Bungee jumping

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Jump from a crane
Jump from the world's highest bungee crane from 192 meters above Heldenplatz .

The term bungee jumping or bungee jumping or bungee jumping as well as bungee jumping (from English bungee or bungy “belt”, “rope” and (to) jump “jump”) describes a modern extreme sport in which one goes upside down from a high building Depth jumps. The free fall is slowed down by a rubber rope that is attached to the body of the jumper and the jump platform. The length of the rubber band is adjusted to the body weight of the jumper. Due to the elasticity of the rope, the jumper is spring back up several times and finally swings back. Existing structures such as bridges or towers or specially erected cranes are used as jump platforms.

history

The origins of extreme sports go back to Pentecost's liana jumpers in Vanuatu . In 1974 took Elizabeth II. As a onetime co-head of state of the condominium of the New Hebrides , emerged from the 1980 Vanuatu, at a ceremony in part, in which a knight came to death.

Fascinated by this ritual, the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club experimented in the 1970s with rubber bands that were supposed to make jumping safer and therefore also possible for daredevils in the West. On April 1, 1979, four club members jumped from the 250  ft (76 m) high Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol  - the first modern bungee jumps. The jumpers, including David Kirke, were temporarily arrested. However, they were able to establish the concept of bungee jumping through further jumps in the USA from the Golden Gate Bridge and the Royal Gorge Bridge .

The New Zealander AJ Hackett tested with the jump from the Greenhithe Bridge in 1986 successfully the elastic bungee cord, which was specially designed for the plunge into the depths. In May 1987 the famous jump from the Eiffel Tower in Paris followed . Hackett then offered commercial jumps on New Zealand's South Island. The locations were the Kawarau Bridge and the Skippers Canyon Bridge.

In the German-speaking countries, this extreme sport was essentially made popular by the German stuntman Jochen Schweizer .

Meaning

Bungee jump in Normandy

Usually bungee jumping is practiced in search of the "ultimate kick" , sometimes also as a method to overcome one's own fears (especially fear of heights ). In Warwitz, there is a detailed description of the mental processes in the fear-lust structure of a person who faces a bungee jump for the first time: The bungee jumper builds up a peak of excitement with the decision to take the risk and the ascent to the jumping-off point Performing the dropping and falling into the depths in a kick experience spontaneously dissolves. The kick is usually associated with a high level of pleasure.

Physics of the bungee

The first phase of the jump is the free fall , in which the rope hangs loosely at the ankle and goes down as far as the rope would hang without a jumper. From this point the rope stretches and brakes the jumper. The length of the unstretched rope is calculated in such a way that the jumper is stopped in time before the ground, but has as long a free fall phase as possible. It depends on numerous factors, above all on the elasticity of the rope and the weight of the jumper. When jumping over a body of water, you also have the option of diving into the water.

The bungee rope is always the same length, but at the end there is still a mountain rope attached (two strands), which can be used to calculate how far the jumper will approach the ground. The so-called vario rope is attached to the jump cage or jump ramp by means of an occupied figure eight knot and an additionally secured mast throw . In this way, the length or the fall distance can be changed.

After reaching the lowest point (turning point), the jumper is pulled back up by the elastic rope. This phase is also called rebound . The first rebound in particular is usually so strong that the jumper enters a phase of free fall again.

Possible variations

Due to the increasing popularity of bungee jumping in recent years, more and more variations have developed. For example, two people can do a so-called tandem jump . Even a bungee jump from a helicopter is possible. Furthermore, a distinction is made between different fastening options. You can jump with a harness or attachment at the hip. Here you have the opportunity to do acrobatic jump variations in the air, for example somersaults .

Rocket Bungee : The jumper is fixed to a weight lying on the ground and the bungee rope is tensioned by the bungee crane. The fixation is released by a release mechanism and the jumper shoots up. To avoid a collision with the bungee basket (gondola), the crane is swiveled slightly when the rope is tensioned. As a result, gravity causes a ballistic flight when jumping up and the jumper flies past the bungee basket, depending on body weight and rope tension even beyond it. As with the first rocket bungee jumps, four to five strong people are enough instead of a weight to keep the jumper on the ground.

When jumping from a bridge, there is sometimes the opportunity to dive into the water. A variant of bungee jumping is the sling shot (also called a bungee ball ). An open spherical structure, which is suspended between masts on four jump ropes, is catapulted upwards and snaps back again, while the sphere rotates. In the ball there are usually two seats with lap belts and safety bars over the shoulders of the occupants.

Injury hazard and guidelines

There are some risks to the health and life of the jumper when bungee jumping:

  • Technical failure (i.e. breaking the rope) is the rarest cause of accidents. In most cases, it was determined that the cause was incorrect storage, excessive use or chemical influences on the rope. Modern bungee ropes therefore have an overstretch protection for safety, which is attached parallel to the rubber rope and which, in contrast to the bungee rope, consists of synthetic fibers. If a rope equipped in this way breaks, a harder jolt can be expected, but not the jumper's fall. Since the introduction of bungee jumping as a sport, fewer than ten rope breaks have become known worldwide (including a fatal accident at the Florian Tower in Dortmund).
Bungee jumps from the Jauntal bridge
  • Negligence can also cause accidents. In some cases, jumps can even be fatal due to insufficiently secured belts or incorrectly locked snap hooks .

Medical risks

Medical complications can occur on the first rebound after the jump, when the jumper is thrown back up and there is a possibility of rope contact. In such cases, the rope can cause abrasions, bruises or welts. The face and neck in particular are particularly sensitive and must be protected by holding forearms in front of the face during this phase of the jump. This posture also prevents the rope from looping around your neck, which could lead to dangerous or even fatal injuries.

In some cases, there is also a risk of injury if the jumper is not optimally aligned vertically with his head down when the rope decelerates. This can lead to a whipping movement of the body and consequent injuries to the spine or ankles.

The braking delay for ropes approved in Europe is around 2.5  g to 3.5 g. As a result, a great force acts on the body in the opposite direction to the upright position, causing the blood pressure in the head to rise sharply. This effect can be intensified if the jumper simultaneously presses breathing or screams loudly. This can lead to bleeding in the eyes or head in general in predisposed people. In most cases the effects are reversible .

Due to the high pressures that arise during rebound, visual disturbances in particular can occur, which are mostly temporary, but seldom can also lead to permanent visual impairments and very rarely to blindness . The increased pressures in the bloodstream can hemorrhages of the retina trigger. In addition, temporary dizziness and confusion are described as a result of the pressure increase in the central nervous system, and very rarely a stroke and severe paraplegia . The pressure increase occasionally triggers swelling or small capillary bleeding ( purpura ), especially in the face. Due to the massive stress situation, the stress hormones are released in a greatly increased amount and thus indirectly the immune system is temporarily inhibited.

Should refrain from bungee jumps people prone to hypertension , cardiovascular disease, after head injuries, mental illness, epilepsy , glaucoma , deformed skeletal, cardiac pacemakers , thrombosis patients , Marcumarpatienten , pregnant women, the influence of alcohol, as well as people with problems of the cervical spine.

Seniors often have to present a medical certificate of their physical condition to the organizer before the jump. Young people under the age of 18 need a declaration of consent from their parents.

Accidents

  • May 13, 2000: A 22-year-old was killed jumping from a cable car near Stechelberg (Switzerland) because the ropes might have been mixed up during the preparations and the jumper then hit the ground with the rope that was too long.
  • 2000: A 22-year-old woman suffered a broken arm and bruises while jumping from the tower in Vienna's Prater, when after ten meters the safety bracket came loose and she fell on an air cushion.
  • September 2002: The employees of a bungee jumping crane on the regatta course in Oberschleißheim used the wrong rope, a 22-year-old was seriously injured when he hit the water face first.
  • July 21, 2003: A 31-year-old had a fatal accident when the rope broke while jumping from the Dortmund television tower from a height of 150 m. The cause remains unclear since the proceedings have been discontinued; the public prosecutor's office assumed that the rope was too old, but the Dortmund district court did not agree with this thesis in May 2005 and initially refused to open a main hearing because of the unclear situation. The public prosecutor's office then had a second report on the cause of the accident drawn up. This report in particular prompted the district court in September 2007 to attempt a main hearing. In addition, a meteorological report revealed that the rope might not have been used because it was too hot for this on the day of the accident. The trial against the operator of the ski jumping facility on suspicion of negligent homicide was supposed to begin in February 2011, but the trial was discontinued with the consent of those involved in the process. He paid 40,000 euros to the bereaved, donated 15,000 euros to a children's hospice at the request of the dead man's parents and took over the procedural costs already incurred in the amount of 35,000 euros. The consequence of the accident was to design bungee ropes differently from now on. The core thread material can now be viewed along its entire length, including the head area with bobbing. In addition, a flat band was installed as an expansion limiter. This stops the bungee rope stretching if the wrong body weight rope is selected.
  • August 1, 2005: A 20-year-old man had a serious accident while jumping on a bungy rope in the Vienna Prater. The man and a friend fell on a rope from a 55 meter high platform. As he jumped up again, the rope wound around his neck. He suffered serious injuries to his cervical vertebra and was passed out. His partner was unharmed.
  • July 30, 2009: A British man tore the rope while bungee jumping from a height of 50 m in Thailand. When he hit the water, he suffered liver, spleen and lung injuries.
  • May 2, 2009: A young man and his girlfriend fell from a height of two meters after a tandem bungee jump on the Oberschleissheim regatta course on the asphalt and were seriously injured because the rope was released from the crane too early.
  • January 1, 2012: A 22-year-old Australian woman survived a 111-meter fall into the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. The rope broke 25 meters before it hit the water. She survived with relatively minor injuries such as bruises and abrasions.
  • September 15, 2014: A bungee rope was not properly attached in South Korea. The jumper landed in the water and survived without major injuries.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bungee Jumping  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Bungee jumping  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
 Wikinews: Accident while bungee jumping in the Vienna Prater  - news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b R. Gobert: Saut à l'élastique: attention aux lésions oculaires . La référence medicale (Belgium) 2015, issue 6 of November / December, page 26
  2. ^ Siegbert A. Warwitz: Bungee jumping . In: Ders .: Search for meaning in risk. Life in growing rings. Attempts to explain cross-border behavior. 2., ext. Edition, Verlag Schneider, Baltmannsweiler 2016, ISBN 978-3-8340-1620-1 , pp. 149–151
  3. ^ Rope tear: Bungee jumper falls to his death. In: Spiegel Online . July 20, 2003. Retrieved June 9, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Rhein-Zeitung : Died to death during a “bungee” , RZ-Online, May 14, 2000.
  5. ↑ a b
     Wikinews: Accident while bungee jumping in the Vienna Prater  - news
    , August 3, 2005.
  6. ↑ a b After a bungee accident - risk with fatal consequences. sueddeutsche.de, May 17, 2010.
  7. ^ A b Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung : Victim Compensation: No trial for fatal bungee jump in Dortmund against Jochen Schweizer , January 21, 2010
  8. ^ Rope was constructed incorrectly , Ruhr Nachrichten, September 12, 2007.
  9. ↑ Bungee process: will weather reports turn things around? , Ruhr Nachrichten, March 27, 2009.
  10. ↑ The euro is rolling. And earlier the shilling. In: Die Presse, November 2, 2015, page 12.
  11. ↑ Adam Gabbatt: Briton survives bungee case in Thailand. The Guardian, October 5, 2009 (English)
  12. ↑ Horror video: Rope breaks while bungee jumping
  13. ↑ Nightmare fall in a raging river: rope breaks during bungee jump by Australian , FOCUS Online, January 8, 2012
  14. ↑ unknown Author: Horror scenario: Nightmare jump: Bungee jumper falls without a rope - Video. In: Focus Online . September 15, 2014, accessed October 14, 2018 .