Bungee Jumping

Saturday was the big day of the trip: bungee jumping. Now anyone in my group would tell you that I did not want to bungee jump, but you know the saying “If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you too?” And the answer to that is, yes, I would jump off a bridge. Now if you thought the ostrich riding story was fun, this one will be a riot! Okay so I didn’t want to go, but it was only $70 (I think that’s cheap for bungee jumping and compared to sky diving) and this is the highest commercial bungee jumping sight in the world!! (Look up Bloukrans Bungee Jumping on google or youtube if you want to see it). So we pay, get weighed, get harnesses on such and such. Oh, three boys came and joined our group of 9 girls so we had 12 people from CSB/SJU jumping. We were taking a zipline to get out to the jumping site. This is just a huge bridge over a gorge with a small river going underneath it. One side of the bridge looks down the gorge into the mountains and the other side looks out into the ocean. I swear this bridge was built solely for the purpose of bungee jumping because underneath the bridge is a huge platform and that is where we jumped from.

So we’re all hanging out, waiting to go across the zipline to get out to the platform. Everyone is calling what number they want to jump off in the order. A couple people who wanted to go first went across the zipline. Then the man who was in charge of our group, gets off his walkie talkie and starts calling, “Lauren, #64.” Everyone points me out and he goes, “okay you need to get over there now because you’re going first!” I started to freak out saying, no I didn’t want to go first, other people wanted to go first. But this man said that the order was fixed by weight and I was going first! I fought back with him on this point because my roommate Alison weighed one kg less than me, so I tried to make her go first (she would’ve wanted to). But to no avail, I was sent across the zipline ahead of the rest of my friends! The zipline wasn’t that scary for me. The only bad part was you saw how high you were up and what you would be jumping down to: rocks in a little bit of water.

When I got over there, I kind of hid behind the crowd of people (this is a very efficient system and they were doing like 50 people in a group). I hoped they wouldn’t notice me, but they did. So I got called forth and they started strapping me up. I was on the verge of tears again, saying I didn’t want to go and that my friends weren’t there to watch me. By this time there were four girls who had come across and who were trying to get me excited about jumping. Again, a man finally took pity on me and said I could go second. They like to have someone heavy go, then someone light. So this heavy, old man went before me. But I was still the first person from my group, so it still sucked. Anyway, I’m sitting there with a look of complete terror on my face (this was all recorded on camera) waiting till I had to jump. They’re hooking me up and the man says that the more you weigh, the tighter the rope pulls so you’re safer….he’s telling this to the person who weighed the least…basically telling me that I was the least safe out of the group, great! They tie no knots when they’re attaching the bungee to your feet. I got all hooked up, carried out to the edge. I’m standing there with my few friends yelling behind me words of good riddance. I didn’t look down before I jumped, but I knew what was down there. The two men yelled, “5-4-3-2-1-BUNGEE” and pushed me off the side of the bridge!! I made sure I was going head first and I almost enjoyed the free fall. The rebounding wasn’t so bad either, it’s not painful like it looks in videos. But every time I rebounded, I felt like I was going to flip back over, so my arms were flailing all over the place. I don’t know how many times I rebounded, but it was a lot.

When the rebounds stopped and I was just hanging there by my feet, I got a chance to look around and admire the scenery. It was very pretty and not too scary until I looked up and saw how far from the bridge I was. As I’m hanging there, I feel like my feet are going to slip out of the rope and so I’m flexing my feet so I don’t fall! (I was told this is a natural feeling) I also felt like I peed my pants. I was certain that I peed my pants and the more I thought about it, the more I had to go and the more I got embarrassed about when I would have to go to the top. I started wondering where the man was who was supposed to come and get me and I thought people at the top might be able to hear me, so I yelled “Hello?” I got a “hello” back. Then I said impatiently, “Come and get me” and a man yelled back at me “I’m coming!” When he finally got to me I grabbed on to his legs so tightly and we began to be hoisted back to the top. He asked me how I liked it, but I just said I wanted to go back to the top. I was still so embarrassed that I had peed my pants so I was trying to cover that up and ask about a bathroom. Of course though, there is no bathroom on the platform. When we got to the top, they unhooked me and then a man started trying to talk to me, asking about the jump and stuff, all I said was “I really need to go to the bathroom” then I looked down and saw that there was a microphone on his shirt. I figured out that I was being videotaped and it was displayed on a tv for everyone else to see!!! AHHHH! Embarrassing! I immediately went to sit down and told my roommate Emma about the pee problem. She looked down and informed me that I had not peed my pants! I don’t know what I was thinking but I guess it was all just my imagination because luckily, I didn’t!

All in all this was another thing that is checked off the list to never be done again. I watched the rest of my group go and that was more fun. Then we went back and bought tshirts, pictures and dvds of our jumps. We all hopped in our cars and drove the two hours back to PE!

Since I’ve been home it’s been so nice to sleep in my own bed with clean sheets and towels. To have a new bunch of clothes to wear, clean laundry, warm showers, an actual kitchen. All the things you miss from home. I’ve been busy getting re-situated and now I need to kick out a lot of papers again for this week and next week.