Skydive Elsinore’s Xtreme Air Sports Skydiving School
Enjoy the beauty of the Elsinore Valley as you smoothly descend to the earth after 60 seconds of freefall when you tandem jump with the Skydive Elsinore’s Xtreme Air Sports Skydiving School. Before you make your tandem jump you would be taught the fundamentals of skydiving and this would include how to exit the airplane. what to expect of the freefall. how to pull the ripcord and basic functioning of a tandem parachute. You will be safe in the hands of experienced jumpmasters who will guide you through the whole process. Tandems jump costs $199 and group discounts begin at groups of over 3. The accelerated freefall program is priced at $329 for the first level and the prices go down as you graduate through the 5 levels. The drop zone at Skydive Elsinore has a snack bar. weekend BBQ and a perfect setting for a picnic for the family.

Getting There
Travel South-east on Cereal Rd. and turn left on Corydon Rd. Drive about .2 miles and turn left on Mission Trl. After a 1.3 mile drive move left into Malaga Rd. drive on and the Skydive Elsinore is at 20701 Cereal Rd. Lake Elsinore.

Skydive San Diego
Located at 13531 Otay Lakes Road. Jamul. the extreme sports center can be approached from the San Diego area by taking the I-5 S to Highway 54 East and then the I-805 South to the Telegraph Canyon Rd. East Exit. About 11 miles along the Otay Lake is the Skydive San Diego parachute center.

Programs And Prices
Your first tandem jump will cost $189 while an accelerated freefall course that will have you jumping on your own is priced at $329. With the AFF program you get a detailed understanding. practical and theoretical. of skydiving solo. Whatever your choice what is assured is an experience of a lifetime. The extreme sports center uses Super Twin Otters and Cessna caravan to transport their jumpers to the drop zone. The Skydive San Diego also offers patrons the facilities of a bunkhouse. packing lofts and a terrific BBQ area for you to enjoy with friends and family. At the Gear Shop you can buy skydiving gear and souvenirs to take home.

Answer for $200: What is the date and time of the leap into BASE jumping history?

Answer for $400: What object did the 1966 jump take place from?

Answer for $600: Which founding father of modern BASE was inspired to follow up with a first BASE jump of his own from the same object?

Answer for $800: What is a skydiving rig with round parachute?

Answer for $1000: What are the names of the two men that made the historic 1966 jump?

(Insert annoying clock ticking game show tune)

Time is up…

The answer is: Brian Schubert and Michael Pelkey.

Michael Pelkey

Age: 69 Marital Status: Married Children: Two per marriage, two marriages Current Location: Simi Valley, California Hometown: Benton Harbor, Michigan Education: Some college, no formal degree Number of Base jumps: 2 Year of first Jump: 1964 (skydiving) 1966 (1st BASE jump) Container: Military backpack and harness Canopy: 28′ TU modified military + 24′ reserve Profession: Electronics /Electromechanical Design Engineer Number of Skydives: 207 Base Number: Not Applicable

In researching B.A.S.E. history, youâ??ll come across the story of an El Capitan jump circa 1966 and the events that transpired 40 years later with the passing of Brian Schubert at Bridge Day. If you are a regular on the forum you might run across a post by Mike, usually he comments in reply to a friendâ??s post here and there. Or in reading through the articles section youâ??ll come across his telling of â??the jumpâ?.

If Carl and Jean Boenish, Phil Smith, Phil Mayfield, Harrison Brothers, and their European counterparts are considered â??Old Schoolâ?, Mike and Brian are classified in an era of their own. They didn’t pioneer B.A.S.E., or lay claim to founding the sport, but what they did was set off a spark with their fortitude.

No doubt like many others before them, including the designers of the parachute itself, the idea of jumping from a fixed object was given birth to as a lark. Twelve years prior to Boenishâ??s jump from El Capitan and the formation of modern B.A.S.E. jumping, Schubert and Pelkey had already made their leap into history.

In todayâ??s world of B.A.S.E. jumping with forum members dictating their versions of â??ethicsâ?, â??rulesâ? and â??whatâ??s an acceptable way to enter B.A.S.E jumpingâ?, to manufacturers of high end gear and First Jump Courses; Schubert and Pelkeyâ??s jump illustrates the â??why not?â? of a B.A.S.E. jump, instead of the â??do notâ??sâ?.

In talking with Mike I am again reminded that the â??old schoolâ? guys show less concern with â??controllingâ? other jumpers and more about answering that age old question â??If your friend jumped off a bridge would you?â? In this case, Pelkey resoundingly replies â??Why not?â?

1. Why did you feel compelled to jump from El Capitan?

It was more of a lark than a compulsion. Skydiving was a relatively new sport and the El Capitan was obviously jumpable, straight down 3,200 feet off the valley floor. If we hadn’t got to it first, someone else inevitably would have.

I can tell you the “why” of it quite easily. We were two like-minded, somewhat adventurous 26-year-old sport parachutists who wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before. The El Capitan was there and it had never been jumped. A co-worker of mine at Goldstone DSIF came up with the idea. When I mentioned it to Brian he was all for it. We did consider the Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado as an alternative, but chose the El Capitan first because it seemed like a more adventurous jump.

As for the “how” part, our plans were a little better than the implementation. Our girlfriends were supposed to film the descent from the bottom and a friend, Jim Cleary, hiked to the top with us to take still pictures of our exits. None of us had any idea how long the trip to the top would take and the girls gave up and left their posts after patiently waiting for some number of hours. The hike to the top took us over eight hours, so we ended up without any movies or stills taken from the bottom. To top it off the stills taken of our exits turned out to be very poorly framed and angled. Our mementos of the jump turned out to be mostly unkind newspaper reports from all over the world heavily biased in favor of the NPS’s official viewpoint.

2. What was your parachuting experience up to that point when you made the jump?

The El Capitan jump was my 183rd logged jump. Brian and I both held Class C (Jumpmaster) licenses issued by the PCA (Parachute Club of America, since renamed USPA) at the time. I laugh when I see the definition of â??modernâ? fixed object parachuting suggesting that tracking was a brand new invention. Imagine dropping off the top of a terminal object depending on luck to keep you from smashing into it on the way down. We knew how to track.

3. How did you determine the exit point, gear, flying & opening, landing area and timing of the jump?

Gear was easy. The El Capitan was a â??terminalâ? jump (I hate that term). We used our normal skydiving gear, including a 28′ TU unmodified round military parachute main canopy and a 24′ round chest pack reserve, along with everything we normally used for skydiving: helmets, goggles, sky gloves, jump suits, paratrooper boots, etc. Brian’s main may have been a 35′ T-10 with a TU mod. He was a big guy.

The exit point was a matter of dumb luck. Lady Luck was on our side to find the sweetest exit point possible: an almost perfectly horizontal rock platform that overhung the wall by 8-10 feet. It happened to be the first possible exit point we came to at the end of the trail.

I hate to say that we never discussed opening altitude or landing area. In retrospect we probably would have been able to make it over the trees and into the clearing if we had opened higher. Timing was also unplanned. When we got to the top, we geared up and jumped.

4. What were the steps in your process of planning the jump? (scouting, maps, research, ect.)

We got a few books from the library and studied what we could from them. The only real useful information we could glean was that the El Capitan was a sheer vertical monolith that rose 3,200 feet above the valley floor. Other rather important details such as wind patterns, landing areas, etc., had to be experienced empirically.

5. In jumping rounds were you left at their mercy as you could not control your flight pattern; at what percentage did you calculate the risk of striking the cliff?

Actually the rounds we used, modified in a TU configuration, were quite steerable and apparently had quite a bit more forward speed than commonly thought these days. The winds at the face of the mountain were the problem, not the equipment. They blew in every direction other than the most important one – out away from the face. The thought of striking the cliff never occurred to me until I began encountering the erratic updrafts and side drafts close to the face. I probably could have escaped injury if I hadn’t made the mistake of turning to face the wall so I could kick myself away when I hit it. Bear in mind that there was no knowledge base or study material on the hazards of cliff strikes in those days â?? 12 years before B.A.S.E jumping began. I’ve heard that you can always recognize the pioneers by the arrows sticking out of their asses.

6. Did you discuss an emergency plan regarding injury or death?

We were 26 years old at the time and thus invincible. Inj
ury or death were the furthest things from our minds. Our only plan involved a celebratory bottle of champagne when we got back to our cabins.

7. How long after Brian was released from the hospital was it before the two of you were able to discuss the jump?

It was quite a while, maybe two months. Brian’s dad was irate with us for having made the jump. His parents took him into their home and cared for him under the strict condition that he would have nothing to do with me as long as he was under their roof. I should mention that his mom didn’t particularly agree. She painted a beautiful picture of the El Capitan for a wedding present when my wife and I were married.

8. What effect did the jump have on you in your immediate life?

Very little, other than the fact that my immediate supervisor at Goldstone DSIF was Dennis, Brian’s brother. That was the only job I was ever fired from in my life. The jump did give me some bragging rights at parties for a few weeks though.

9. Brian walked with a limp due to shattering his two feet in the jump; did you suffer any permanent effects from your broken ankle?

Not at all. My injury was very slight. I resumed jumping less than a month later with a small ankle cast on my left foot.

10. At what point in your life did you realize the significance of your achievement?

I considered it a personal conquest after it was all over. I took a moment to look up to the top after landing and thought: â??El Capitan, you ain’t so badâ?. After our fifteen minutes of fame (or infamy depending on the viewpoint), I essentially forgot about it for nearly forty years.

In an effort to reunite Brian and me, Brian’s daughter Tina contacted me by letter a few months before the Bridge Day event in 2005. Brian had already been interviewed for Marah Strauch’s B.A.S.E jumping film â??Gravityâ?. Marah was trying to locate me for an interview and Tina pulled it together by sending a letter to every Pelkey she could find an address for. I met with Marah and Jean Boenish in Hollywood for my interview at that time. Someone suggested that we should meet some of the B.A.S.E. jumping community at DZ.com. Thanks to our meeting B.A.S.E. jumping’s noted historian, Nick Di Giovanni, on that site, we discovered that our El Capitan jump played a significant role in influencing Carl Boenish to begin B.A.S.E. jumping as a new sport.

11. Why didnâ??t you continue exploring the possibility of jumping from other objects?

We had some very poor quality still pictures of our jumps from the El Capitan. Life Magazine processed the film with the intention of doing a piece on it. They decided against it once they saw the quality of the pictures, and agreed to pay all expenses for exclusive rights to a jump from the Royal Gorge Bridge. They backed out a couple of weeks before the agreed upon date to â??make room for a piece on Miss America in Vietnamâ?. I assumed their real reason had more to do with possible legal issues of being involved with parachuting from the Royal Gorge than not having room for it in their magazine. Life’s backing out, along with being fired from my job and having been beaten to a bloody pulp by the press and almost everyone except most of the skydivers over the El Cap jump, it just went on my â??to doâ? list of things I never got back to. I got married soon after and started a business. I did continue skydiving for a few more years but less frequently as time went on.

12. Were there any extenuating circumstances as to why you and Brian lost contact a year after the jump?

Brian went off to the Police Academy and my wife and I went back to my home state, Michigan, to start a business. I think Brian and I were both too busy seeking our fortunes in those days to properly keep up with our social lives.

We named our son after Brian who was born about 13 years after we lost contact with Brian. He was my best man at my wedding. My wife and I loved him to pieces. He and I never had a single argument or disagreement.

13. What compelled you to do the jump at Bridge Day in 2005?

Two reasons:

a) The equipment was just like stepping into the future. I was real eager to experience the evolved state-of-the-art parachute technology after about 34 years. I had never jumped a square.

b) Even with only two B.A.S.E. jumps under my belt, the BD ’05 jump gave me the distinction of having been a B.A.S.E jumper longer than anyone on the planet. For the record I plan to make my next one in the year 2045, just to keep current.

14. The Los Angeles Times reported that Jean Boenish had advised Brian to not jump at Bridge Day 2006 and that he ignored her warnings. Did you have any concern for Brian jumping having not been active in the sport or receiving limited training? (Source: LA Times)

I did have some concerns. It seemed that Brian was able to handle only small portions of training at a time, but he was trained by the best. He seemed to forget some of the important things very quickly. He was not the same old Brian I knew when we were young. My concern was that he may have a malfunction he might not be able to remember how to handle correctly, or that he may end up in a tree somewhere, or heaven forbid, break a leg. Brian had two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s. He definitely knew how to count to two and throw. I watched him simulate it at least twenty times. Never in a million years did I dream that he would go all the way in with his pilot chute in his hand.

15. In your wildest dreams back in Michigan flying your Benson gyrocopter and having your first taste of skydiving, did you ever imagine yourself jumping from a cliff?

I must admit that the thought never occurred to me.

Bonus Questions: 1. What has been your experience in meeting people from the sport either through the forums or at the events?

I have met so many terrific and some not-so-terrific people through the B.A.S.E jumper forums. I wouldn’t mind saying a few words about the terrific ones, except for the size it would add to the interview. My wife, daughter and I had dinner last night with Nick Di Giovanni and his lovely girlfriend, Dr. Julia Bell. We have become great friends with them over the past few years. Johnny Utah and Tom Aiello have bent over backwards to make me feel a part of the history of B.A.S.E jumping, along with others too numerous to name. Marah Strauch has been an absolute doll. She actually flew to California from New York to go to a party at Tina’s house before Brian left us, and again to attend Brian’s Memorial Services.

2. Some jumpers don’t consider making 1 or 2 B.A.S.E. jumps as qualifying a person to be a B.A.S.E. jumper. What do you say to those individuals?

I agree with them. I may have wet the bed when I was two years old but wouldn’t call myself a bed-wetter. I also have made one bungee jump and wouldn’t call myself a bungee jumper. I only refer to myself being a B.A.S.E jumper in jest. I took Johnny Utah’s course like any other first jump student to prepare for my jump at BD ’05 after a nearly 40-year respite. I began my speech at the ’05 awards ceremony saying: “This is the part where you listen to two old guys, one with one B.A.S.E jump, and the other with two, telling you experts what B.A.S.E jumping is all about”.

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Note: Bridge Day jumper requirements:(Bridge Day Website)

Must have made at least 100 parachute jumps (skydiving and/or BASE jumping) prior to Bridge Day. Must have made at least one parachute jump (skydiving or BASE jumping) in the two years prior to Bridge Day. First time jumpers are required to attend a First Jump Course prior to jumping at Bridge Day.

The acronym BASE stands for building, antennae, span, and earth; which make up a comprehensive list of what kinds of fixed objects BASE jumpers plummet from. Span is a term that includes all sorts of bridges, or any other structures that span over a valley or chasm. Earth means anything from cliffs to mountains to canyons.

BASE jumping is very dangerous for a variety of reasons, but the most common causes of injury and death have to do with failure to maintain a clear area around the athlete during the jump and/or the landing. If the wind is against them or if they make a mistake during the launch of their jump, athletes sometimes collide with the object that they have jumped from. Because BASE jumping areas are usually not designated for this guerilla-style sport, the makeshift landing targets that jumpers aim for are rarely large enough to allow for a safe jump. As a result many BASE enthusiasts meet with serious and sometimes fatal injuries because they haven’t been able to steer themselves to the landing area in time.

Many people compare BASE jumping to bungee jumping without a bungee cord, but it is actually much closer to skydiving without an airplane. Jumpers practice many of the same techniques that divers use to maintain stability and altitude awareness while they are in the air. Before becoming a BASE jumper, an athlete must complete a full course of skydiver training. Once they have their full skydiving certification, the next step for anyone interested in BASE is to find a mentor in the jumping community who can teach them how to take on these ambitious freefalls. Only experienced divers can even contemplate a BASE jump because this kind of unguided and somewhat unpredictable activity requires razor sharp awareness of altitude, along with stellar free fall technique.

BASE jumping is one of the most dangerous sports practiced today. Every year, BASE jumping leads to several fatalities, and most major BASE societies and clubs have seen at least one member perish in pursuit of the sport that he or she loved. Because no two jumps are alike, it is very difficult to predict what will happen once you start plummeting towards the ground. This means that to survive a BASE jump you need to have a very level head, an ability to react to surprises without panicking, and lightning speed reflexes that will allow you to make instantaneous adjustments in your position or your trajectory. However, no amount of experience can guarantee that you will complete your jump without mishap, so even very accomplished jumpers are taking serious risks every time they prepare to hurl themselves off of a building, antennae, span, or natural cliff.

Illinois Skydiving is the Place to go for Skydiving

Illinois skydiving is a great place to go sky diving, whether you are just starting out or whether you have a bit more experience. Also, if you have any fears you can be rest assured because the centres make sure that everything is as safe as possible and the equipment is always thoroughly tested before use.

The great thing is that Illinois skydiving is the best skydiving provider in Illinois and they offer thrilling and spectacular experiences to everyone who is interested. The professionals that work for them also help to make a person’s jump the best possible experience and maximize the pleasure and excitement that comes with it. It is an extremely popular skydiving center that thousands of people seeking a huge adrenaline rush come flocking to it every single year.

Have you Considered Tandem Skydiving in Illinois Skydiving?

If you are a beginner and you are worried about activating the parachute and you are basically worried about everything, then tandem skydiving is certainly something to consider.

Many people jumping for the first time opt to do a tandem skydive and the best bit is that they are easier, safer, as well as being exciting and you can just relax and enjoy the thrill of a life time. You do not have to worry about landing or anything, as the professional that will be strapped to you will take care of everything. This makes it easier for you and you can just freefall through the air at 120mph and feel the adrenaline rush inside of you. As soon as the parachute opens, you will gently drift through the sky and you will be able to enjoy the view of a lifetime and it will be an experience that you will never forget.

Do you want an Accelerated Fall?

Another approach that some beginner skydivers tend to take is something called an accelerated freefall and it is a fast track way to learning to skydive. Students undergo a seven stage program which allows them to experience the freefall on every single jump.

The first stage of the training program is where there are 5 hours of ground training and then it ends with a jump with two instructors guiding. The other stages after this then focus on technique, body awareness, balanced body control, turns, tricks etc. There are many things that will be learned and this will increase in difficulty with each stage.
So if you are after a great experience that you will never forget and you want to be taught by professionals, Illinois skydiving is the place to go to.

Bungee jumping is quite a dangerous sport and quite the adrenaline rush as well. You can jump from all kinds of places you just need to learn how to jump before you make your move. To make your jumps even more insane you can jump from moving bases like a helicopter, hot air balloon or something like that. There are no limits really when it comes to bungee jumping.

The word bungee came around in the 1930s but the first bungee jump didn’t happen until 1979. They used some kind of vine to do there bungee jumps with but I would figure that would hurt their feet as they fell and then were snapped back up that would sound like it would rip there ankles away from there legs. I don’t know how it is supposed to work but I guess it did.

A J Hackett of New Zealand was the first one to do a commercial bungee jump. Even though many other people had already done many jumps he was the first one to jump from monuments like the Eiffel tower. There are many places that you could make a jump from but you must learn how to jump before you just go and do it.

The whole point of the jump is the rubber rope or whatever you want to call it. When a jumper is falling when he hits the end of the rope the rope will snap back causing the jumper to go back in the upward direction and that will happen until all of the energy that came with the jump is neutralized. After you jump the first time and get to the bottom you will be snapped back towards where you jumped but will not come even close to the platform in which you jumped from.

There are many different kinds of bungee sports but I only know of bungee jumping but if you ever want to bungee jump all you need to do is look up that in the phone book or go online and try and look them up. If you still cannot find what you are looking for then you just need to keep looking until you find what it is that you are looking for.

If you still cannot find what you seek on the internet then you just need to either give up on the bungee jumping or you need to keep looking for it. I am pretty sure that you can find a place that does bungee jumping. If you cannot then you can go to a theme park and they may have something similar to what bungee jumping is.

So if that is what you want to do then you just need to get you a ticket for a theme park and try to go find a park that does some kind of bungee jumping. Even though it may cost more then the other type of bungee jump you will still feel the same rush as you would with a regular bungee.

The skateboard is a certain device which was conceived as a means of surfing outside of water. The history of skateboards cannot be specifically traced back to a certain age but is indeed very fascinating. Some hold the belief that the art of skateboarding began on the beaches of California while some other hold other that the background of skateboarding can be traced to some other place. In the recent times however skateboards are seen as an emblem of youthful energy and vigor. In the early era of 1930s the kids in the United States attached the roller skates to a board which measured up to two to four inches. But it was not before 1958 that the modern range of skateboards was invented.

Talking about the design of the skateboards it can be easily claimed that they were inspired from that of surfboards. In the initial phase they were quite similar to that of the surfboards but in the following times there was a change in the design due to that of the commodities. The first range of skateboards was manufactured in the year 1965. They were thick by one inch and had in them rubber wheels and also cast iron trucks. With varied range of skateboards available the skateboarders are also able to classify themselves accordingly like free style skateboarders, high jump skateboarders, downhill skateboarders, long jump skateboarders and so on.

Today with the popularity of skateboarding especially in the Western parts of the world the surfing enthusiasts are developing a special fascination over the skateboards and this is leading to an increase in the manufacture of skateboards of different types. There are also certain trivia attached to that of the skateboard. In the year 1993, on 17th August Thomas Welsh was issued patent # 5,236,208 for a skateboard which would be platform steerable. Following that Allan Ollie Gelfand invented Ollie which was again a trick of skateboarding where in the skateboarder would jump into the air with the skateboard completely attached to his feet. Though there was a lapse in the popularity of the skateboards in the 70s and 80s it has made a huge comeback again both in the arena of pastime and sport in the contemporary times. In the United States skateboarding ranks sixth when it comes to the talk of the sports which has the largest number of participants. In the coming years also it is likely to remain the major attraction as well as the centerpiece of the youth culture of America.

Getting exposed to skateboards early in life is a great boon because it helps you overcome your fear of trying those daredevil stunts. Mastering tricks on skateboards and being able to manoeuvre them through your busy streets will truly help you fly past. It gives you a freedom that’s unmatched and this little stint that you get acquainted with will give provide you with an unmatched joy for life. It’s not just fun, but it’s time saving apart from being cost effective and eco friendly. Truly they provide you with a freedom that can only be complimented.

Are you worried about skydiving?

Do you desperately want to skydive but you are worrying about undergoing lots of different tests and training? It could be that you are absolutely terrified about doing the skydive and you would like some moral support and this is where tandem diving comes in.

Everything You Need to Know About Tandem Skydiving

Tandem skydiving could be the answer to allow people to enjoy the whole experience without the need for any extended written exams. Basically with a tandem skydive, the person is connected to an experienced skydiver using a harness. The great thing about this is that they will control the whole jump including the jumping, freefalling, using the parachute and then the landing too. Because of all this, the student will only need a minimal amount of instructions to keep in mind for the jump. This takes the stress out of worrying about the jump and just enjoying the whole experience.

A great place to go skydiving is with Skydive Jersey Shore who are there to make a skydivers experience the best that it can be. They ask you to fill in paperwork before you attend a 30 minute class and they will cover the equipment, safety, how to land, freefalling etc. As a student you will be told about everything that is associated with skydiving to mentally prepare you for jumping out of the plane.

You will be about 2 miles up and being mentally prepared is imperative, but it is certainly worth it for the people who take the plunge. It will be a great scenic view from high up in the plane especially on a nice clear day, making the experience that much better.

As you and the instructor jump out of the plane, you will experience up to sixty seconds of freefalling, knowing that the instructor is right behind you all the time. As the parachute opens, you will then have a breathtaking experience lasting from four to six minutes in the air before landing. You get a chance to steer the parachute which can also be a great experience and then you can take in the great views and sights around you.

If you are a more experienced skydiver, New Jersey can also be a great place to go skydiving. A lot of the skydiving schools offer an eight jump skydiving program to its students, or you can choose a lesson by lesson program for whatever suits your requirements.

So whatever level you are at, skydiving in New Jersey helps to cater for everyone to offer the best experience possible.

The first question that comes to mind for this particular extreme sport is, “Why.” Why would you jump off a perfectly good bridge? Or crane? Or why would you jump off a platform? Or hot air balloon? The question that follows closely behind in the observer’s mind goes something like this – “Is that a rubber band tied to their feet?” The answer to the first is simple: To fly, bounce and fly again. To we land based humans, the desire to soar through the air has been with us throughout history. Bungee jumping offers the sensation of flying from the initial free-fall to the repeated rebounds. And, the answer to the second question is, well, yes. It’s a rubber band!

Bungee jumping, or some non-elasticized form of it, has been documented for centuries. As far back as the Aztecs people have been plunging headlong into space with some sort of lifeline tied to their bodies. Back then it was vines – not much give I imagine. Today, the “rubber band” is actually much more that. It is thick pre-stressed braids of latex shock cord. Most jump companies have added a body harness to the attachment fittings for added security. There have been injuries and fatalities, but they are very few considering the several million jumpers since its modern beginnings in 1979. All equipment is provided at the sites whether on a bridge or at a commercial jump site. Just bring your confidence!

There are a couple of variations of bungee jumping around today. One starts you in the reverse position. That is, you are on the ground with one end of the bungee attached to your harness and the other to a crane above. The cord is stretched and stretched and suddenly you are released from the ground to go flying straight up into the air. There are similar rebounds until your momentum wanes. Very thrilling reverse gravity experience! Another lighter than air simulation is the trampoline bungee. You jump normally on a trampoline while attached to a bungee from above. This gives you extra jumping power as the cords are tightened during your acrobatics.

There are many structures worldwide that are used for bungee jumping. These structures include bridges, dams, suspension bridges and towers and are destination sights in and of themselves. The world record for the highest bungee jump occurred at Macau Tower in Macau SAR China at the height of 760 feet. This is a tourist structure and the jump was off the observation deck. The official record keepers only consider jumps from fixed structures to insure accurate measurement. That being said, a jump of 3,157 feet at full cord extension took place from a helicopter in Cancun.

The particular extreme sport is open to most people of reasonably good health. It does not require any special skills. However, you will find that the “skill” of releasing your hands before the jump will suddenly give your trouble. No practice or preparation is required so stay off the roof! Pack up your nerve and head off to the nearest bungee jumping location to experience the thrill of flying. The free-fall is exhilarating as the wind whistles by and ground rushes up. Then you rebound again and again. Like most thrilling adventures, you will want to get back in line for that second jump!