I don't call myself a skydiver, but I made about 10 jumps between 92 and 93 and, in 97, one more tandem jump.

Learning skydiving used to take some classes on the ground and about 10-15 jumps from 4.000ft. In the first jumps, the parachute opens as soon as you leave the plane, independent of any action from the skydiver. After that, you start openning the chute by yourself and gradually increase the altitude and the time of free-fall.

I think today they are using a different method. You do a tandem jump with an instructor and, after that, you already start jumping independently from 9,000ft and above. In the first jumps, 1 or 2 instructors will follow closely in case something doesn't work.

Between 92 and 93, I made 10 jumps in Sorocaba, SP (Brazil), stopping it right before starting to jump from higher and with free-fall.

Later, in 1997, I did one tandem jump (with 70 seconds free fall) in Hollister, CA.

The picture above was my first jump with a black parachute. Had a relatively dangerous incident 1993 (had a bad "twist" and some of the cords of the chute were tangled - I landed relatively safely 1 mile from the target)..

I don't intend to keep jumping, but I would be open to more tandem-jumps.