Some say doing a bungee jump was hands down one of the most physically exhilarating experiences of their life.

In no other major city will you be able to bungee jump as near the centre as in Helsinki, thanks to the company Skybreakers. Their 150-metre tower will be erected in Kaivopuisto in late summer.

Lift people high up the sky, tie a rope around their ankles and push them into a long drop through the air. Are we talking about strong-arm debt collecting? Thankfully, no.

“We like to think we are offering people fun thrills,” says the chuckling Markku Eklund, the jumpmaster of Skybreakers, a Finnish company that arranges bungee jumps. He has been involved in various action projects in all corners of the world. In Kenya, he bungee-jumped straight into what hippopotamuses use as their bathtub and swam past a giant snake – happily unaware on both occasions and perhaps, therefore, lucky enough to survive unscathed. To add to the occupational safety hazard, he has also done film stunts. For example, he fell off a balcony as the rock star Andy McCoy in Real McCoy.

The back of his T-shirt reads, “A man who did the bungee jump”. Based on jump count, he could have more than 2,000 shirts. But he still remembers his first time, as clear as day. “It was near Toulouse, in France, in the late 1980s. I was supposed to bungee-jump from a bridge over water but, as we drove up the riverside road, the stream got smaller and ended up being a little brook. Oh boy, I’ll tell you. I got nervous in a hurry at the sight of that,” he recollects. However, when Skybreakers once again set up their jump site at Helsinki’s Kaivopuisto for a few weeks from late July there will be a good depth of water underneath.

Rites of passage and bragging rights

The roots of bungee jumping extend into practices undertaken in different parts of the world. On Pentecost Island in Vanuatu, young men do as their fathers did, jumping from tall, wooden platforms with vines tied to their ankles as a rite of passage. “That vine has no flexibility at all. The plank from which they jump does have some, though. When we use the 150-metre tower in our urban version, we have a 35-metre cord that stretches out up to 140 metres on jumps. There will be far less strain on the jumpers’ joints,” Eklund points out. Skybreakers hand-make their own cords.

“In Malaysia, rubber trees are tapped and the acquired latex is stretched into strands, which we then bind into bungee cords. One cord features 900 threads, each 1 mm thick, bound together,” he adds. To hang on at the business end of the human yo-yo, jumpers will have straps secured around their ankles. They will also wear an upper body harness for added safety.

But what about the actual experience? What is the pay-off for forking out 85 euros? “Most probably, it’s the post-jump euphoria. You may turn up a bit stressed out and feel the fear mounting before the jump, but once you get to go at it, and afterwards lying on the tarpaulin with the fear conquered, I’ll tell you that all of the ballast will be gone and stay gone for more than a while,” says Eklund.

“I think those who jump with us are actually seeking the element of danger. There have been no fatalities at bungee jumping in Finland or anywhere near here, but that risk does exist, however small it may be,” he states. Another aspect is the camaraderie. “When you get your T-shirt and diploma after a jump, there will be rising pressure among your peers,” he says.

The oldest bungee jumper with Skybreakers so far was 72 years of age. “He had heart medication with him just in case, but did not need it,” says Eklund. Women in late-stage pregnancies or those people recovering from a recent back or foot operation may want to wait for the next summer. But that is where the buck stops with physical restrictions. As Eklund puts it: “If you can run, you can bungee-jump.” If you are not running from the jump site, that is. But in the great scheme of things, who cares about conquering fear or earning lifelong bragging rights, right?

MIKA OKSANEN
HT