The first modern bungee jumps were made on 1 April 1979 from the
Clifton Suspension Bridge in
Bristol, England, by David Kirke and Simon Keeling, members of the
Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club, and
Geoff Tabin, a professional climber who tied the ropes for the jump. The students had come up with the idea after discussing the "
vine jumping" ritual of
Vanuatu. and the
Royal Gorge Bridge. The last jump was sponsored by and televised on the American programme ''
That's Incredible'', spreading the concept worldwide. By 1982, Kirk and Keelling were jumping from mobile cranes and hot air balloons. Colorado climbers Mike Munger and Charlie Fowler may have bungee-jumped earlier in Eldorado Springs, CO in 1977. Both were cutting-edge alpinists, preparing for a trip to Monte Fitzroy in Patagonia by simulating long falls onto a springy, nylon climbing rope. They scrambled up to a large tree at the top of the wall, above a severely overhanging climb appropriately named "Diving Board", and tied one end of the rope into the tree. With a piece of flat seat belt webbing around his waist and some homemade leg loops, Mike tied into the other end of the rope and, after no small amount of trepidation, he jumped. He then ascended the rope mechanically to the tree and untied, and then tied in and jumped. The total fall was about . in New Zealand Organised commercial bungee jumping began with the New Zealander,
A. J. Hackett, who made his first jump from
Auckland's
Greenhithe Bridge in 1986. During the following years, Hackett performed a number of jumps from bridges and other structures (including the
Eiffel Tower), building public interest in the sport, and opening the world's first permanent commercial bungee site, the Kawarau Bridge Bungy at the
Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge near
Queenstown in the
South Island of New Zealand. Hackett remains one of the largest commercial operators, with concerns in several countries. Several million successful jumps have taken place since 1980. This safety record is attributable to bungee operators rigorously conforming to standards and guidelines governing jumps, such as double checking calculations and fittings for every jump. As with any sport, injuries can still occur (see below), and there have been fatalities. A relatively common mistake in fatality cases is to use a cord that is too long. The cord should be substantially shorter than the height of the
jumping platform to allow it room to stretch. When the cord becomes taut and then is stretched, the tension in the cord progressively increases, building up its
potential energy. Initially the tension is less than the jumper's weight and the jumper continues to accelerate downwards. At some point, the tension equals the jumper's weight and the acceleration is temporarily zero. With further stretching, the jumper has an increasing upward acceleration and at some point has zero vertical velocity before recoiling upward. The
Bloukrans River Bridge was the first bridge to be used as a bungee jump launch spot in Africa when Face Adrenalin introduced bungee jumping to the African continent in 1990.
Bloukrans Bridge Bungy has been operated commercially by Face Adrenalin since 1997, and is the highest commercial bridge bungee in the world. In 2008, Carl Dionisio of Durban performed a bungee jump attached to a cord made of 18,500 condoms. He currently runs the only Ocean Touch bungee jump in the World at Calheta Beach in Madeira, Portugal, and claims to be the only person operating in the bungee industry single-handed. He holds the world record for being the only person to bungee jump while driving a tower crane at the same time, something that he has done hundreds of times since 2017. == Equipment ==