Lion1

Just for the record... My comments are not "political" they are from experience. Somewhat dated at this point because I did AFF 5 years ago. But you are right that the training and your actions in the air are what save your ass. As far as AFF goes a good instructor is critical. Ed P will not steer you wrong.

Good to hear form you Ed!!! When Im ready for a wingsuit I'll come out for a while and you can teach me how to fly em. I know you were not that happy at Skydance and Im glad you are teaching AFF again. See ya soon Blue Skies...

Hey welcome!!! Do the propellers spin the other direction in the southern hemisphere? JK have fun dude AFF is a blast!!!! Oh and in the words of my AFF instructor that I will never forget... DONT FHAK UP!!!

Hi Cancina, I just joined this community but I have been a skydiver for 6 years and used to live in CA. Let me first say that I did my AFF at Skydance. I did two tandems (the first was just fun) little did i know I would be back the next weekend in an AFF class!!! I took 35 jumps to get my A license and spent over $2000 for all my tandems and student jumps. I went through the AFF program with my best friend (I highly recommend this, it helps when you have a bad jump or just flat out get scared) Since I finished AFF in 2002 I have jumped in Hawaii, FL, AZ, GA, So Cal, and both Skydance and Lodi. I can say without a doubt that Lodi can train you cheaper than Skydance. But I can also say that I have ALLWAYS felt like Skydance pounded saftey into my mind from the start. Not to say Lodi wouldnt because they do, but I have never regretted spending the money at Skydance for what I feel was superior safety oriented training. My main AFF instructor was a fellow with about 8-9000 jumps at the time. He was a worldclass skydiver (he was on the 400 way jump, and previous records too) It was a long time after I had my A license before he "let" me go jump at Lodi. This is because Lodi had a reputation for being less safe and less student friendly than Skydance. My AFF instructor prefered to jump at Lodi because the jump tickets are super cheap. But he still wanted me at Skydance until I was ready for Lodi. I just looked at my log book and my first jump at Lodi was jump 57, a 4 way with my AFF instructor and my bestfriend and another guy. If my AFF instructor waited till I had almost 60 jumps to take me to Lodi that says something. Dont get me wrong, I think Lodi is a great DZ and when Im back home I would not hesitate to jump there. But AFF is another story. One more reason why I would pick Skydance is the fact that there are may outs around Skydance. Outs are open fields where you can land. At Lodi there used to be many outs but slowly more and more of the fields around the DZ were planted with wine grapes. The grape stakes are a huge hazard if you were forced to land in one of those fields. So overall I would highly recommend Skydance. Remember Im not saying Lodi is bad but I do feel that Skydance is better for AFF. After you get trained and are confident as a skydiver then go to Lodi and have a blast Bill is a great DZO and when he says go to the plane.. GO!!! My bestfriend recently went to a DZ for his Tandem Instructor rating and guess where he went... Skydance! In my opinion go to Skydance for training and Lodi for cheap fun jumps after you have some experience. Oh and when you go to Skydance tell them Barnie Freefly sent you!!! Feel free to email me with any questions. HTH