In addition to the great thoughts posted by Mattv and Tungsten here is some information I posted in another post that you might find helpful...
Flat water jumps and jumps off of kickers are two different animals. On flat water its all about speed and technique to get some decent air. With kickers you hit it and you are going up, no doubt! Of course airing and landing are just as hard on a kicker if not harder. Since I ride a lot of very flat water I spend a lot of time just working on ollies and getting them as clean and as fast as I can do them. The next time you are out find some super flat water, and go out nicely powered. Now as weird as this may sound do not try to jump off little ramps or chop. You want to find serious flat stuff to work on your technique. Build up a good amount of speed, and edge against your kite by using your back leg to build tension. When you feel some nice tension push down with your back leg and at the same time lift up with your front leg and shoot your kite towards its sweet spot for lift. Every kite is different, but hopefully it will not be too far behind your back. Its similar to a wakestyle jump, and takes time to get the timing down. Do not edge to the point where you lose too much speed. Timing and technique are critical to getting a little ollie or a 3 foot nice lift. Now when you start doing this you might only get 6", but do not worry about it. When I first started I was stoked to just get a little air and keep going fast the same direction. Now, spend just an afternoon doing that. Let me know what happens after and how I can help some more. I hope that helps a little.
What Mattv said about hours and hours of practice and crashes is 100% true. I really started to excel once I gave up all other forms of riding, and just focused on riding my skim regardless of the conditions. At one point it was not like I thought about the board any more, but it was just the board I rode. I am not saying this is for everyone, nor am I suggesting that you should give up riding strapped. However, when I focused on doing just one thing for a while it seemed to help me accelerate through the learning curve more quickly.
tungsten wrote:I actually started ollying back when I had no clue I could ride strapless... snicker snicker... easier to learn as I didn't loose the board all the time. It's cheating I know.
This is a great point by Tungsten, and can help you build some technique without as much eating water, or cheating too much.
Also, keep in mind that if you can cross train by getting behind a boat, cable park, winch, it can make a big difference when you hit the water with your kite. Guys like Joey and Bryan kill it because they also spend a ton of time on their skims behind a boat.
Hope that helps, and let me know if I can throw some more tips your way.