Originally Posted by WarChild

Your best option in Canada is as follows:

2 "First Jumps" .. 6 hours or so of classroom work followed by two jumps from 1500 or so feet. You don't really jump, you hang off the wing of a plane and drop, the instructor tosses the pilot chute after you.

A series of PFF jumps. This stands for Progressive Free Fall. Americans often call this AFF or acelerated free fall. Basically, you will jump from 10,000 feet with two instructors holding on to you. They're not attached, they just hold on to you and make sure you get in to the right position, etc. For the first few jumps they will deploy your shoot for you. As you progress, and perform certain skills, you will only require one instructor and it will get slightly cheaper. After you are checked out you will be able to jump yourself. This will take somewhere around 8-10 jumps to complete.

I have to re-certify my first jumps this year before I start PFF jumps. You can probably come out with us if you want.