Dubai: “3, 2, 1... bungee,” the jumpmaster ordered.
Alia N, the 25-year-old Pakistani had butterflies in her stomach. Cold sweat broke out on her forehead and she felt her knees would cave in any moment now.
But jump she did — screaming her lungs out all the way down.
When she finally hit terra firma, she was visibly shaken and stirred.
But there was no mistaking the rush of excitement when she realised she had made it in one piece from a height of 165 feet.
She screamed in exhilaration.
Bungee jumping can do that.
And for all those adrenaline junkies out there who wish to fly like a bird (sort of), the newly opened Gravity Zone at Meydan Road is just the place to get your kicks (or wings).
Before the jump, Alia, who works as a business development manager, was so terrified she refused to go it alone. She took along a tandem partner. Not that it helped, “I was terrified because everything looked small, so small from that height.”
“Thankfully Scott Mathers, the jump master, kept talking to distract me. My heart was pounding when he began the countdown and we took off on cue.”
Faisal Nadeem, her 35-year-old jump partner, was no first-timer (he’d jumped in London once before) and was more composed. “I jumped from relatively the same height. But in London they didn’t try to distract me. Here it was different,” said Faisal.
So will they come back?
“Yes, of course,” Alia shot back. while Faisal said they’ll probably try from a greater height the next time.
That’s another thing about bungee jumping. Most people who try it for the first time want to come back.
And then there are people like Mohammad Al Masry who do it to overcome their fears.
The 33-year-old Jordanian said: “I was afraid of heights. To conquer my fears, I had to try bungee-jumping. Mathers told me not to touch the ropes or the cage. He said that if I got terrified, I should go to the edge and just do it.
“And I did.”
First step
For 26-year-old Russian Kate Tuvaeva bungee jumping was the first step in her road to parachute jumping. “I wasn’t afraid of the jump — just excited. If I were jumping in Russia I would worry about safety for sure,” said Kate.
She too plans to do it again.
Zaineb Al Amin, a British-Iraqi expat, was doing it to mark a special occasion — her 25th birthday. “I decided that jumping was a fitting celebration of my first quarter of a century,” said Zaineb.
Like others she too was terrified when she got to the top, but countdown and a little nudge and she was on her way, “Mathers allowed me to go at my own pace, he didn’t rush me,” said Zaineb.
Daring to go
Her 19-year-old brother Mohammad said he is a daring kind, but even he was wary. “It doesn’t mean I wasn’t scared when I was up there, but I couldn’t help but think if my sister did it so could I,” said Mohammad.
Ramiz Shawky, the 37-year-old managing director of Gravity Zone, said he was prompted to set up the permanent bungee-jumping base as there was none in the Middle East. “Bungee jumping does not exist in the Middle East in any permanent location so we partnered with the UK Bungee Jumping Club whose safety measures are among the best worldwide.”
So now, if someone tells you go take a jump, you know where to go!
Did you know?
The first bungee-type jumpers were the “land divers” of the Pacific islands of Vanuatu. For centuries, in a ritual designed to show courage and faith, young Vanuatu men jumped from a scaffolding with vines tied around their ankles to prevent them from crashing into the ground. Inspired by the land divers, a group of men gathered on a bridge near Bristol, England, in 1979 for what is frequently cited as the first “modern” bungee jump.
