kite blowing onto the rocks & it would not pull violently (from what I understand) as I steer it to zenith. I would then have to clamber over the rocks to access the water - again easier than with an LEI (I suppose) as the Peak4 wouldn't be pulling as much as an LEI. I'm thinking that I would do this in around 12 - 18 knots. I wouldn't bother in really light wind & the wind is rarely strong from that direction.

It would also be tricky getting the foil in the water & away from the rocks before the wind pushes it back onto the rocks ... but I think it could be done. Landing would be too difficult (at least without damaging the foil) but there is a spot about 800 metres downwind where I could come in, possibly having to dump the kite in the water as it is in a bit of a wind shadow.

What do Peak4 users think about this?

Booties might make the rocks more comfortable. Hot launch standing on the gravel path could work if you're underpowered, and confident handling a peak. Peaks are awesome on hf, so I'd recommend you buy a 5m and get used to handling it somewhere else, making sure the lines are clear at launch, etc. You could try to launch in the wind shadow area instead, if it's 4+ knots in the shadow?

I had a fun session today on the 8m in 8-9 knots plus a helping tide, when a hyperlink v1 wouldn't even stay in the air.

[tomtom]

i had session in conditions exactly like that - biggest problem and also danger is going through rock with foil. Kite launch is not a problem at all even in strong wind. Best way to prepare kite is anchor bar in oversheeted position and then upack kite straight downwind. Landing will be problematic - in strong wind crash and pack in water - very easy. In light wind you can back stall.

It is possible to unpack peak in water - but is not easy - you must practice it.

i will make little anchored buoy in water - attach foil to it without kite - then launch foil less - landind vice versa.
Booties are MUST for this. Take care.

[TomW]

That launch looks scary. I guess I am spoiled.
When I launch my Hyperlinks in light wind, when it's really light. I lay out kite with the directly into wind, then walk backwards. In those conditions, I can control pull and can walk towards kite as it goes up to avoid any dragging of feet.
In wind which I would call " powered ", that's 12 knots and up, I launch with wing tip towards wind. Often kite falls back downwind, and thers enough pull that I do foot drag 2-4 m on sand. That's never a problem on clean sand with boots/shoes.
In short, I would not do it there. But perhaps with practice and the Peak it's possible if depower is more absolute.

[TomW]

One guy here in Skåne Sweden is using Peak. It flaps most of the time, but he loves it.
How can you stand the flapping?

[Trent hink]

It only flaps when you depower it too much. Your friend should rig a smaller kite or use a foil or board that needs more power.

I got to try Dougiefresh's 11 meter yesterday afternoon. No good estimate of the wind speed, but on my foil it seemed to work well in less wind than I need for the 8 meter.

What was really eye-opening for me, when the wind was dropping off and I could not get out of the water on the 11 with my 1200 cm Rupel (Chinese) wing, Dougie lent me his slingshot infinity (99, I think?) and I had no problem at all getting up. Riding was a bit tricky for me but it was mostly from me not being used to the wing and possibly the way Dougie had it set up.

Not only that, Dougie was able to ride his gear in that same wind, and he weighs a good 18 kg more than me.

So the hydrofoil wing makes a much bigger difference than I thought it did. Not just for riding, which I expected, but just for being able to get up over the board and get going. The difference was immediately apparent, as soon as I started to loop the kite.