mistersam

I had my first day of SL course today. We did 3 SL jumps and 1 freefall. Here's my problem: I know exactly what to do when I'm on the ground, but I mess up when I'm in the air. For the 2nd and 3rd jumps we had a practice release. I got it right on the 2nd jump, but I missed it in the 3rd jump. For the 4th jump, we jump freefall. I let go of the plane and reach for the release but I miss it (somehow). I panic without knowing it and I lose my position. A few seconds later I manage to pull the release, but I forget to let it go. Then I'm on my back and I finally let go, it gets caught up in my arm and hurts like all hell in the process. Once I'm under canopy, everything is good. It didn't feel all that bad when I was in the air, but it looks very scary on video: I don't even have the chute open when I'm out of the screen. The instructor said I should probably give up on skydiving because I panic even when everything is fine. The problem is that I like skydiving, but I don't want to panic like that again. I'm thinking about going and ask for another static line jump, and if I make it nicely, to try again a freefall. What's your opinion? Have you experienced something similar?

I made my first jump at the Parachute Center in Lodi this past weekend. I wanted to follow their static-line student program but they won't have the plane ready until April. Unfortunately for me, the only weekdays I have free are March 23-24 and March 27-28. Does anybody know of any other bay area drop zone that offers static-line training for a reasonable price?

In the San Francisco Bay Area, AFF goes for $1000-1500 and SL goes for as little as $500, so there is a big difference.

Very nice! Thank you for the replies. Now it's time for me to search away

I have never skydived before, but I am going to do my 1st tandem soon. I will most likely want to train until I can skydive on my own. Unfortunately, I'm not made of cash :( I am concidering learning by the static line method which is about 1/2 the price of the AFF. What do you think? Can I really jump on my own after having completed static-line training? How does it compare to the AFF?