Bungee jumping: from an illegal throw from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower to an “economic adrenaline empire”

“joule jump”

If we go back in time, the pioneers of the discipline are actually the “vine players”. On the south of Pentecost Island in the Vanuatu archipelago, in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, men have a tradition of throwing themselves into the void from the top of a bamboo tower about 25 meters high called a “gaul”, with only vines attached to their ankles for safety.

This annual event, “Saut du Gol,” is a rite of passage into adulthood for young men. The length of the vine is barely shorter than the height of the tower, which means that the diver sweeps the ground, or he can even touch it directly… The length of the vine is carefully calculated by each participant according to the height of the platform from which he jumps. The flexibility of the vine – which depends on the humidity and therefore on the season – makes it possible to absorb the shock, just as, when landing, slightly sloping and loose ground because it is constantly turned over.

The ceremony still attracts hundreds of tourists today.

The popularity of this event has prompted some villages to double off-season dates to attract more and more tourists. But the dates greatly exceeded the recommended periods on the basis of moisture, and thus affected the flexibility of the vines… Several accidents occurred because, under tension at the moment of impact, the very dry vines broke and could not absorb the shock.

One of the most famous off-season jumping incidents is the one that occurred in February 1974, prior to the independence of Vanuatu, then a joint territory between France and Britain in the New Hebrides. During the visit of the royal ship “Britannia” to the island, jumper John Mark Tappe literally crashed at the feet of Queen Elizabeth II of England. Then the royal delegation was diplomatically removed from the shocking scene …

The first illegal jump

In Europe, in the 1930s, members of the London aristocracy began jumping from small bridges over the Thames, hanging from latex bands. But the real devotion to extreme leisure dates back to June 26, 1987, when at the age of 29 New Zealander Alan John Hackett illegally threw himself from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

Inspired by the traditional activity of Vanuatu, it uses a mathematical formula developed by the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to create a highly flexible rope. This material, environmental and recyclable, comes from the sap of the rubber tree, a tree native to the Amazon jungle.

The relationship between forces, load and height is carefully calculated by a trained carpenter. First he makes a rubber band of one hundred small rubber bands held in a twist and determines that: “The height of the jump divided by four gives the length of the rubber band.” The patent was filed, and bungee jumping was born.

At the beginning of 1987, he made a test jump from the Pont de Caille in Haute-Savoie, from a height of 147 metres, before attacking the Eiffel Tower. His goal, by choosing the symbol of the Monument to France, is to avenge his homeland after the explosion two years ago on the Greenpeace ship near Auckland, which was trapped by French intelligence, which killed one person. New Zealand considered this violation of national sovereignty an affront. After his jump, Alan John Hackett was briefly imprisoned for illegality but became a national hero in his country and at the same time popularized bungee jumping as a hobby.

In 1988, the extreme entertainment pioneer founded the first commercial bungee jumping site and company, AJ Hackett SA, which today is the world’s premier bungee jumping company with locations in Australia, France, China and Russia.

On June 4, 2017, Queen Elizabeth II’s representative to the Pacific archipelago, Patricia Reddy, presented AJ Hackett with the Badge of the Order of Merit for his jump from the Eiffel Tower, as well as for the “economic adrenaline empire” he has built since.

With a turnover of approximately 35 million euros and more than 400 employees (in 2017), AJ Hackett SA is now expanding into new activities (zip lines or giant swings) and thanks commerce (Objects, photos, videos, etc.).