How long should you spend body dragging before going gung ho into waterstarts? I am all for respecting the power of the wind but the nieve fool in me would like to just jump in!!!
Any help would be appreciated ( and copy-pasted to my compensation claim )

Cheers

Id say spend 1-2 hours

This will give you time to get used to the feel and the flying characteristics of your new kites aswell as learning to body drag.......

Then once you have some confidence in the water and with your kite then move onto board starts.

Then once you get up and riding and fall off use this oppertunity to further practice your body dragging and if you cant get to your board give a fellow kiter a wave and get them to rescue it for you.

Straight into it then when i get back!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, generally agree with that, but bear in mind there are a few variables that need to be considered:
How good is your kite control? if its good (confident in launching, landing, relauching off water etc) then go for it, if not you will be better working on the kite skills for a while longer.
What are the waterwind conditions? if its gusty, wavy etc maybe wait till the conditions are better as you will get quite frustrated trying to get everything just sorted when a wave comes and knocks you off.
Most important is safety, make sure the area you are using is free of other kiters, beach users etc. Don't be crashing your kite on the beach, it might shorten its life somewhat or hurt someone else
Finally, enjoy, its a really good experience getting going for the first time:-)

At the risk of sounding big headed, i think my kiteskills are okay. I had a 6hr lesson and was bodydragging okay and walking along with the kite one handed. I was told that i appeared to have good feel for the kite and only got ripped out of water once whilst firing through the middle of the window wth a 9m kite in 25knots

I will be going out in decent learning conditions whilst begining. I just want to get straight into the saddle now

Cheers for the advice. Much appreciated

Chris

Good luck, enjoy