Extreme Individual Sports, Bungee Jumping, bungy jumps

Bungee Jumping is the art of tying a very large rubber band to your ankles, then jumping off of a perfectly good bridge or other high obstacle. Bungee Jumping is an extreme sport that not everyone has the heart to do, but allegedly, once you do your first bungee jump, you are hooked and want to do it all over again, and from different places. Similar to Base Jumping, Bungee Jumping is all about the adrenaline rush you get by throwing yourself off of a man made structure, such as a bridge, which has nothing underneath it, for some it is about facing your fears, ever wonder why these base jumpers and bungee jumpers have a mentally positive attitude, maybe it's because they have faced their own fears, or because maybe they are nutters.

Allegedly, as history goes, the idea of bungee jumping came from an ancient ritual performed on Pentecost Island in the Pacific. The legend goes like this, a man was arguing fiercely with his wife, and she ran away from him and into the jungle. She climbed a Banyan tree and wrapped her ankles with vines, to save herself in case she fell off. Her husband eventually found her, and climbed the same tree to make peace with this wife. But, the woman jumped from the tree to get away from, and he jumped after her in an impulsive act trying to save her. So she bounced back up and he hit the ground very hard and died. This legend, and there are a few different variations around, is meant to of started the coming of age ritual practiced on the island, where young men about to enter adulthood, would tie the vines to their ankles, and jump off of tall trees of little cliffs. If the young men had tied the vine tight enough, and correctly guessed the length of vine needed for the jump, and lived after they had jumped, then they would be classed as men. If they got ready and at the last minute would not do the jump, they were forever classed as boys and hardly ever married, but at least this way they had a 100% survival rate.

In the modern world, bungee jumping started, again allegedly, on April fools day,1979. A group from Oxford University, England, calling themselves "The Dangerous Sports Club" used nylon braided rubber shock cord, to conduct an improvised Bungee Jump, four of them dressed in customary top hat and tails, jumped for the first time, they may of been arrested, but after they had hit the world press headlines, a new extreme sport had been born.

Unlike Base Jumping, Bungee Jumping has been made legal, although permissions are required. Many jumpers begin jumping off of a crane at an event or even on holiday, but once hooked, they will jump from virtually anything. High bridges such as the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, make excellent jumping points, with spectacular views and jumping towards water is much prettier than jumping towards concrete. Bungee jumpers usual platforms for jumping are bridges, helicopters, cranes, towers, and hot air balloons, even the Eiffel Tower has been used for Bungee Jumping. Insurance is not impossible for Bungee Jumpers, there are specialised insurance companies who sell life insurance and personal accident insurance.