open your body up, point your leading shoulder upwind together with edgeing hard with more pressure on your back foot, not too hard to where you slow down though.
Also sheet your kite out a little to let it fly as far forward as it wants too. should do the trick.

The most common mistake I think(I did this anyway)is trying to head too hard upwind.
You can only head upwind at an angle to the wind(dose that make sence??)
If you edge too hard upwind,you will lose power and sink.

Its a balance of speed and power that can be frustrating to find when learning,but once you nail it once ,it then seems to click in your brain and you hardly even have to think about it after that.

Practice,practice,practice

Once you get it,it all happends really fast
No more walking,more time kiteing

I remember the first time I started going upwind,had a 2hour session without walking once......I was sooooo stoked that day.Aaahhhhhh,the memories

I use to park my 4x4 on the waters edge,start heading out straight in front of it and when I would be heading back in to the beach,Id aim at it,trying not to lose any ground.
Then Id aim a few meters upwind of my ute.Having that referance point to aim at really help
good luck

I find it easier to ride up wind if you ride with your kite low.
The lower your kite the harder you can edge against it.
Just make you sure you have enough power moving you before you drop it and bury your edge.
And of course be aware of other kiters and poleys when riding with your kite low.

I cracked it last week after struggling like yourself for weeks. I often did the walk of shame but then one day it all came together. I think one big thing for me (75kg) was getting a bigger kite, a 12m switchblade as opposed to a 10m which requires more pumping.

I also tried the tipp from this thread that someone said to me of letting the bar out a bit on the upstroke of the kite and pulling in on the downward stroke. As soon as you feel the power dying out when you are edging hard, fly it upward , this will generate more pull and also help pull you up so you dont sink, ready to do a fast down stroke to get more speed.

I also read something interesting here that nobody has mentioned to me before , that of apparent wind. You get speed up before you try to cut the board edge in, as this gives a great apparent wind speed to the kite and generates even more power. I thought the speed you got on your board was just momentum, not actaully a prerequisite for generating power.

..but yes, go get a massive kite. much more forgiving. Now when I stall it and power goes, I just give it a twitch or sheet in in gusts and it powers right up again. Awesome.

Guys thanks for all your comments and advice,

You comments along with the help of the Sydney kiting crowed have helped a lot. for the most part I can hold my ground, but one mistake - messing about with the kite and being blown down wind is hard to recover from. But on the lat session 1.5hrs in the water tacking back and forth - and only one comparatively short walk of shame back up the beach.

Couple of question:

Most of the posts and vids I have seen say the front leg should be straight. Is this always the case? Some times is seems to me that I am better balanced and cutting up wind more with my front leg bent and weight more over the front of the board. (my board is a 143, I weigh 88Kgs and I was well powered up if not overpowered). Comment on what to do with your legs and hips in different wind conditions and board size would be great.

Does your board size affect your ability to cut up wind?

Some times it feels as though I am fighting the kite - particularly in strong winds: cutting the kite towards the water and at the same time the pull hits, digging the board hard in to try and get it to cut further up wind. Is this the correct thing to do?

Typically the way I measure how well I am heading up wind is to look at my angle of attach on the wind swell/waves as effectively these are perpendicular to angle of the wind (on the flat water I am learning on). is 10-20 degrees up on this wind swell line good? When cutting up wind optimally how many degrees up from this wind swell line should be achieved?

Thanks for your help - Matthew.