because this is the least worst thing that happens when it goes wrong.
He was so very lucky.
I'm attempting to not imagine what would have happened if it had been concrete and not a lagoon below.
Remind me not to go Bungee Jumping
because this is the least worst thing that happens when it goes wrong.
He was so very lucky.
I'm attempting to not imagine what would have happened if it had been concrete and not a lagoon below.
Last edited by CatInASuit; 05 Oct 2009 at 08:37 AM.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
This is exactly why I don't go bungee jumping.
Life is risky enough without throwing in stupid variables like jumping from a great height attached to a line of rubber.
To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.
OMG OMG OMG OMG that is horrifying.
Never never never would I bungee jump. I was on an airplane this weekend, and every time I do that it's in the back of my head that it seems like a foolish thing to do. At least I was flying for a good reason.
There is no part of me that can figure out why all of these "let's trick your body into thinking you are ABOUT TO DIE" activities are fun. ::shudder::
They are not it's the I'm still alive moment that makes you happy.
Welcome to Mellophant.
We started with nothing and we still have most of it left.
I've never been bungee jumping but I would recommend to everybody to give sky diving a chance. It really is a lot of fun.
For some reason, I find the idea of sky diving much less terrifying than bungee jumping. And it seems there would be much more of a payoff (minutes of beautiful sky and landscape vs. seconds of a lake rushing up at your head).Originally posted by hatesfreedom
In October '97, a friend of mind went skydiving. Both of his chutes got fouled and didn't open right. He augered in to a nice soft pasture, landing perfectly. All of the contact points from head to toe down the left side of his body were broken along with his neck. He fought a long, agonizing, and ultimately losing battle. He died in January '98.
I would jump out of an airplane under only two circumstances.
1) If it were safely parked.
2) If it was crashing and on fire.
I did NOT click on the video, the story in words and still pictures was horrifying enough. ::shudder::
I agree with OneCentStamp that somehow sky diving seems slightly less terrifying than bungee jumping. I don't expect to be doing either one, however.
Long ago I dated a sky diver. In the days before the internet, he was sky diving and got tangled up in a tree. He wound up dangling by his ankle, uninjured but head down. He passed out from all the blood rushing to his head and it took a while for onlookers to safely get him out of the tree. AP took his photo while he was hanging upside down and it was splashed all over newspapers in Canada and the US. He had a newspaper clipping with the photo framed on his wall, which is the only reason I believe the story.
On the bungee jumping front, supposedly in 1976 the Queen of England was visiting the island of Pentacost in Vanuatu, where bungee jumping (using vines, I suppose) was a traditional sport, and during a jumping demonstration a jumper died pretty much right at her feet. Ugh.
Years ago I saw a very interesting in-depth documentary about those people. There are several villages in different stages of selling out to tourism that practice the bungee jumping. The people from a more traditional village that were the main focus of the documentary were convinced that the man, reportedly the only casualty in ages, died because he was wearing pants - a serious faux pas.
I think the more memorable of memonts the first time was watching the plane deminish into nothing so quickly. The rest is really an adrenaline high. It's worth doing.
Ugh. That's...horrific. I can't fathom willingly flinging myself off a bridge when, if something goes wrong, that experience is considered "lucky."
Surely you're not equating being a passenger in a commercial aircraft with bungy jumping. Or were you literally "on an airplane" - wingwalking?
No, no, I'm not equating the two! I know that flying is safe...the whole concept of being 30,000 feet up just seems kind of bizarre and unnatural to me. Jumping off a bridge, though, far more so!
Sometimes I wonder if my brain-chemistry is off. Adrenaline "highs" just don't feel good to me.
I've wondered that myself. I'm the same way. Even caffeine doesn't make me feel "energetic" or "alert." It makes me feel panicked.
Whew, I'm relieved to hear that. I'm always far more concerned about the taxi ride to and from the airport than the actual flight.
At least until you yank on the cord and nothing happens.
The idea of doing either scares the hell out of me.
I am a serious acrophobe. There's no way that bungee jumping or parachuting sound appealing to me. I've not had that fear prevent me from doing anything that I felt I needed to do - but by the same token I'm not about to let fighting my fears dictate doing something that I wouldn't do except to prove I were the master of my fear.
Given the opportunity, I would probably try sky diving.
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