Leap of Faith

I wasn’t sure why I decided to do it.  I think sometimes you don’t realize you’re going to do something until you’re there at the precipice and then say to yourself “what the hell, why not”.  Next thing you know, you’re hurtling to the earth at over 100 kilometers per hour with a bungee cord the only thing keeping you alive.

I never thought I’d ever bungee jump, but here I was, on South Africa’s Bloukrans Bridge – the “highest bridge bungee jump” in the world at 216 meters above the earth.  The decision to bungee jump is like a lesser version of Pascal’s Wager.  The probability of the bungee cord ripping apart is low, but if it does, well you’re a splat of blood and bone far down below in the river valley.  So when you weigh the benefits of experiencing five seconds of free fall and the adrenaline rush of surviving the jump against the possibility of dying… well it’s not worth taking the risk of leaping off the ledge.

5… 4… 3… 2… 1… BUNGEE!  Well I did it anyways and it was awesome!  Don’t get me wrong. I was freaked out.  I looked calm and collected on the video, but in my mind I kept reminding myself that the bungee jump system was tried and tested with a 100% success record.  It helps that the crew operating the bungee jump does everything that they can to make jumpers less anxious about the jump – they were joking around with everyone and dancing to blaring hip hop music.  For a second, I just imagined myself at a dance club about to leap off the stage into a sea of friends.

Since this is one of the highest bungee jumps in the world, it was actually like doing multiple bungee jumps because of the ensuing bounces.  I must have recoiled at least five times and at each pull of my legs, I worried that the line would let loose and I’d be Wile E. Coyote (with no Roadrunner in sight).  I suppose that’s what fuels the fire of the adrenaline rush.  From the moment I saw the earth rushing towards me to the few seconds of quiet I had when left dangling on the end of the cord, thoughts of death filled my mind.

Even as one of the crew descended to reposition me into a sitting position to be pulled back up onto the platform, I was worried that something would go wrong and I’d plummet to my death.  The adrenaline continued to boil my blood, as I walked over the bridge of metal webbing (with a clear view of the air beneath me) back to land.  So many things seemed possible of going wrong and it would have sucked if I ended up dying to some random freak accident after surviving the bungee jump.

Would I do it again?  I’m not sure, but after viewing the video of my bungee jump, strangely enough my mind wondered how I could improve my jump.  When I jumped off the ledge, I sort of stepped off the ledge with my feet first instead and didn’t get that perfect arc one would get if I had sailed off into the air in the way that I imagined I might be able to do.  Why, after having risked my life, was I thinking of ways to improve my jump the next time.  Maybe I would do it again.

It’s incredible that your mind can counter thousands of years of evolution and the instinct that one should not be jumping off very high places.  And with some hindsight, I suppose it wasn’t a leap of faith that I took when I jumped off that ledge, but the summation of smaller rational conclusions that I made while headed to the bungee jump.  My decision to quit my job and enjoy life for a little bit was something like that.  You analyze and then analyze again, but feel too paralyzed to choose.  At those times, “what the hell, why not” feels like the right answer.  My adventure isn’t close to ending yet and who knows what will happen when I get back to Hong Kong, but I’m thinking now that maybe some risks are worth it (even when the odds don’t seem to be in your favor).