thunderkat

Hello all....I'm a very new jumper (41 jumps) and I'm looking to buy my own gear. I'm being warned against all Raven reserves by one dz owner, who is very kind, knowledgeable, and helpful. He basically said they're not that safe and that he's had some issues with them in the past. He didn't get very specific, just said he had some issues with them in the past. I value his opinion very much, but when I'm on here looking for gear, it looks like ALOT of rigs have some sort of Raven reserve in it. They seem as common as the popular containers that they're stored in - Mirage ,Wings, Javelin, etc...I just thought it would be smart to get some other input on the matter. Trusting your reserve is obviously incredibly important, but I also know that everyone has their own opinions on which gear is best and why. Is there a real, valid reason to distrust these reserves?

I'm on my 19th jump, which is including two tandems, and CFT, AFF, etc. I still don't fall very well.... I have not had a good exit yet, I almost always end up on my back for at least a second, and even on my belly, I sort of wobble front to back, and tend to spin a little. I'm definitely going to try to get some tunnel time in. I was told that girls are typically good freefall students because many of us have dance/gymnastics experience and therefore greater body awareness, and that guys tend to do better under canopy. Well for some reason the opposite seems to be true for me . Anyway....I just wanted to reply and relate-it's not easy to relax in freefall, and I used to hate moving into position too. Only within my last two jumps did a significant amount of the fear go away. Give it time-go easy on yourself. It's not an easy thing we're trying to learn here.