Safety Tip #1: Don’t Lie About Your Weight When You Go Bungee Jumping

Someone years ago invited me to go bungee jumping and for some reason I said yes. I will come up with some lame excuse to get out of it closer to the actual date, I thought. But, then everyone starting talking about it and I realized one day—damn I have to do this. 

I’m scared of heights and I am not very into doing things where I could die. I’ve never gone hot air ballooning, sky diving, scuba diving, snow skiing, skateboarding, mountain biking, surfing—even competitive soduko, that can be very dangerous from what I’ve heard. I have never been on a motorcycle and I stay out of the ocean if at all possible. When I walk at night my wife makes me wear a yellow reflective vest. People might think I’m boring, but the way I look at it, I’m still alive! 

So, bungee jumping is something I wouldn’t normally ever agree to, but the power of peer pressure is hard to say no to. So, before I realized it, I was in a car headed to Angels Camp, CA to jump off an 80-ft. bridge with a bungee cord attached to my feet. There was a group of 10 people there ready to jump when we got to the bridge. The bungee people gave us a speech about safety and then they asked us about our weight. At that time, I weighed 300-plus lbs., but because I am vane I told them 265. Big mistake! 

When I finally jumped, I bounced a lot more than anyone else! The first rebound raced me back up to the bridge and I thought-I am going to pancake myself under this bridge. I was bouncing back toward the bridge so violently that I actually almost slingshot myself above the railing of the bridge on the other side. The other bungee jumpers were looking at me in shock while a few of them actually laughed. 

I must have looked like a big Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon flying around on a bungee cord. Later I found out, one of the operators of the bungee jumping company asked his assistant, “What did he tell us his weight was?”--knowing full well that had I obviously reported something considerably less. Today it is an amusing anecdote, but at the time it was a scary moment. 

Lesson: It’s never good to lie about your age or your weight, because you never know how it can back and bite you right on the ass!

More upcoming articles will offer great life advice, such as:

Don’t Jump in a Water Hazard at a Golf Course (Duck Poo!)

 
Don’t Eat From a Taco Stand in that Smells Like Death

Don’t Go to Candlestick Park Wearing an LA Dodgers Jersey

Don’t Ask a Drunk Cougar Her Age







 

The March for Elephants and Rhinos in SF, October 3rd

"We admire elephants in part because they demonstrate what we consider the finest human traits: empathy, self-awareness, and social intelligence. But the way we treat them puts on display the very worst of human behavior." - Graydon Carter

Please join our March for Elephants and Rhinos in San Francisco

Saturday, October 3, 2015

10:30 am – 3:00 PM

Starting at Jefferson Square

Did you know that approximately one elephant is killed every 15 minutes in the African continent, 100 elephants are killed every day, 35,000 elephants are killed every year, 1 rhino is killed every 7-11 hours and extinction looms within a generation?

Did you know that San Francisco plays a major role in the illegal ivory trade? A survey commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that up to 80 percent of ivory in San Francisco is illegal under current law.

Did you know that China is the world’s largest market for illegal ivory?

Did you know that March for Elephants, San Francisco(MFE) has worked tirelessly within the Bay Area and globally to bring attention to the illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn?

March for Elephants will be joining over 100 other cities around the globe in organizing a march and speaking out for elephants and rhinos on October 3^rd 2015 in San Francisco. We’ll gather around the Chinese consulate demanding an end to the ivory trade in China, an end to the trade in San Francisco, an end to the trade in the USA and an end to the trade anywhere ivory and rhino horn are commodified. Last year, the San Francisco march and rally drew approximately 2,000 people. 

MFE is a grassroots volunteer organization based in San Francisco that workson behalf of earth’s last elephants and rhinos. We are a group of dedicated advocates, lobbying strategically to promote local and global awareness about the elephant and rhino crises, calling forgovernments to take immediate action to end poaching in range nations,anddemanding an end to the ivory and rhino horn trade at all levels: locally, nationally and internationally.

You can help us by marching for elephants in October. Learn more by visiting marchforelephants.org.

Here is a video of the State of Elephants from our archives:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-ozonUy2wo

Here is a beautiful photo taken by Patrick Freeman:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3u7PlEEUDLVQW81em5jRHJ5OXc/edit

march.for.elephants@gmail.com&http://www.marchforelephants.org/