Young and Stupid

Sunday morning, 6AM, I got out of bed and got ready to take a three and a half hour train to Sokolov to willingly throw myself off a bridge. So goes the idiocy of extreme sports.

Ten of us decided to go bungee jumping off the tallest bridge in the Czech Republic. When the idea came up, my thoughts were "Sure" and "Sounds like fun." But, as I walked out to the middle of the bridge and looked down, my thoughts were mainly "Shit" and "No fucking way." The only other person as terrified as me was Max who happens to be terrified of heights. We were eighth and ninth to go, so we spent a lot of time trying to console one another. It didn't help that the contracts we signed were in Czech and all the people running it were also speaking rapid Czech.

Bungee Jumping is stupid. Why throw yourself off a bridge? It is one of the most counterintuitive things imaginable? Your entire body and mind is just saying "No, don't do this. You are going to die." But, I had paid 800 crowns ($40) so I had to go.

I don't even know how I did it. The guy behind me counted down, and I closed my eyes as tight as possible and just went. You are supposed to dive head first, but for anyone who wasn't on swim team with me or hasn't heard the story, I suck at diving and definitely usually kind of hop in instead of diving. So that is what I did. I jumped off and the world completely fell away. My eyes were closed, I couldn't hear anything besides the wind blowing past me, and I felt nothing but wind in my face. I had no thoughts. My head was completely clear. It also felt like I was falling for at least 5 or 10 minutes instead of 2 seconds. I didn't scream until I felt the bungee pulling me back. I only opened my eyes once I started heading back up. I opened them in time to see the bridge coming at me. I really thought I was going to hit it and die. But, alas, I did not. Instead, I hit the rope smack in the face. Basically, it was like jumping off a bridge and immediately being punched in the face for it. Then comes the spinning. I was trying to enjoy the view but could not because I was just spinning in circles very very fast. Being pulled back up was by far the best part. The view was pretty crazy and my heart was pounding and the adrenaline rush was a little overwhelming. When I reached the top, Raijan was taking pictures of me, Max was hugging me, some girl was giving me a certificate and I couldn't even thing straight. It was like I wasn't there. I felt like I had actually died and was now just walking around as a ghost. But eventually I remembered my lip was bleeding, my nose was bleeding, and I was really tired.

I slept very very well last night. I don't know if I will ever do that again. I'm really glad I did it, but I do not feel the need to ever repeat that action again.

Here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpgjR5afc6k