Hi Al
Ok I don't want to turn this into a foils vs LEIs, been done before, so I'll try to just give some info about Venoms. I've got one, 3rd PL Arc, and I really like it and can recommend it for a beginner especially and through to advanced riders. The Arcs absorb gusts really well making learning easy and safe. The PL arcs rarely crash as they will auto zenith with no bar input, just take your hands off the bar when you crash, so you spend more time kiting rather than trying to relaunch. The Venoms are much better than previous PL Arcs at water relaunching due to more cells and higher internal pressure which holds their shape and stops them from bow tying and taking in water. I've crashed it once in the last 5 sessions, a few waves crashed over it and then it relaunched easy as. I did break a spar though but it still relaunched and I flew it in, cost me 10 bucks in repairs. That's another good thing about PL kites, minimal repairs/costs and no replacing bladders/pumps etc and no pumping. One last thing the self launch and land is superb and totally safe which would be good for a beginner, especially the landing.
Hope that helps.
Rod

Hey Im learning on an old arc and the auto zeneth is really handy, you can basically walk the kite along the beach without touching the bar,it just sits above your head. The other thing is that its hard to luff them and when you do you can recover them easily by pulling on the front lines. They are very stable and seem to be forgiving. Best of all you can land them yourself, just roll it up and walk away, pretty easy. I'm trying to get the hang of the self launch though.

A.

omigod, you know uncle al!

BTW. The Venom is a ram-air kite and ram-air kites are an acquired taste.

I you are a "wake" kind of guy and don't care about what kind of kite you use then get a pump-up kite. The Diesel is very good.