Taking a Flying Leap? Bungee Jumpers Do It

Jumping from a hot air balloon 150 feet in the sky with an elastic cord attached to a harness around your middle is an unforgettable adrenaline rush.

The world’s first commercial hot air balloon bungee jumpers, about 60 thrill-seekers who recently gathered in a Northern California cow pasture, say the same.

They came from cities across the country to pay the Palo Alto-based Bungee Adventure company $99 for one jump and a video record of the feat.

Todd Newton, 21, a security guard from Richmond, Calif., became the first recorded paying customer to make a bungee jump from a hot air balloon at daybreak on May 5.

“Are you scared?” ground supporters called to him while the green, yellow, black, red and orange balloon ascended.

“Yeah,” he said.

The group on the ground began chanting, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1!”

Prompted by the countdown, Newton hurled himself into space.

“Yeeehaa!” he screamed, dangling triumphantly from the cord seconds later. “I’m a born bungee baby!”

“We’ve got a satisfied Yo-Yo,” said a beaming John Kockelman, 30, who founded Bungee Adventure along with his brother, Pete, 32.

After the lunge earthward, the jumper is lowered to the ground.

The Kockelmans, leaders among pioneer bungee jumpers, got into the sport in October, 1987, doing it for fun in the beginning from bridges, buildings, giant cranes and redwood trees.

Bungee jumping hot spots also can be found in Australia, where a group has conducted about 23,000 jumps off bridges, and in France, where two thrill-seekers fell to their deaths last year.

The Kockelmans went commercial in May, 1988, and have supervised more than 9,000 bungee jumps off bridges.

“We were looking for a better platform when we hit upon the idea of jumping from a hot air balloon,” John said.

Pete obtained a pilot’s license and the brothers invested in a $20,000 balloon, then added another $10,000 in special reinforcing safety features needed for bungee jumping.

“No one else in the entire world is doing hot air balloon bungee jumping commercially,” John said.

With very little advertising, the Kockelmans’ balloon is already booked into July.

What does it feel like to leap from a hot air balloon?

My jump, known as “The Flight of the Pudgy Eagle,” found some answers.

I can report that first comes terror--during that finite moment your weight shifts forward, away from the swaying balloon basket--as every nerve in your body screams, “Don’t do this!”

Seconds after the inexorable plunge toward hostile Earth, terror gives way to the giggles as the jumper hits the end of his 43-foot-long bungee cord and it stretches, slowing that awful fall and doubling to 86 feet in length.

Next comes a whacking great rebound--boing-g-g-g, and another, boing-g-g-g--high above terra firma.

The giggles are nearly unstoppable as you bob up down like a human yo-yo.