On Dec 13, 2011, Bungee jumper Erin Langworthy’s rope snapped, letting her fall into the Zambezi river at Victoria Falls, Africa.

I’m one of those high-risk individuals and all my life have tended to (successfully) do high-risk activities such as: Skydiving, Skiiing, SCUBA, flying airplanes, driving fast cars, rock climbing, rapelling, marriage, etc.  However, there are two activities that I won’t do; Bungee jumping and Hang Gliding.  The whole key to successfully doing high risk activities is risk management.  The entire time you are engaged, you are constantly doing that.  I think that’s why some people are successful and some hurt or kill themselves – its’ the ability to constantly manage risk and make decisions. 

Bungee jumping just strikes me as dumb, with far too many things that can go wrong which are outside of your personal control.  The cord could (and does occasionally) break.  The cord is not one cord, it’s usually many, and you could get tangled up in that bunch of cords.

Hang gliding is also fairly hazardous.  To give you an idea (in relative terms) how hazardous, consider this:  When the wind was too high to skydive, we’d sit around at the drop zone in Californa City eating burgers and watching video of hangliders crashing into trees, hills, each other, or other mishaps.  So this is an audience of skydivers, laughing at how incredibly foolhardy these people are.  Think about that.