Hey twisted, I was the same 5 years land boarding then got in the wet stuff. Watch some body dragging vids and deep water pack down vids on YouTube
Also start by doing water relaunches and all the above in waist deep water. Get your skills down with these first spend a day or so doing these first, ions relaunch is not great you will be up and riding in no time.
I spent my first day doing this when I got in the water and was riding upwind and jumping within a week, have fun water is not as hard as land lol