I fly a mix of drifters and pivots and also found the pivots top end not enough when on my surfboard. I felt there was a lot of lift and the speed it moved at upwind was too high. On the twin tip it also stalled quite often when keeping the bar sheeted in too long. Signs of front line stretch I guessed. No I have not measured by line lengths yet. Took me a good few sessions to get it dialed in.
Tannum wrote:where as the pivot even when fully depowered is hard to steer and you have to edge hard, just like riding an old C kite.
from this statement I assume you're riding it with a twin tip.
When you say you fully depowered, is that you just pushing the bar away as far as possible depower or have you fully pulled the below the bar depower plus using the last knot in the bar end line length adjuster.
I found the pivot a lot more enjoyable on the top end since riding fully depowered at the BTB plus having the bar end line adjuster on the last knot so that the rear lines are the longest they can go. Even with this setting the pivot still has enough low end and if the you do hit a lull just undo the BTB depower quickly to power up again.
Pivot is not a bad jumper either