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| Bungee has quite an old origin. The idea of this way of jumping
comes from the ancient ritual "Gkol" performed in the Pentecost
Island in the Pacific Archipelago of Vanuatu. The legend says that
in the village Bunlap a man called Tamalie had a quarrel with his
wife and she ran away and climbed a Banyan tree where she wrapped
her ankles with liana vines. When Tamalie came up to her, the woman
jumped from the tree and so did her husband not knowing what had his
wife done. So he died but the woman survived. The men of Bunlap were
very impressed by this performance and they began to practise such
jumps in case they got in similar situation. This practice transformed
into a ritual for rich yam harvest and also for proving manhood. Modern bungee jumping as we know it today actually started on the 1st of April ( Fools' Day ) 1979 when group of people from the Oxford University Dangerous Sport Club, impressed by a film about "vine jumpers", jumped from 245-Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. Using nylon braided, rubber shock cord instead of vines, and dressed in their customary top hat and tails, they performed a four man simultaneous jump .The enthysiasts promptly were arrested for this. But at least hit the world press the next day. The new adrenaline mania has been started. The D.S.C. performed many other jumps, including one off the Golden Gate Bridge. In early 1988, A.J. Hackett and Chris Allum, opened the first commercial jump site in Ohakune, New Zealand. Hackett also made a great commercial show in 1987 when he jumped from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. . As part of the site publicity, Hackett performed an astounding bungee jump from the Eiffel Tower! Nowadays there have already been a lot of towers,cranes,bridges and even hot-air balloons serving as platforms for jumping and bungee is the simplest and easily understood of the aerial extreme sports. This site informs you about some of the aerial extreme sports |