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'''Bungee jumping''' (also spelled "Bungy" jumping)<ref>AJ Hackett (2008).[http://www.ajhackett.com.au/ ''Welcome to Cairns'']. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.</ref><ref>Jungle Bungy Jump (2008). [http://www.phuket.com/bungy/ ''Phuket Thailand'']. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.</ref> is an activity that involves jumping from a tall structure while connected to a large [[bungee cord|elastic cord]]. The tall structure is usually a fixed object, such as a building, [[bridge]] or crane; but it is also possible to jump from a movable object, such as a [[Hot air balloon|hot-air-balloon]] or [[helicopter]], that has the ability to [[Hover (helicopter)|hover]] above the ground. The thrill comes as much from the [[free-fall]]ing as from the rebounds.<ref>Kockelman JW, Hubbard M. Bungee jumping cord design using a simple model. ''Sports Engineering'' 2004; 7(2):89-96</ref>
'''Bungee jumping''' (also spelled "Bungy" jumping)<ref>AJ Hackett (2008).[http://www.ajhackett.com.au/ ''Welcome to Cairns'']. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.</ref><ref>Jungle Bungy Jump (2008). [http://www.phuket.com/bungy/ ''Phuket Thailand'']. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.</ref> is an activity that involves jumping from a tall structure while connected to a large [[bungee cord|elastic cord]]. The tall structure is usually a fixed object, such as a building, [[bridge]] or crane; but it is also possible to jump from a movable object, such as a [[Hot air balloon|hot-air-balloon]] or [[helicopter]], that has the ability to [[Hover (helicopter)|hover]] above the ground. The thrill comes as much from the [[free-fall]]ing as from the rebounds.<ref>Kockelman JW, Hubbard M. Bungee jumping cord design using a simple model. ''Sports Engineering'' 2004; 7(2):89-96</ref>


When the person jumps, the [[bungee cord|cord]] stretches and the jumper flies upwards again as the cord snaps back, and continues to oscillate up and down until all the energy is dissipated.
When the person jumps, the [[bungee cord|cord]] stretches and the jumper flies upwards again as the cord snaps back, and continues to oscillate up and down until all the energy is dissipated. Bungee Jumping can be considered one of the [[most dangerous sports]], and should be done with utmost respect.


== History ==
== History ==

Revision as of 15:06, 18 March 2011

Bungee Jump in Normandy, France (Souleuvre Viaduct)

Bungee jumping (also spelled "Bungy" jumping)[1][2] is an activity that involves jumping from a tall structure while connected to a large elastic cord. The tall structure is usually a fixed object, such as a building, bridge or crane; but it is also possible to jump from a movable object, such as a hot-air-balloon or helicopter, that has the ability to hover above the ground. The thrill comes as much from the free-falling as from the rebounds.[3]

When the person jumps, the cord stretches and the jumper flies upwards again as the cord snaps back, and continues to oscillate up and down until all the energy is dissipated. Bungee Jumping can be considered one of the most dangerous sports, and should be done with utmost respect.

History

View from the top of AJ Hackett Bungy Tower, Cairns, Queensland

The word "bungee" (Template:Pron-en) originates from West Country dialect, meaning "Anything thick and squat",as defined by James Jennings in his book "Observations of Some of the Dialects in The West of England" published 1825. Around 1930 the name became used for a rubber eraser. The word bungy, as used by A J Hackett, is "Kiwi slang for an Elastic Strap".[4] Cloth-covered rubber cords with hooks on the ends have been available for decades under the generic name bungy cords.

In the 1950s David Attenborough and a BBC film crew brought back footage of the "land divers" (known as "Naghol") of Pentecost Island in Vanuatu, young men who jumped from tall wooden platforms with vines tied to their ankles as a test of their courage and passage into manhood.[5] A similar practice, only with a much slower pace for falling, has been practised as the Danza de los Voladores de Papantla or the 'Papantla flyers' of central Mexico, a tradition dating back to the days of the Aztecs.

A tower 4,000 feet (1,200 m) high with a system to drop a “car” suspended by a cable of “best rubber” was proposed for the Chicago World Fair, 1892-1893. The car, seating two hundred people, would be shoved from a platform on the tower and then bounce to a stop. The designer engineer suggested that for safety the ground below “be covered with eight feet of feather bedding”. The proposal was declined by the Fair’s organizers.[6]

Bungee at Kawarau Bridge

The first modern bungee jumps were made on 1 April 1979 from the 250-foot (76 m) Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, by David Kirke, Chris Baker, Simon Keeling, Tim Hunt and Alan Weston of the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club.[7] The jumpers were arrested shortly after, but continued with jumps in the US from the Golden Gate and Royal Gorge bridges, (this last jump sponsored by and televised on the American program That's Incredible) spreading the concept worldwide. By 1982 they were jumping from mobile cranes and hot air balloons.

Commercial bungee jumping began with the New Zealander, A J Hackett, who made his first jump from Auckland's Greenhithe Bridge in 1986.[8] During the following years Hackett performed a number of jumps from bridges and other structures (including the Eiffel Tower), building public interest in the sport, and opening the world's first permanent commercial bungee site; the Kawarau Bridge Bungy at Queenstown in the South Island of New Zealand.[9] Hackett remains one of the largest commercial operators, with concerns in several countries.

Despite the inherent danger of jumping from a great height, several million successful jumps have taken place since 1980. This is attributable to bungee operators rigorously conforming to standards and guidelines governing jumps, such as double checking calculations and fittings for every jump. As with any sport, injuries can still occur (see below), and there have been fatalities. A relatively common mistake in fatality cases is to use a cord that is too long. The cord should be substantially shorter than the height of the jumping platform to allow it room to stretch. When the cord reaches its natural length the jumper either starts to slow down or keeps accelerating depending upon the speed of descent. One may not even start to slow until the cord has been stretched a significant amount, because the cord's resistance to distortion is zero at the natural length, and increases only gradually after, taking some time to even equal the jumper's weight. See also Potential energy for a discussion of the spring constant and the force required to distort bungee cords and other spring-like objects.

Equipment

Bungee jumping off the Victoria Falls Bridge in Zambia/Zimbabwe

The elastic rope first used in bungee jumping, and still used by many commercial operators, is factory-produced braided shock cord. This consists of many latex strands enclosed in a tough outer cover. The outer cover may be applied when the latex is pre-stressed, so that the cord's resistance to extension is already significant at the cord's natural length. This gives a harder, sharper bounce. The braided cover also provides significant durability benefits. Other operators, including A J Hackett and most southern-hemisphere operators, use unbraided cords with exposed latex strands (pictured at right). These give a softer, longer bounce and can be home-produced.

There may be a certain elegance in using only a simple ankle attachment, but accidents where participants became detached led many commercial operators to use a body harness, if only as a backup for an ankle attachment. Body harnesses generally derive from climbing equipment rather than parachute equipment.

The highest jump

Looking down from atop the Verzasca Dam bungee tower near Locarno in Ticino, Switzerland

In August 2005, AJ Hackett added a SkyJump to the Macau Tower, making it the world's highest jump at 233 metres (764 ft).[10] The SkyJump did not qualify as the world's highest bungee as it is not strictly speaking a bungee jump, but instead what is referred to as a 'Decelerator-Descent' jump, using a steel cable and decelerator system, rather than an elastic rope. On 17 December 2006, The Macau Tower started operating a proper bungee jump, which became the "Highest Commercial Bungee Jump In The World" according to the Guinness Book of Records. The Macau Tower Bungy has a "Guide cable" system that limits swing (the jump is very close to the structure of the tower itself) but does not have any effect on the speed of descent, so this still qualifies the jump for the World Record.

Another commercial bungee jump currently in operation is just 13m smaller, at 220 metres (720 ft). This jump, made without guide ropes, is from the top of the Verzasca Dam near Locarno, Switzerland. It appears in the opening scene of the James Bond film GoldenEye. The Bloukrans Bridge in South Africa and the Verzasca Dam jumps are pure freefall swinging bungee from a single cord.

Bloukrans Bridge opened in 1997 and uses a pendulum bungee system. It is 216m high, from the platform to the river below.[11]

Guinness only records jumps from fixed objects to guarantee the accuracy of the measurement. John Kockleman however recorded a 2,200-foot (670 m) bungee jump from a hot air balloon in California in 1989. In 1991 Andrew Salisbury jumped from 9,000 feet (2,700 m) from a helicopter over Cancun for a television program and with Reebok sponsorship. The full stretch was recorded at 3,157 feet (962 m). He landed safely under parachute.

One commercial jump higher than all others is at the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado. The height of the platform is 321 metres (1,053 ft). However, this jump is rarely available, as part of the Royal Gorge Go Fast Games—first in 2005, then again in 2007.

Bungee jumping from the Souleuvre Viaduct in Normandy

Several major movies have featured bungee jumps, most famously the opening sequence of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye in which Bond makes a jump over the edge of a dam in Russia (in reality the dam is in Switzerland: Verzasca Dam, and the jump was genuine, not an animated special effect).

It appears in the title of the South Korean film Bungee Jumping of Their Own (Beonjijeompeureul hada 번지점프를 하다; 2001), although it does not play a large part in the film.


A fictional proto-bungee jump is a plot point in the Michael Chabon novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

In the film Selena, in which Jennifer Lopez plays Selena Quintanilla-Perez, she is shown bungee jumping at a carnival. This actual event took place shortly before Selena's death in 1995.

Variations

Catapult

In "Catapult" (Reverse Bungee or Bungee Rocket) the 'jumper' starts on the ground.[12] The jumper is secured and the cord stretched, then released and shooting the jumper up into the air. This is often achieved using either a crane or a hoist attached to a (semi-)perma structure. This simplifies the action of stretching the cord and later lowering the participant to the ground.

"Twin Tower" is similar with two oblique cords.

Trampoline

Bungy Trampoline uses, as its name suggests, elements from bungy and trampolining. The participant begins on a trampoline and is fitted into a body harness, which is attached via bungy cords to two high poles on either side of the trampoline. As they begin to jump, the bungy cords are tightened, allowing a higher jump than could normally be made from a trampoline alone.

Running

Bungee Running involves no jumping as such. It merely consists of, as the name suggests, running along a track (often inflatable) with a bungee cord attached. One often has a velcro-backed marker that marks how far the runner got before the bungee cord pulled back. This activity can often be found at fairs and carnivals and is often most popular with children.

Ramp

Bungee jumping off a ramp. Two rubber cords - the "bungees" - are tied around the participants waist to a harness. Those bungee cords are linked to steel cables along which they can slide due to stainless pulleys. The participants ride bike, sled or ski before jumping.

Bungee jump off a ramp in Saint-Jean-de-Sixt, France
Thierry Devaux and one of his six jumps from the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower in October 1991
Thierry Devaux during a double backflip during training on his "reserved" bridge

Thierry Devaux performs during his bungee jumps an aesthetical and creative move akin to dance or skating.[13][14]. He performs 8 to 12 acrobatic figures during two-hour training with the help of his Jumar or with a winch to lift him up [15]. He is also the inventor of a more ethical technique by directly using his elastic cord to climb up.[16]. He stopped counting his jumps after the thousandth one, after sixteen years of training. He did six figures from the Eiffel Tower [17], nine figures for the Olympic Games [18], six figures from the Golden Gate Bridge [19] and eight figures from the Brooklyn Bridge[20]. After four attempts, he missed his three acrobatic jumps when he was landing on the torch of Statue of Liberty [21]

Suspended Catch Air Device

SCAD diving is similar to bungee jumping in that participant is dropped from a height, but in this variation there is no cord, instead the participant falls into a net [22][23]

Safety and possible injury

Jumping at Kawarau Bridge in Queenstown, New Zealand, April 2007.


Bungee jumping injuries may be divided into those that occur secondary to equipment mishap or tragic accident, and those that occur regardless of safety measures. In the first instance, injury can happen if the safety harness fails, the cord elasticity is miscalculated, or the cord is not properly connected to the jump platform. In 1986 Michael Lush died of multiple injuries after bungee jumping for a stunt on a BBC television programme[24] and in 1997, Laura Patterson, one of a 16-member professional bungee jumping team, died of massive cranial trauma when she jumped from the top level of the Louisiana Superdome and collided head-first into the concrete-based playing field. She was practicing for an exhibition intended to be performed during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXI

Injuries that occur despite safety measures generally relate to the abrupt rise in upper body intravascular pressure during bungee cord recoil. Eyesight damage is the most frequently reported complication.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Impaired eyesight secondary to retinal haemorrhage may be transient [29] or take several weeks to resolve [27] In one case, a 26 year old woman's eyesight was still impaired after 7 months [28] Whiplash injuries may occur as the jumper is jolted on the bungee cord and in at least one case, this has led to quadriplegia secondary to a broken neck. Very serious injury can also occur if the jumper's neck or body gets entangled in the cord.[32] More recently, carotid artery dissection leading to a type of stroke after bungee jumping has also been described.[33] All of these injuries have occurred in fit and healthy people in their twenties and thirties. Bungee jumping has also been shown to increase stress and decrease immune function [34].

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bungee jumping.
  1. ^ AJ Hackett (2008).Welcome to Cairns. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.
  2. ^ Jungle Bungy Jump (2008). Phuket Thailand. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.
  3. ^ Kockelman JW, Hubbard M. Bungee jumping cord design using a simple model. Sports Engineering 2004; 7(2):89-96
  4. ^ A.J. Hackett Myths and FAQ
  5. ^ AJ Hackett (2008). History. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.
  6. ^ Eric Larson, 2003 p135, The Devil in the White City; Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. Citing Chicago Tribune, Nov. 9, 1889.
  7. ^ Aerial Extreme Sports (2008). History of Bungee. Retrieved on 17 October 2008.
  8. ^ "Can you Hackett?". Unlimited - Inspiring Business. 23 August 2004. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  9. ^ "AJ Hackett Bungy". Bungy.co.nz. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
  10. ^ "Guinness World Record - the Highest Commercial Decelerator Descent". Macautower.com.mo. 2005-08-17. Retrieved 2010-05-18. [dead link‍]
  11. ^ http://www.faceadrenalin.com/bloukransbridge.asp
  12. ^ "Bungee Rocket BASE Jump - Wow!".
  13. ^ "Thierry Devaux training". 2003-04-10. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
  14. ^ "Thierry Devaux training". 2003-04-10. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
  15. ^ "Thierry Devaux training". 2003-04-10. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
  16. ^ "Clamps for bungee rope". 1998-10-15. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
  17. ^ "Eiffel Tower". 1991-10-21. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  18. ^ "Olympic Games 92 Albertville - Val d'Isère". 1992-02-15. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
  19. ^ "6 jumps from Golden gate". 1991-06-20. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  20. ^ "8 jumps from Brooklyn Bridge NY". 1993-06-01. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
  21. ^ "Third and fourth attempt by flying on Statue". 2001-07-23. Retrieved 2010-06-27.
  22. ^ http://www.extremedreams.co.uk/index.php/Extremedreams/Scad_Diving/xsid/42
  23. ^ http://xtremesport4u.com/other-extreme-threads/another-extreme-sport-to-enjoy/
  24. ^ http://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/The_Late,_Late_Breakfast_Show#Death_of_Michael_Lush
  25. ^ Krott R, Mietz H, Krieglstein GK. Orbital emphysema as a complication of bungee jumping. Medical Science Sports Exercise 1997;29:850–2.
  26. ^ Vanderford L, Meyers M. Injuries and bungee jumping. Sports Medicine 1995;20:369–74
  27. ^ a b David DB, Mears T, Quinlan MP. Ocular complications associated with bungee jumping. Br J Ophthalmol 1994;78:234-5
  28. ^ a b van Rens E. Traumatic ocular haemorrhage related to bungee jumping. Br J Ophthalmol 1994;78:948
  29. ^ a b Chan J. Ophthalmic complications after bungee jumping. Br J Ophthalmol 1994;78:239
  30. ^ Filipe JA, Pinto AM, Rosas V, et al. Retinal complications after bungee jumping. Int Ophthalmol 1994–95;18:359–60
  31. ^ Jain BK, Talbot EM. Bungee jumping and intraocular haemorrhage. Br J Ophthalmol 1994;78:236–7.
  32. ^ Hite PR, Greene KA, Levy DI, Jackimczyk K. Injuries resulting from bungee-cord jumping. Annals Emerg Med 1993;22:1060-3
  33. ^ Zhou W, Huynh TT, Kougias P, El Sayed HF, Lin PH. Traumatic carotid artery dissection caused by bungee jumping. J Vascular Surg 2007;46:1044-6
  34. ^ Bungee jumping suppresses innate immunity - a new finding http://www.sciguru.com/newsitem/5333/Bungee-jumping-suppresses-innate-immunity--a-new-finding-/
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