Archive for the ‘Bungee Jumping’ Category

Bungy Jumping As Stunts

Posted by admin on February 6th, 2010

While we may never know for certain which is actually stronger–  the media’s influence on the public, or the public’s influence on the media–  but there is no way to discount the fact that the influence in both directions is very strong indeed.  The general population, especially the younger people, are greatly influenced by what they see on on the movie screen, and they wish to emulate their favorite stars.  The actions which the celebrities take part in, American youth wants to take part in also.  And bungy jumping is no exception!

On the other hand, what is presented in the media often clearly mirrors the behaviors and the lifestyles of the American public.  For better or for worse, a large part of American entertainment is based on mimicking their audiences.  If it is popular amongst “regular folks,” presenting it on the movie screen tends to make it even more popular.

One of the most well-known recent movie stunts showed James Bond jumping over the edge of a dam in “GoldenEye.”  Bond’s bungy jump stunt was for real, not merely a movie effect.  Bungy jumping has become an interesting stunt in modern movies, as evidenced by the growing number of bungy jumping companies which offer special training to those who plan to do similar stunts in films.  On the Hollywood scene there have always been actors who specialized in movie stunts in general, but seeing more doing bungy jumping stunts shows how popular this sport has become.

The James Bond character, stunt-doubled by Wayne Michaels, may have performed one of the most recently popular bungy jump stunts, but is far from being unique.  Even thought it was voted as the best stunt ever filmed did not distract others from attempting the same feat;  perhaps it even assisted others in wanting to meet or even outdo what Wayne Michaels did.

Bungee America, which offers great bungy jumping experiences to all who wish to try the sport, is also Hollywood’s number one bungy stunt company.  Since 1996, they have assisted in the bungy jump stunts for no less than forty-five Hollywood films.  The first, made in February, 1996, starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in his movie “Eraser.”  In this movie, which involved falling sixty-five feet and doing a back-flip, Schwarzenegger did not use a double, but performed the stunt himself.  This is quite impressive, and surely a positive influence on the fans, because most stars do use doubles in their place for such dangerous stunts.  It undoubtedly has prodded his already-large number of fans to have an even deeper respect for this actor.

Bungy jumping is clearly a sport which is here to stay, and its appeal in the media proves it.  The more that Hollywood presents it as stunts in their films the more the general public will want to take part;  and the wider the public interest and involvement in bungy jumping, the more commonplace it will continue to be on the movie screen–  for daily life mirrors the media, and the media mirrors daily life.

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Bungy Clubs Around The World

Posted by admin on January 21st, 2010

If you are a newcomer to the sport of bungy jumping and wish to find others who share your likeminded interests, or if you’re a seasoned jumper who considers this sport to be one of your main passions, you may be interested in connecting with bungy clubs and their members.  As the popularity of this sport has become worldwide, so have the clubs which cater to bungy jumping enthusiasts!

In the United States, there are currently twenty-five states which have their own listed bungy clubs.  This is quite impressive for a sport which has only been in existence in its present form for the last two decades.  Some of these states boast more than one club;  California has the most, located in Sacramento, El Segundo, Alameda, and Los Gatos.  Canada presently lists five, located in British Columbia, Alberta, Ottawa, and two in Ontario.  If you are truly passionate about this sport, checking into these bungy jumping clubs is a great way to make your experiences even better.

If you wish to do a bit of traveling to join in with bungy jumping clubs, you can proceed to Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, or Ecuador.  Whether your interest in bungy clubs is for the jumping itself or interacting with other members, these clubs in Central America and South America will give you both benefits as well as broadening your horizons in very different geographical locales.

In the United Kingdom, many of the best bungy clubs are affiliated with the British Elastic Rope Sports Association in Oxford, England.  Endorsement by this Association assures you that the clubs have met and maintain specific standards, including the Code of Safe Practice.  In becoming involved with any of these clubs, you will know that your safety is their primary concern.  It is important to note that bungy jumping clubs in the United Kingdom are not required to be affiliated with the Association, and only those who are must adhere to their standards.  Therefore if you wish to become involved with bungy jumping clubs in the United Kingdom, it is a good idea to find out beforehand if the club you are interested in has been approved by the British Elastic Rope Sports Association.

In addition to those located in the United Kingdom, twenty-four other countries in Europe list bungy jumping clubs, as well as fourteen clubs in other locations.  If traveling will be a part of your bungy jumping experiences, becoming involved in the bungy jumping clubs in the areas you will visit will certainly add to your enjoyment.  In selecting foreign destinations in which to engage in your hobby, you can go beyond the sport to the extra fun of taking part in a new culture, sampling its cuisine, learning a new language, and, above all, having the opportunity to get to know many other people who share your interest in bungy jumping.  You may choose a club close to your own home, or you can make it an even more special treat by finding one to your liking on the opposite side of the globe!

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Bungee Jumping Accidents

Posted by admin on November 11th, 2009

Bungee jumping is, by it’s nature, a dangerous sport.  There is no denying that fact.  However, modern manufacturing methods and safety practices have made the sport much safer over the past decade.  It is certainly safer than the land diving of the South Pacific natives.  Unfortunately, even with all of these advances in the sport, bungee jumping accidents still occur.  In this article we will examine what can happen as a result of bungee jumping.

The most severe bungee jumping accidents can actually be fatal.  Most of the fatalities that have occurred in bungee jumping occur as a result of head trauma.  Miscalculation of the length of bungee cord necessary to complete the jump safely has resulted in several deaths since the sport became a public phenomenon in the late 1970s.  One of the most infamous deaths from bungee jumping occurred during practice for the half-time show of Superbowl XXXI, in 1997.  Laura Patterson, who was practicing with members of her professional team, died upon impact when she jumped from the top level of the Louisianna Superdome.  The accident was blamed on the bungee cords being handled incorrectly.  The half-time show was subsequently cancelled, and a tribute to Laura was performed instead.  Other deaths have resulted from people actually coming loose from the ankle harness.  This has led to the common practice of using a body harness as a back-up safety precaution.

Bungee jumping enthusiasts will be quick to point out, however, that there are only a handful of deaths from among millions of jumps that have been performed over the last few decades.  Even though this is true, there are many other types of bungee jumping accidents that can occur if strict safety guidelines are not followed.  Rope burn, pinched fingers and bruises are among the most common injuries suffered from bungee jumping.  While these may not be attributable to actual bungee jumping accidents, they can be considered an adverse side-effect by most people.

More serious than sprains and bruises are the possibilities of other bungee jumping accidents, such as severe eye trauma, dislocation, back injury, and even broken bones.  These are not highly publicized events, but they do occur nonetheless.  In the case of the eye trauma, increased pressure in the eye an cause a blood vessel to burst near the retina.  This results in blurred vision or loss of eyesight completely.  Although it sounds horrific, this is only temporary, until the body repairs the damage done.  Of more concern would be back injuries and broken bones.  In the case of back injuries, a dislocation or strain on the spine can cause a lifetime of pain and suffering.  That is something to take into account when weighing the risks of bungee jumping.

Bungee jumping accidents do occur, but they can be minimized by following established safety procedures.  It is up to you to ask the right questions.  It is up to the commercial company or club to ensure they have the right equipment and trained operators.  Bungee jumping can be fun, and does not have to involve serious injury if done correctly by trained operators and jumpers.

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Five Bungee Jumping Questions

Posted by admin on November 2nd, 2009

There are five bungee jumping questions that you need to ask when you decide to go jumping.  Here’s what they are, and why they matter.

# 1 – How do I want to go bungee jumping?  This question will help decide how high off the ground you will be when you do your bungee jump.  Do you want to use a commercial crane outfit, or are you looking for something more in tune with nature?  Perhaps jumping off of a bridge towards the earth and a running stream of water would be more appealing to your sense of adventure.

# 2 – What club or outfitter will I use?  This question is of primary importance, as it relates directly to the safety of the experience you will have.  Not all bungee jumping clubs or commercial outfitters are the same.  Make sure that the jump team, especially the jump master are all certified.  The club or company should participate in a certification program as well.  Do your homework here, both with the company and with local governmental offices and consumer advocacy groups such as the Better Business Bureau.  Be sure you are selecting a reputable group that abides by the best safety practices out there.

# 3 – What position will I jump in?  There are a variety of positions available to most bungee jumpers.  First timers will often want to do the swan dive, while more experienced jumpers may prefer a different method.  Some outfitters offer what is called the water touchdown.  Confident in their abilities to correctly calculate the exact length needed, they provide the opportunity to go into the water at the bottom of a bridge jump.  This is best done in an area where the water is fairly deep.  Obviously this is a more dangerous jump than the regular bungee jump position.  Knowing how you will jump and what to expect will prepare you in advance for your jump (as much as possible).

#4 – How will the recovery be done?  It is important to know how you will be retrieved once your jump is over.  You don’t want to be stuck at the end of the bungee cord, upside down, for a long period of time.  Most outfitters will let down a secondary line that you will attach to your harness, allowing them to pull you back up.  Some, however, prefer to allow slackening of the bungee cord in order to lower the jumper to the surface.  This is, however, a more dangerous method.  You should be aware in advance so you can be prepared after the jump.

#5 – How much is this going to cost me?  While this shouldn’t be a primary determining factor of if you are going through with it or not, you don’t want to get ripped off.  The average cost of a bungee jump is in the neighborhood of $100, give or take depending on your location.  This can sound intimidating, but remember, this is a once in a lifetime experience (even though many participants return over and over to this type of event), and your decision to participate should not be based solely on the cost.

These five bungee jumping questions will assist you in making the best decisions possible on your jump.  Don’t allow these things to make you timid, just remember, ‘Carpe Diem, Sieze the Day!’.

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Bungee Jumping Culture

Posted by admin on September 25th, 2009

There is something about an individual that is willing to jump from a high place, attached to a rubber band.  This modern extreme sport, known as bungee jumping, seems to have it’s own culture attached to it.  It’s almost ethereal, hard to put your finger on it, but it is there.  Perhaps it comes from the past, or is a morphing into a new spiritual experience, but the bungee jumping culture can be seen and felt.

So what is the bungee jumping culture?  Where did it come from?  Where is it going?  The origins of the sport itself gives us a clue as to where the bungee jumping culture came from.  Originally a religious ritual used on the South Pacific island of Pentecost to appease mother earth, it was supposed to proved for a good yam crop.  It was also a demarcation, a rite of passage, for young boys to become known as men.  Since as long as anybody can tell, these natives have conducted this ritual every spring, literally for thousands of years.  The prevailing culture of the original land divers was definitely a spiritual one.

Re-discovered in the 1950s and promoted heavily in the modern world during the 1980s, bungee jumping has grown by leaps and bounds.  The modern bungee jumping culture doesn’t consist of primitive natives trying to appease the mother earth.  However, there is a back-to-earth element to this extreme death defying outdoor sport.  It provides a thrilling adrenaline rush that is next to nothing else on earth.  Perhaps space travel could rival this effect, but I doubt it.  The bungee jump goes beyond the limited religious and cultural conflicts of our modern day, and appeals to something more primitive, more basic.  The modern bungee jumping culture is a multi-ethnic, multi-generational, and multi-socio-economic group, all looking for the thrill of their lives.

So what does the modern bungee jumping culture look like?  It defies logic.  Both young and old alike flock to bungee jumping events.  There is simply a mystique that permeates this sporting event like no other.  Back to mother earth, defying death, and telling the tale – all of these are the bragging rights of successful bungee jumpers.  They all share in common this aspect of the sport – survival.  Jumpers face a primeval fear, the ultimate loss – death, and overcoming that fear to complete a jump.  There is a sense of accomplishment and victory that goes beyond mountain climbing and other extreme sports.

Taking the back-to-nature theme to the extreme, there is a new movement within bungee jumping called nude bungee jumping.  It typically appeals to the green back-to-earth movement, as well as the frugal bungee jumpers.  Commercial bungee jumping outfitters usually provide a discount, or even a free jump, if someone decides to go the full monty.  This type of jump is usually done with a partner, for a spiritual bonding that goes beyond the everyday realm.  This is yet another evidence that the bungee jumping culture is evolving beyond normal boundaries, and we have yet to truly see what it will become.

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Physics of Bungee Jumping

Posted by admin on September 5th, 2009

While modern bungee jumping has become known and practiced worldwide, what is less understood is the physics behind bungee jumping.  Interestingly enough, the extreme sport originated from spiritual rituals of South Pacific natives, who had no idea of the science behind the sport.  Modern bungee jumping enthusiasts find much comfort in the idea that someone has worked through the math required to perform a safe jump.  So who developed the physics of bungee jumping and how sure are the modern practitioners of the sport that it is relatively safe?  Let’s start by taking a look at the origins of the science behind the sport.

Years before the discovery of the land diving natives on Pentecost Island, a British mathematician named Robert Hooke was discovering the physics of bungee jumping.  He began working as an assistant to the famous scientist Robert Boyle in 1653.  However, it wasn’t until 1660 that he formulated and wrote down Hooke’s Law of Elasticity.  In laymen’s terms, Hooke’s law basically tells us how much tension a spring can endure, and the maximum length it will reach.  Hooke’s law can be used on any material that is considered linear-elastic, or stretching lengthwise.  Oddly enough, rubber is usually considered non-linear, because variations of stress and temperature can have a significant impact on the elasticity of the rubber.

Today, modern practitioners of the physics of bungee jumping don’t have to be as well-versed as Hooke.  Depending on the bungee cords used and their ratings, the science has been simplified quite a bit.  The commercial proprietor who is offering ‘bungee jumping’ as an extreme sport still has to be on their toes.  Cords that are manufactured to meet a well established United States military specification (mil spec) are perhaps the best to use.  This is simply because of the rigorous testing that must go in to making sure they meet the mil spec.  Most of these cords have a specific weight limit and elongation potential.  Using these numbers, along with the length of the jump and the weight of the jumper, the calculations can be made.  The length of rope needed, how many strands are needed for the weight, and how much beyond the normal length of the cord the jumper can expect to go.

The physics of bungee jumping has changed some with advances in the material used in bungee cords.  Some cords are also ‘pre-streched’ so there is less elasticity and bounce, and a more forceful shock and return from the bottom of the jump position.  The problems with some jumpers using cords that were too long are the result of not understanding the physics of bungee jumping.  Even though modern bungee cords are weight and elongation rated, some people still fail to take this into account when performing amateur jumps.  This is why it is highly recommended that anyone who wants to learn bungee jumping should consult with a professional.  This is not a sport that you can learn and practice at home.  The physics of bungee jumping have been simplified by 20th century manufacturing standards, resulting in a much safer sport for everyone participating.

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