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I've been flying power kites for a couple of years now, having started with the beginners favourite, 3.6m Beamer. I always wanted to board, and after about 2 flights of the Beamer set about building a quiver. Budget was always a big issue for me, as I was never going to justify spending £500 on a single kite. I've been through a lot of kites, most second hand or ex-demo, thinking they'd suit me. And while I've had some bargians I still hadn't settled on one that suited me fine until I went for a Peter Lynn Guerilla 13m. Now this was an awsome kite. Loads of lift (sometimes too much, got a bit scary in gusts), and really nice on the board. So I thought I'd found a kite that I could build a quiver on. I started looking for a 10m Guerilla, but just couldn't get one for sensible money, so when a 630 Arc come along for £110 I snapped it up, thinking it would sit well below the G13. But I discovered that because of the different AR's and sizing of the old arcs, it was actually more usable than G13 for the type of flying I do. (Mainly inland, and a fair bit of static flying). Becuase the kite is smaller and faster it can be worked easier to produce enough power to get going on the board when all the G13 wanted to do was stall. So I made the brave,(many would say foolish) desicion to sell the G13 and get a quiver of S-Arcs. A 460 soon followed, but it took me quite a while to find an 1120 and the 840. In all I had four kites in excellent condition for under £500. So what about flying them? Well just like the modern arcs, there is a nack to getting them in the air, but once up they stay up, unless you bail big time. The disadvantage of the 1st generation arcs is that most don't have inflation zips in the middle. (My 840 has been retro fitted with one). So to fill them with air you either point the trailing edge into the wind with the velcro seal open, or stand on one wing tip, holding the other one over your head so that the air inlet valves face into the wind, thus inflating the kite. This method only really works when there is a good wind however, so for the bigger kites I use a small airbed pump to get some air in. The 840 however is a doddle compared to the others because of the zip. And I am thinking about getting my others fitted with zips. Once up in the air they are just as, if not more stable than the Guerilla. They don't luff and collapse, and you can easily have a good 2hr session without dropping on down. I was a little dissapointed with the 1120 the first time i had that out, as I had always thought them to be a good low wind monster, but in 8-10 mph winds there still wasn't enough power at the edge to get me going on the board. My next session was with the 840 in 15-18mph and it was awesome. Plenty of pull, and as stable as ever. There's lift there too, although I still can't utilise it very well whilst moving on the board! My best session yet. The 630 and 460 are super quick, and turn on the spot with a 50cm bar. The 840 and 1120 also turn quick for their size. I fly them on a 65cm bar. I haven't had chance to board with all the kites yet, but after using the 840 in 18mph I reckon i'll be good upto 30mph with the 460. Although I very rarely fly in such winds. So overall, I rate these kits very highly. They may be old designs, very under rated, and not have the wind range and performance of the modern Arcs, but for less that the price of a single 10m Venom, you can get a whole quiver of S-Arcs to cover almost all the wind range you'll fly in. There are some unbelievable bargains to be had at the moment on these kites. Why have a second hand Buster or a new Pepper when you can have these super high performance kites? (And you can learn to kitesurf with them too). Value for money just can't be beaten. By : andrewjohn