-Anna
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Eric Sullano,
Your heart pumps rapidly, your hands shake.
You're wearing this weird strappy harness thing, you feel it snug on your hips and over your shoulders. There's a dangling hook thing that flaps around while you wait.
You watch the crew prepares for our group. They're working with deliberate speed, running through each safety check as their jumper looks to them with their life. For the crew it's just another group jumper but they're voice is gentle and reassuring.
Somehow you're first in your group to jump. A pioneer of sorts. Hahaha. Lucky you. The crew member calls you up. Yanks on your harness on a few places, makes a few small adjustments and checks your hands. Your weight and jump number is marked on your hand in bright green. That number will help you find the video/photos of your jump in the gift shop later; if you survive.
Your heart pumps rapidly. The adrenaline is flowing.
The crew member seats you in chair reminds you of one of those chairs they use to deliver babies. Legs up. A rebirth?
You wonder will your wife be okay without me?
The crew member starts strapping all sorts of things to your feet. You sit there 3 feet from the ledge from where you're about to jump 134 meters to meet your death or your complete elation. You stare around looking at all the unfamiliar equipment, harnesses, carabiners, cables, wires, winches, and bungee. You notice the bungee is about 2.5 inch diameter of bundled rubber bands. My life is in that rubber band you think. The only thing that's gonna bring you back alive. Meanwhile the two-man crew is talking a back and forth to each other. One at my chair, the other manning the bungee. I'm not quite sure what he's doing. He hollers out to the other crew member, pointing to the red marker notes on my right hand. What is that he sais? They seem to be a bit confused. The other takes a look and sais "don't worry" it's just a different color.
Is this a ploy to make their jumpers even more anxious? Not sure. You decide to trust them. Do you have a choice?
You smile and look over at my wife, who's playing photographer. She's not jumping.
The crew member asks me to stand up from my chair. And you almost fall over backwards off the ledge as the chair is wobbly. A shot of adrenaline pumps through your veins; as if you needed more.
You stand up.
Your feet are bound together so you waddle over towards the ledge. It's a 1 foot by 1 foot little metal square ledge that extends from the platform. There's a piece of grip tape on the edge, the kind that you used to use on your skate board when you were a kid. A piece of the grip tape is peeling up. Wear and tear from hundreds and thousands have come through here and survived. You're suspended 134 meters (440 feet) above a little creek between this huge gorge. Not nearly enough water to dive into. Must be 3 feet deep.
You're standing at the ledge.
This is happening.
The crew member is holding your harness at my back. Neither pushing me nor pulling me back. But you know he's there.
He tells you to look up at the camera and smile. What camera?! There're camera's here? You would have tried to look more brave if you knew there were "hidden" cameras!
You smile and try to look brave. Flash! (that's one for Instagram you think to yourself)
He tells you he's going to count down from three.
You tell him you just want a second to take it all in.
Heart is pumping incessantly.
You take a breath.
Never do you think of turning back. It's not an option.
You stand there taking it all in. You look down and get dizzy.
This is happening.
This is happening.
This is happening.
You look out to the distant mountain peak.
You bend my knees, arms out.
You jump.
You lose connection with everything that is solid, secure, and familiar.
You are falling.
You look down.
The wind is ripping through my hair.
You feel free.
All the anxiety, fear, nervousness, disappears in an instant.
You let go. You are falling. You are completely inverted. Head down, feet up.
You see the ground below. It's coming at you and it's coming FAST.
There's a bit of roller coaster feeling in your stomach but funny enough it's not as bad as a roller coaster.
You've been falling for a few seconds.
Where's the bungee? you think.
Then you feel the bungee starting to pull at your feet.
It's a gentle pull at your legs and hips that slows you as you speed towards the ground.
The blood rushes to your head.
You come to a stop and then almost at once you're moving away from the ground.
Blood still rushing to your head.
You get to the top and then you're falling again.
You look down and there's your old friend that is the ground coming at you.
You feel another pull on your legs and hips but not as strong.
At the top you're still upside down. You yank on the strappy thing as the crew member instructed you to release your feet so you can sit upright for the ride back up to the platform. It takes a few quick jerks of your arm but it releases.
You did it you think to yourself while you're suspended over 100 feet off the ground. And you remember that it's only this rubber band bungee that's holding you up. You remember you are afraid of heights. But somehow your fear is masked by this feeling of complete elation. You look down. You look up. You look all around and yell out "WHOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!"
A little red connector thing is coming down along side your bungee as you look up.
You are bounding ever so gently on your bungee as you sit there in your harness and recount what you've just done.
The little red connector snaps into your harness and starts pulling you up.
What? It's over?
You've got a huge-ass smile on your face.
The ride up takes about 60 seconds. You take it all in.
When you get to the top you're spinning a bit. The blood rushes to your feet as you realize that you're off of the ledge and not on solid ground. Your fear of heights comes back to you.
Ear to ear grin. You look for your wife. Your hands are shaking. The adrenaline is still with you.
Crew member grabs your bungee and pulls you to the deck. You reach out to the deck with you feet. More blood runs to your feet.
You make contact with solid ground.
You're back on deck.
You celebrate with your wife.
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My first and only bungee jump to-date was in New Zealand with the AJ Hackett company off of the Nevis (Queenstown Activities - The Nevis). I've sky-dived before and I have to say that bungee jumping was scarier (or maybe I'm just older).
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Hopefully, this answers your question. :)
-Anna
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