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OK.... some of you might have read my review of LAST years hotshot Arc kite... the Phantom... well.... I got bored, a new model was launched and "Oh please yourself" DOES mean " go and buy those expensive new toys my love!" So there we are.. the kites hit the importers, I turn off my mobile phone and go on a "mercy dash" for my local kite store!! My poor car takes a beating as the Satnav fails miserably to find the God forsaken fenland backwater where my new toys sit forlornly in brightly coloured bags awaiting my inept ministrations. At long last I decide that MUST be the place and dive in.... sure enough the door is answered by the Kite Keeper and I am ushered in to the inner sanctum of UK arc flying!! There they are a huge (ish) pile of bags marked "Venom"!! Our allocation is passed over to me and NO amount of begging will get an extra 19m one thrown onto the pile.... 3 in the country it seems and we get ONE! The 100 miles back home takes an eternity. The car is filled with the smell of new kite... my excitement levels are raised... the clouds grow darker and more worrisome by the mile. Sure enough.... raindrops smear my windscreen as I get within miles of home! The magical bounty is unloaded and the first owners in Nottinghamshire rush away from the shop in a state of extreme anticipation!! On arrival at adamski towers the boy is summoned to inspect our new kites... he grunts in teenage..... a rough translation would seem to be... "nice!" We check all NON flying aspects of the "new toys" (she really should get more involved!) out. The bag...and this pleases us greatly, expands AND has a handy "tube" bag inside for carrying the kite in fixed pole mode. Pockets.. yup plenty! PLUS the Spars fit in a pocket at the back of the pack stopping last years "oh there they are" moments as a carbon fibre splinter shoots up behind a fingernail!! The instructional video is now a DVD and it has a few extra bits on it. We are tight so went for kite only deals... we are running on 03 bars rather than 04s so need to add knottage to the front pigtails. Upon unfurling the kites we were startled by the extreme redness and blueness of the colour schemes.... some seem cursed with an attack of the pink foppishness... happily not ours!! Please be aware that these kites seem to be made VERY well just not with hidden seams and double thickness stuff. not worse than Ozone or Flysurfer just slightly more "agricultural"! Spar removal is better due to the eezee out system... just pull the white ribbon and they slide up the pocket and out of the kite! (please take GREAT care of these spars, they break far too easily!) After much looking, stroking and general kite worship we put them away and my boy decides they will stop in his room until flight day. Saturday comes , the wind sitting at about 13-17mph..... the 13m Venom comes out and is set up! The zip at each tip trick is great, MUCH easier to inflate fully than the zip in the middle one. We set the internal strap to half way and leave it there! It DOES take an hour or so of faffing about to get the pigtails at the correct length.... about 20cm from the end seems best. So.... come on adamski..spill the beans.... what they like? We have been flying them for 4 months or so now and REALLY can't believe what a leap forward these are. OK, setting up and packing them away is a total arseache sometimes!! NO easy out and tug the centrelines with ANY arc kite (yet!) but other than this ..... Launching.... they have more cells than previous Arcs.... this makes them stiffer. NO more of the Phantomesque bow-tie and death spin launches.... get it 75% full and up she goes!! The Venom WILL steer on max depower too, quite an eye opener that one... going back to an earlier Arc can seem VERY fluffy! Flying.... LOVELY! depower and the "oh my GOD where did that lofting come from!!" moments are cut RIGHT back.... two so far and that was down to stupidly gusty and turbulent conditions! The venoms are MUCH faster flying and turning than the Phantoms, our 60 cm bar is almost in retirement.. the 16 flies on 40 or 50 bar! Bar feel is GREATLY improved too, Phantoms and G's could feel a little too remote for some, the venoms are still nice and light but react more quickly and precisely than earlier Peter Lynns. I have a guilty secret.... I am deeply crap on my board! My Son is amazing... I try not ot be too upset by this!! I have been mainly looking after the safety side for my boy and doing some static flying. I got going on the Phantoms and got some static jumps going on but much more was beyond me, I just couldn't get it sorted. The Boy had huge jumps down and was improving. His first run on the Venoms and he gets one of the highest jumps I have seen him do! He comes back in ALL smiles and teen jabber.... again the translation seems to be "nice!" The Venoms are different to the phantoms in that they DON'T need huge speed to get jumping high! PLUS the float is vastly improved... he spends much longer sat in the air doing stuff.....in fact just last week he did a jump, got nice and high..... then sat there! He looked up at the kite, down at the floor, did a quick board off then waited to come down! He is quite good at this kiting lark though. I did mention that I am not too hot on a board? Well..... can I recommend Venoms to anyone wanting to improve. My son got sick of looking at me flailing about then falling over at the end of the run and took pity long enough to give me a quick lesson! I went from upright with straight legs to nice bent knees, taking my weight through the harness and getting decent speed in an hour or so. An hour later and I was sending the kite and doing (very small) jumps! I am now happy tootling about and doing my own Meta freestyle tricks (just like real freestyle only much smaller and kind of unpredictable). ALSO for the learner, providing you have a big enough kite/enough wind you will benefit from the Venom safety system...when you do something too stupid for even an Arc to protect you they float you down! I was trundling along, did a "jump" and landed sort of mankily...highsided my board and waited for the "thump" of adamski whacking the floor..... didn't happen.... i just touched down and lay there with the kite gently bobbing me up and down as it sat at the Zenith waiting for the stupid bloke to try again!! So... who would I recommend gets one or two of these? ANYONE doing a board sport that can live with the set up and pack down routine! ARE they better than earlier models? Yes, they are stiffer, more responsive and even MORE idiot proof. We will be out on the water in the next week or two so an update of the wet side will be forthcoming once I stop drinking sea water and can get splashing about! By : adamski

Peter Lynn Venom 10m I bought this kite as an ex demo kite from a kite shop, so i got it at a great price and it was as new with all lines attatched because it had been beach flown about five times. This was my first depowerable kite as i was flying blade 2's until i bought it. I mostly use my kites for freestyle boarding and a tiny bit of buggying so the venom seemed to fit the bill as a high lift depowerable suitable for land use. The kite bag: This kite comes with a great looking red/black/white rucksack which is very well made, has heavy duty zips and great padding. It is expandable so you can leave the kite with the spars in. This is a very useful feature as i never take the spars out! Build quality: This is one very solid kite, all of the seems are well stitched, the zips are all waterproof and everything seems to be good quality. The bar and saftey system are reasuringly good and well made. The kite material itself is light and crisp and has some kind of water displacing coating. It is some kind of ripstop but i am not sure what weight. Flying the kite: To launch the kite put your board or a weight on one of the tips and unwind your lines with the upwind inflation zip open. Go back to the kite and zip it up when it's 80% full with air, attach your lines. Then hook in walk back and the kite should take shape and go to the edge of the window where it will continue to inflate fully by the one way valves on the leading edge. Then you can let the kite slowly drift up to the zenith where the kite will happily sit with no rider input for as long as the wind blows. If a big gust comes and the kite overflies it will just drift back safely into the widow without any problems. The kite is incredibly stable and will only fall out of the sky if the wind suddenly shifts 180 Degrees or suddenly drops to nothing. The range of this kite is phenomenal, i can get going in my buggy in about 12kts and about 14kts on my board with a lot of working the kite. Can jump consitently 5ft in about 17 kts and once over 19kts i feel i can go as high as i want very floatily. I can then hold on being 12stone till gusts of 30 kts with the kite fully depowered. Jumps are incredibly easy with this kite in the sweet spot of it's windrange, you just send the kite back hard while edging hard pull in the bar and away you go. You go up so fsta and hard it is unbeleivable.There are no problems redirecting with this kite as it turns so fast. On really big jumps you can whip the kite from side to side above your head for that extra second of hangtime. You can control the size of jumps by pulling the bar in less, sending the kite slower or just going slower into the jump in crazy winds. This kite is very smooth in gusts,great for huge jumps and very user friendly. Within weeks of getting this kite i can do rotations and footouts confidently with ease and have a go at much more complicated tricks. This really is a great kite for progression. This kite is good value for money for anyone wanting to excel to the next level of freestyle boarding in saftey, but it's also great in the buggy, easy to get on two wheel etc. and is good for speed runs. For it's size this kite has good power, bottom end comparable to a 4.9 blade but the top end is unlimited if your heavy. This is fun kite to fly, has huge amounts of floaty lift on tap and is superb for just cruising. You always feel safe when attached to this kite. I beleive the stability is posibly the best of any kite you can buy and the depower range is simply anormous! Get One! By : Jack H