Bungee jumping a ‘mind cleaner’

Press, 23 September 1987, Page 7

Bungee jumping a ‘mind cleaner’

PA Hamilton Bungee jumping is a real mind cleanser, said a jumper, Allan Hackett, after the first tandem dive from a 50m-high railway viaduct near Ohakune last Saturday. Hackett and a fellow jumper, Chris Sigglecow, dived to within 10m of the ground before the rubber bungee cord pulled them back. The jumpers leaped from the new Hapuawhenua viaduct, the largest concrete structure on a recently opened deviation built as part of the Main Trunk electrification scheme. They bounced and spun upside down on the end of the bungee before being lowered back to the ground. “What worried us the most was how strong the bridge was,” Hackett said with a laugh. He calls bungee jumping an anti-stress agent that puts him in the “right frame of mind” for the rest of the day. Saturday’s leap is believed to be the world’s first tandem dive. The pair are planning a 500 m dive from a balloon over Auckland’s Takapuna

Beach later this year. They hope to break the world 285 m bungee jump record, held by a member of the English-based Dangerous Sports Club. Both Hackett and Sigglecow have each jumped about 50 times. Hackett said he likes to come close to the ground. Last Saturday’s dive was his first since the spectacular Eiffel Tower plunge where he came within 3m of snatching a bottle of champagne held aloft by a friend on the ground. Afterwards the French police “had a chat” with him and then “we carried on drinking champagne,” he said. Hackett, aged 29, an Auckland builder, and Sigglecow, aged 35, a film editor, also of Auckland, have been jumping since last November. During last Saturday’s dive they were tied together at the ankles then attached by a short rope to the bungee cord, this made of thousands of rubber strands in a continuous loop. The rubber was imported from Italy. The bungee cost about $250, Sigglecow said.