Travel Articles & Travel Tips

Bungee Runs

Bungee runs can be fun ... but would you do it twice?

I would not do a bungee jump for a million dollars. I know that there have been few serious injuries on bungee runs but when they do occur, they tend to be fatal. Nothing could persuade me to let a stranger tie a rope to my body or ankles and expect me to jump from hundreds of feet in the air. Even watching other people do it makes me feel nauseous.  They are usually young men who jump, egged on by each other and no one wants to chicken out in front of their buddies. It's a rite of passage for the modern age. These young men living in towns and cities can't go out and wrestle a bear or shoot a tiger, so they go on bungee runs.

Bouncing up and down at the end of a stretch of elastic rope seems an odd thing to do. The first jump of its kind was done by four British men in the Dangerous Sports Club in 1979. They jumped off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. After that they went to America and did bungee runs off the Royal Gorge Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. The sport was really catching on and they started to do paying displays from cranes and hot air balloons.

The first person to put on bungee jumps as a real business enterprise was Mr. Hackett from New Zealand. He was a jumper himself and did many ambitious bungee runs including from the Eiffel Tower.  The Guinness Book of Records states that the highest commercial bungee jump recorded took place in South Africa, and it was from 709 feet (216m).

When things go wrong on a bungee jump, it's often because the safety harness hasn't been secured properly. Sometimes, the operator miscalculates and the cord isn't the correct length. The cord mustn't be too long because it needs to stretch on the bungee runs.  Injuries tend to be dislocated shoulders, back injuries and rope burns.

I've seen young men in a jungle setting do bungee jumping on TV. They were using vines tied to their ankles and jumping from wooden platforms. Their heads were dangerously close to the ground after they had plummeted. It seemed to be some sort of initiation ceremony and I think it inspired the whole craze. Little did they know that their bungee runs were responsible for a whole cultural movement.

James Bond makes it look easy in GoldenEye. The jump was a real one, done by a stunt man of course. Unfortunately, there was a tragedy on the British TV show, The Late, Late Breakfast Show hosted by Noel Edmonds. Each week, a member of the public was challenged to perform some feat. A man was killed when he was rehearsing the jump he was to do later on live television. Bungee runs are fun for most people but I wonder if anyone does them twice?

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