TRES PINOS, CA — A San Francisco man who "couldn't cope with life" passed himself off as an experienced sky diver and then unbuckled his parachute harness about 1,000 feet above the ground, according to officials.

A note was found on the body of Abdoulreza Khatibipour, 24.

At 1,000 feet he threw away his helmet and unstrapped his parachute.

"The note said he was unhappy and couldn't cope with life but gave no idea of just why he was unhappy," San Benito County Sheriff Harvey Nyland said yesterday. Khatibipour made his fatal jump Sunday near Tres Pinos, an unincorporated community five miles south of Hollister.

Khatibipour's parachute opened automatically when triggered by a static line attached to the plane that took him aloft, said Bill Gere, owner of Adventure Aerosports.

Khatibipour suddenly threw away his helmet and unsnapped a chest strap and two leg straps that attached the parachute to the body harness, said Gere.

A ground team that keeps radio contact with divers in case they need instructions called Khatibipour when they saw what he was doing, but he didn't respond, said Gere.

Khatibipour claimed he had sky diving experience but didn't have a log book, which all sky divers carry, Gere said. Without the document he was forced to go through six hours of training before he could go up in the plane and make the beginner's "static line" jump.

Khatibipour "made it very clear that he wanted to jump alone," but none of the others on the flight had reason to think he would kill himself, said Jess Rodriguez, a jump master at Adventure Aerosports.

Without a logbook, he had to go through six hours of training before going up in the plane.

"Equipment doesn't come apart," said Rodriguez, who said Khatibipour jumped at 4,000 feet. The descent was in order until about 1,000 feet.

Gere said two sky divers followed the man out of the plane, each about one minute apart.

"They said he didn't say anything (before jumping)," said Gere.

The note said Khatibipour, who was of Iranian descent, left his belongings to Cyrus Esmaile, an uncle in San Francisco.

Nyland said the uncle told him Khatibipour had tried to commit suicide last year by slashing his wrists.

Khatibipour paid $171 for a taxi ride to Hollister from San Francisco, where he worked as clerk in an F. W. Woolworth's store.