MeganMc

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  1. MeganMc

    Texas Skydiving

    I took my boyfriend skydiving for his birthday. It was a surprise so I paid for DVDs to be made of our jumps. Since it was a 1st time jump for both of us I paid a total of $502 for two static-line jumps and two DVDs which the owner requested payment for prior to training or jumping. Once we got there, and my boyfriend realized I had paid for the DVDs, my boyfriend elected not to have the DVDs made. I spoke with the owner about this matter 3 times before we jumped. She agreed to refund my card for the amount of the DVDs that were to be made, a total of $180, but asked that we go ahead and jump and deal with the paperwork afterwards. My boyfriend jumped first with no problems. I jumped next. When my parachute deployed it was tangled and not fully open. I used the techniques I learned in training, pull the stabilizers apart and kick, as an attempt to open my parachute fully. Unfortunately the parachute was too tangled to come apart and I had to cut the shoot. So I did what in training they called a “Look, Look, Touch, Touch, Pull, Pull.” Basically I looked for my emergency pulls, I placed my hands on the pulls, and then I pulled them straight down. The first pull is your parachute cut away which means it cuts away the tangled parachute so that you may engage your reserve. Then I pulled my reserve cord. There is about a 3 second gap from the cutaway from the old parachute and the opening of the new parachute where you are just free falling again. My new parachute engaged and I made it safely to the ground. Once on the ground the owner met me on the field to ask if I knew where the old parachute and some parts of my emergency pulls had landed. I told her I had no idea considering I was only thinking about the deployment of a working parachute while I was in the air. The owner immediately got on the phone to call someone about part pricing. When I asked her what was going on, and if she was going to give us the refund for the DVDs that were not made, she stated I had lost a part on one of the emergency pulls when I activated my new parachute and therefore she would have to charge me for the dis-engaged parachute and emergency pull. The pull was $176 and the parachute was $350. I told the owner that there is nothing in any of the paperwork that was given to us stating that I would be financially responsible for anything if broken or lost, nor had anyone said that we would be financially responsible during our 4 1/2 hour training. The owner’s response to that was that she would be generous and just charge me for the missing emergency pull part, $176, and not the tangled parachute I had cut away. At that point she refused to refund my card and proceeded to be extremely rude. My boyfriend and I had to contact the police who came out and took statements from all the staff members. Come to find out the individual who had packed my parachute had only worked there for two weeks and had never actually skydived himself. I would never recommend this place to anyone. Look for another facility that has a trained staff and who isn’t so hard up for money. You will enjoy yourself a lot more and won’t have to call the police on your boyfriend’s birthday.