The History of Bungee Jumping

The history of the commercial bungee jumping

When did people start to jump off the cliff? We have heart of many types of jumping but in the modern history, Bungee jumping started in the year 1979, when few members of Oxford Dangerous Sports Club made a few jumps from the 250-foot (76 m) Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. The students got inspired with the idea after discussing a “vine jumping” ritual carried out by certain natives of Vanuatu This event introduced bungee jumping to the public and created a big fuss in public. Since it was an illegal sport at that time, the members of the club ended up in prison for a few days. Later on, bungee jumping started conquesting the world. Some of the American soldiers heart about this event and decided to try bungee jumping. The American soldiers used the ribbon cord for parachutes to do their first jumps. With time people in the US started bungee jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge and the Royal Gorge Bridge. By 1982, several people were jumping from mobile cranes and hot air balloons. After few years, bungee jumping started to appear very frequently all around the world and the first commercial and legal bungee site were born in New Zealand. In 1989, A.J. Hackett started the first bungee camp in the city of Queenstown, New Zealand. Since that time, Hackett became the world acknowledged authority in bungee jumping business. Hackett remains one of the largest commercial operators, with concerns in several countries.

David Kirke and his crew continued their high publicity bungee jumping stunts throughout the 1970s, jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and even from hot air balloons. They made the stunts famous and inspired a young New Zealander by the name of AJ Hackett. Here’s how we went on to invent bungee jumping as we know it today…

In the 1980s, AJ Hackett saw some old TV footage of David Kirke bungee jumping and decided he had to try it out for himself. He could see the commercial opportunity, but first had to test his equipment out before letting the public try it.

He worked with his friend at their struggling ski shop to develop bungee cords that were made from latex rubber, climbing equipment and parachute harnesses. They didn’t have any safety back-ups… so they took their life into their hands with each test.

His friend Chris Lott that jumped with him, said this about these scary days:

“To see who would jump first we drew straws. But we weren’t nervous. The first jump was only 19 meters so it was more about hoping it would work.”

The origin of the word “bungee”

The word “bungee” originates from West Country dialect of English language, meaning “Anything thick and squat”. Around 1930, the name became used for a rubber eraser. The Oxford Dictionary records the use in 1938 of the phrase bungy-launching of gliders using an elasticized cord.