When I wrote my 30 Before 30 list last November I included a bit of the extreme – ‘Skydive or Bungy Jump’.
When I wrote it in my head it was always going to be a Skydive for the following reasons:
- The thought of Bungy jumping from 40 metres freaked me out more than a Skydive from 17,000 feet. Even when watching The Amazing Race I would question how I would feel if someone was forcing me to bungy jump
- I’d read that above a certain height you have no depth perception. The ground just doesn’t look that close so it was supposedly easier
- With Skydiving I figured if something went wrong it would all be over pretty quickly. If a bungy goes wrong chances are you’re going to be maimed for life
- Skydiving requires someone to be strapped to you and throw you out of the plane. Bungy jumping – you have to throw yourself off that platform – AJ Hackett staff won’t push you.
It was an easy first win and so Skydiving with Skydive Auckland was the first item crossed I crossed off my 30 Before 30 list last November.
BUT THEN…
Someone at work decided the Auckland Harbour Bridge Climb was an excellent team building idea, and that Bungy Jumping should be optional. So while I’d never have paid to do it, the combination of work footing the bill, a bit of friendly peer pressure from colleagues and general FOMO meant I threw myself off a perfectly good bridge last week.
Seeing nine colleagues deal with pre-jump nerves in different ways was amusing – people who normally won’t shut up go quiet, normally friendly colleagues retract into themselves and don’t want to talk to anyone and even the over-confident ‘I’ve done this three times before’ scream while going over the edge.
But it turned out to be so much fun!
