2013.03.31 Cairns: Bungee Jumping

It's hard to say which part of the trip I was the most excited for.  Between scuba diving the great barrier reef, touring the tropical rainforests, the Cairns nightlife, and the beach, there is no clear winner.  But going bungee jumping was definitely towards the top of the list.  I practically woke up that morning with my heart racing.

We had booked two jumps with a company called AJ Hackett.  A. J. Hackett is actually the New Zealander that developed the bungee jumping cord material, popularized the sport, and has done jumps of nearly 1,500 meters with a bungee cord that stretches over 1 km.  To give you an idea, today I would be doing a 50m (164 ft) jump.

The day started with another late-night, early-morning routine.  We struggled out of bed and were picked up at 9 am.  Half of us were on the 9 am trip while the rest would be coming at 11 am.  The jump tower is right between Cairns and the beach we were at the previous day, Palm Cove.  In fact, we had spotted the tower from the bus on the way to Palm Cove.  It was a short, 10-15 minute drive directly there.

We spent the entire ride asking the driver about his experience with jumping, which types of jumps are the most exciting (there are over a dozen different jump styles you can do from the traditional swan dive to riding a BMX bike off the roof)... visit the 2013.03.07 Spring Break Planning page to watch a cool video showing the jumps.  We also put serious effort in not to crap our pants once we finally arrived.

Above: A BMX bike you can ride off of the tower if you'd like.

We headed into the lobby area and checked in for our first jump.  We were weighed and told we could head up to do a jump whenever we were ready.  I was also told there were several costumes you could rent for $5.

A chicken costume, cow costume, Mario, Luigi, Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear, and more.  I had to do it, I got the batman costume.  Paco rented out the spiderman costume.

We headed outside the lobby area to where you could watch other people jump and grabbed a couple pics.

Lyda timed the picture pretty well with somebody jumping just behind me.  Here's a view of the tower looking up at it.

There was no line, waiting, or process of any sort.  When you were ready, you simply headed up the stairs (pictured on the left above) and got prepared to do your jump.  So after a few deep breaths we started the ascent.

After climbing 164 vertical feet we were at the top of the tower.  The view, overseeing the outskirts of the rainforest, over a town and extending to the ocean and mountains in the distance, was amazing.

But mostly we were looking down at what we would be jumping out to in just a few minutes.

When I looked down I was realizing more and more how frightening this was.  Unlike anything other thrilling thing I've done - skydiving, rollercoasters and the like, I have always been strapped into something around my torso to make me feel secure.  But I was standing there in a t-shirt and shorts, realizing that when I jumped I would feel little more security than I did right then, looking over the edge.

The employees working the rope were pretty good at keeping your mind off of how frightening it was. They didn't wait for us to be ready, they instantly started calling over for a volunteer.  Diego and Tom were anxious to go, so they immediately started preparing them to jump.

Above: Tom

Above: Diego

In the meantime, Paco and I put on our costumes.

Within two minutes Diego was being called to jump.  They told him to waddle towards the edge and started doing their routine "checks" before jumping.  Without waiting, they started a countdown from 5, and Diego was off.

At this point my heart was seriously racing.  I only had 5, maybe a few more minutes until I was going to jump off the edge.  I watched as a boat paddled out to Diego, he was lowered onto it, and taken back to the landing area outside of the lobby.

Next was Tom.

Oscar went, then Paco , then Lyda went.  Here's a video of Lyda.

And finally it was my turn.  They wrapped up my legs - first a thick, padded wrap around my ankles, followed by tightly wrapping a cord around it, and then more ties onto that cable between my ankles.  There was no waiting, I was instructed to stand up, and head to the edge.

It was just like I imagined - I could not tell that my ankles even had a cord attached to it.  And if I could, my mind certainly wasn't recognizing it.  I was staring at the distance, and at the vertical drop my toes were hanging over.  There is no feeling like believing you are about to throw yourself over the edge with no safety in place whatsoever.  But like always, they flew through their checks and started counting down from 5 without even asking if I was ready.  And then they got to 1, I didn't think, I just held my breath and leapt off.

Diego was back up to the top of the tower by then (he was so excited he raced back up) and took a video of me as I did a swan dive off.  Unfortunately the video started a little late, but I was able to extract this really cool picture from the video he took.

Once my feet were off of the platform there was no more fear, it was just a huge rush of excitement, it's really difficult to explain how it felt.  But as soon as I was finished bounding around I was smiling from ear to ear and just dying to run back to the top for my second jump.

Lyda and Paco were sitting down and talking about how much they loved the jump.  I handed in my costume (I didn't want to use it for the second jump) and joined them.  This is a good representation of how we felt.

After a few minutes we were heading up to repeat the process.  But this time we wouldn't be doing a swan dive - we'd be doing a roof jump.  The second jump of choice for most of us.

Instead of getting wrapped up at the ankle, this time we were fitted with a harness.

For this jump you climb up to the roof of the structure and run off the roof, jumping and throwing yourself in whatever orientation you want.  You can flip forward, backward, spin, or do anything you'd like.  Tom had already done the jump at this point, but I was able to grab videos of Diego, Oscar, Paco and Lyda.  Paco took a video of my roof jump.

I also extracted this really cool picture from the video.

At this point it was now close to noon and the remaining people in our group were just getting to the jump site then.  Those of us that had caught the earlier bus watched as they went through the same process that we had.  In this video you can see Chris jumping, and doing a water touch.  Because I was in a batman costume I wasn't able to do a water touch... sometimes, like in Wilfrido's case, you get dunked all the way to your knees.

We also were given free t-shirts, so after we received them we climbed up to the top of the tower for a group picture with everybody I was jumping with that day.

Left to right: Oscar, Tom, Lyda, Me, Diego and Paco

Once back in the lobby I noticed that they had a wall with photographs of celebrities that had jumped here, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Slash from Guns n' Roses.

Eventually our bus was there to take us back, and we headed back to Cairns with the rest of the day to spend.  I wish I could have just stayed there and jumped over and over all day, it was way too much fun.

Once back, we put on our bathing suits and headed to a public pool called The Lagoon, which is located right up against the water.

They had a tent set up with live bands playing as well as people playing football, Frisbee, and such in the fields beside the pool.

So for the rest of the day I relaxed by the pool, swam, played frisbee, etc.  And once 10 pm rolled around we started our nightly routine.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures that night, so no memorable photos of the night to post.