You *could* go out and practice with a hire kite or your own if you have one but I would strongly advise having someone of high level supervise you while you can't go upwind and still learning.

But yes, I think another few hours of lessons will get you going upwind and much more confident so you can practice by yourself!

Goodluck :)

Odi, I understand your excitement, we've all been there before.

I would suggest not to measure your progression by the amount of hours you've spent in lessons or how many meters you can ride on your board...but more in terms of what specific skills you can achieve without assistance.

Ask yourself the following questions:

-Can you efficiently perform a self-rescue in deep water (not just the practice scenario on the beach or in shallow water) in a strong wind day (18 knots+ ) ?

-Can you body drag upwind to recover your board in a variety of wind and water conditions?

-Can you water-relaunch your kite in a variety of scenarios i.e. various kite positions, wind conditions...again in deep water?

If not, then I suggest you take more lessons or simply look for better instruction as we will inevitably find your board in the Lost & Found section some day and you will either need someone to come rescue you or end up swimming for ages back to the shore...

Agree with all the above.

I personally purchased the kite and gear from my instructor. This had the advantage it was identical to what I was used to... so didn't add to my learning curve with different kinds of kites. On the downside, I bashed a new kite around more than I possibly would have done with 6months practice.

On balance, I'm glad I purchased a brand new kite as it made setting up predictable and there were no added complications like a leaky kite (like one i bought from ebay!) that would have rocked my confidence.

If you've the means, buying your own gear, going out there and practice practice practice would be my advice. KBers are on balance a really friendly bunch and if you're having issues with a specific area, talking it through with other KB's on the beach is almost as good as lessons.

I personally found I need to just go through the motions and repeatedly practice the water start until my thick brain got the whole process.

Good luck tiger.