Head over Heels

W hat’s your idea of sport? Soccer baseball tennis? Swimming or skateboarding? For some people sport isn’t merely a fun way to exercise. For them it’s all about the danger the risks and the adrenaline rush. You’ve heard of paragliding windsurfing and skydiving. Now read all about even wilder extreme sports.

Sports lovers and thrill-seekers this one’s for you!

Bungee Jumping

In 1979 three members of England’s Oxford College Dangerous Sports Club jumped off a 250-ft. tall bridge. Miraculously they all survived. Well okay they were attached to bungee cords which saved them from death. Lots of photos were taken of the daredevils leaping from the bridge which were seen all over the world and that’s how bungee jumping was born.

What made these three club members think jumping off a bridge would be a good idea? Well club member Chris Baker lived near the Clifton Suspension Bridge which spans the Avon River between Bristol and Clifton in England. One day as Baker used bungee cords to tie his hand glider to the roof of his car he suddenly recalled something he had learned in school many years before. The natives of Pentecost Island in the South Pacific have an ancient ritual that involves young men and boys climbing to the top of a bamboo tower and jumping off. The only thing that saves them from death is a pair of vines tied around their ankles and attached to the tower.