From: dls@ce.Berkeley.EDU (David L. Steere)
Newsgroups: ba.sports
Subject: SF/Oak. Bay Area Bungee Sites
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:12:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: agate.rptabINN28s
Distribution: ca
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: ce.berkeley.edu


I received all of one response to my query last week, regarding
information on bungee jumping sites near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Area.  So, I did some further investigation, and learned from newspaper
clippings that there are two outfits that are headquartered in the Bay
Area, and whose jump sites are more or less accessible to residents
there.

	Outfit 1 - Bungee Adventures (Mountain View, 415 903-3546)
		   Jump site near Tracy (~ 60 miles east of Oakland)

	Outfit 2 - Total Rebound (San Francisco, 415 864-0704)
		   Jump site near Vallejo (~ 35 miles north of Oakland)


For reasons of geographical proximity, I chose to go to Total Rebound,
whose 300' crane is easily visible near the intersections of highways
80 and 37.  Their hours are: Saturdays, 10-8 and Sundays, 10-8.

A nice operation, all in all, with friendly, attentive, safety
conscious staff all around (6 people).  If one has never jumped with
Total Rebound before, then a first jump of 140' is as high as is
allowed.  This jump costs $59, and a second jump on the same day from
the same height is only $29.  If the jumper has jumped before with
Total Rebound, then a 250' jump is allowed, whose cost is $79 for the
very first such jump, and $59 for a subsequent jump on the same day.
The staff will take a short, pretty amateurish video of your jump for
$19.  Nevertheless, I recommend this - the jump is over all too soon,
and the video allows reliving the experience for a long time to come.

Only chest harnessess are used by Total Rebound, as opposed to ankle 
types, for reasons of occasional injuries suffered by jumpers using
the latter type.  A four page (!) liability release form has to be
signed before jumping.

I did the initial 140' introductory jump, followed by the considerably
more intense 250' jump.  The shorter jump was certainly quite a thrill,
and the longer jump was even more so.  The staff warned me not to wear
my glasses on the higher jump - I chose to ignore their advice, because
I had an elastic cord holding them on.  However, in my video, one can
see clearly my glasses tumbling to earth as I rebound back up from the
intital plunge, and I was surprised at how abrupt the change of
direction was.  The 140' jump left me in original physical condition,
but the 250' jump resulted in a few minor skin rashes and bruised
areas (from contact with the bungee cord itself), as well as the feeling
of a pulled muscle in my back.  All minor, and soon to be forgotten.
The only other 250' jumpers during the time I was there were a mother/
daughter pair, whose experiences I would like to have listened to, but
they were gone by the time my jump was over.  I think they had fun
though, and I had fun visualizing my own mother doing this.

My final thoughts?  Certainly one of the most vivid (legal) thrills one
can get in an urban environment, and if one puts together a group of
friends to do it with, it would make for a fun morning or afternoon.
But, as a former skydiver of modest experience, I have to say that I
much preferred the skydiving.  There is the same initially frightening
excitement of throwing one's body off/out of a safe place into the
scary void of limitless space (!), but with skydiving one has the fun of
maneuvering one's body in free fall, and then the different but equally
satisfying pleasure of guiding the deployed parachute back to earth.
The bungee jumps imparted the feeling of being a rag doll at the end of
a tether, being shaken around as if one were a giant cat toy.  

Still, pretty exciting.  Go do it now, before safety consciousness types
somehow get all the fun taken out of it.