Bungee Jumping

Introduction to Bungee Jumping and history

Bungee Jumping is an extreme sport where you jump from a stationary structure (such as a crane or bridge) high in the air while attached to an elastic rope. As you hurtle downwards, the rope will stretch and extend, slowing your descent as it does. Once you have reached the maximum stretch point of the rope, you will be fired back up into the air again, much like a human yo-yo!

It is not for nothing that this sport is sometimes known as suicide practice. The thrill of hurtling through the air is for some the closest experience to human flight and the adrenaline rush from such a fearsome activity is second to none. Conversely there have been relatively few accidents in bungee jumping and fewer still fatalities. This is down to rigorous, standardised safety procedures for bungee jumping worldwide.

The sport of bungee jumping started with a 1950s David Attenborough documentary about the 'land divers' of Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. The documentary detailed daring young men who dove from elevated wooden platforms with vines attached to their feet as a test of courage. This inspired an Englishman, Chris Baker, to invent his own kind of urban vine jumping using an elastic rope.

The first bungee jump as we know it today was performed from the 250 feet high Clifton Suspension Bridge, Bristol in 1979 by four people from the Dangerous Sports Club. Almost immediately, they were arrested by the UK authorities, so they continued in the United States where they found international notoriety on the television programme 'That's Incredible'. Soon after they were putting on displays, jumping from cranes and hot air balloons.

An alternative spelling of bungee jump is bungy jump. The more internationally accepted of the two, however, is 'bungee' jump.