[bryanleighty]

Here is a tip from a beginner that is learning along the way.
Ensure you are learning the proper techniques with the trainer.

i bought a trainer kite a year before i got lessons and i wish i had not done that.

i have found that i learned to fly the trainer very well, but not in the way i needed to for kiteboarding.

i was shown techniques during my lessons that i really never went through on my own with the trainer.

of course a trainer you have sooooo much more freedom and really dont need to concern yourself with the finer points of control as you do once you launch a kite large enough to drag your ass 50 feet in the matter of 2 seconds. I could easliy swing through the power zone and stand my ground with a trainer.. not at all so with a large kite.
i didnt learn the fine points of parking the kite in the different zones, which i am finding out are pretty much the life and blood of kite control.

if i could do it all over again, i would have got the trainer and learned just enough to get the kite up and control it, then immediately jump on the first lesson.

thats my 2 cents!