AJ Hackett

In 1986 AJ Hackett saw a video of some young English thrillseekers called the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club doing a couple of jumps in England in the late seventies. They based their jumps on the manhood ritual of Pentecost Island where the young men jump from 35 metre towers with vines tied around their feet. The imagination really kicked in, and he was off to develop a safe, standard method of jumping. Together with a friend Chris Sigglekow, Hackett decided to follow a rule that only if a method proved to be consistently workable, would he continue to pursue it. Using local bridges in the North Island of New Zealand as testing platforms, he took the height of the bridge, the size of the cord and the weight of the person into account, and began to test how predictable he could make bungy jumping. After 3 years of testing Hackett figured that he had the parameters nailed down. He has since gone on to develop a fantasic international bungy jumping industry.