A slightly different jump story

THREE, TWO, ONE, BUNGEE!

I love adventure. I have been loving it all my life.

At the age of thirteen I decided that I had to bungee jump as soon as possible. Two problems occurred: Firstly, it is not allowed to jump under the age of fourteen. Secondly, a permission of your parents is necessary if you are not eighteen or above. It took me two years of persuasion and two actively supporting brothers, one of them even works on the bungee bridge I jumped off, until my father finally agreed to sign the application.

Thank you for the mischievous smile, dear brother.

Standing on the edge, seconds before I was meant to jump, I felt weak and small, not sure anymore if I wanted to do this. My brother stood behind me, holding the rope that was going to safe my life, smiling and saying sarcastically:”If you hesitate, you do not need to come home anymore.” At the same moment the crew began to count down:“Three, two, one, BUNGEE!”, and I jumped.

Did it!

I actually cannot remember what I thought during my flight in free fall, but as soon as I bounced up again, it was great. I felt as if I had tricked death. The Drau below, wonderful nature surrounding and the Jauntalbrücke above me: By the time I slowed down, I was getting aware of the things around me for the first time on that day. I was brought back to land by a boat and wanted to jump again immediately.

Flying - no, actually falling.

Years went by and I got interested in the origins of this uncommon sport. After doing some research I found out that jumping of a very unsafe tower, only secured by a liana wound around the ankles, is the tradition of a folk that lives on an island called Vanuatu in Melanesia which is in the North-West of Australia.

As soon as European adventurers discovered this custom, they tried to transfer the sport into a safer one so as to promote it to western adrenaline junkies.

Relieved

The breakthrough, though, happened in New Zealand. A man called A. J. Hackett invented the first flexible bungee rope which he specially designed for this risky activity. In order to demonstrate it, he did the probably most famous jump, the one of the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1987. After that, bungee jumping quickly evolved to a popular extreme sport throughout Europe.

A lot of people bother about the risks of bungee jumping and they actually should do if they do it secured just by a liana but not if they use a bungee rope and have a competent crew around them. The most frequent injury is an excoriation which can occur if you get in contact with the rope while you bounce back, but you are told to cover your head with your hands in order to avoid that.

As with a lot of extreme sports, it goes without saying that you should be in a good condition, physically and psychologically, if you intend to try it.

In conclusion, you should pick the company you want to jump with carefully, in order to prevent accidents.

Have fun, it is worth every penny! :)