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| David Kirke, Who Made the First Modern Bungee Jump, Dies at 78 | David Kirke, Who Made the First Modern Bungee Jump, Dies at 78 |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| David Kirke, a flamboyant thrill-seeker who performed — and, more important, survived — what is widely acknowledged as the first modern bungee jump, died on Oct. 21 at his home in Oxford, England. He was 78. | David Kirke, a flamboyant thrill-seeker who performed — and, more important, survived — what is widely acknowledged as the first modern bungee jump, died on Oct. 21 at his home in Oxford, England. He was 78. |
| His death was confirmed by his brother Hugh Potter, who said no cause had been determined. | His death was confirmed by his brother Hugh Potter, who said no cause had been determined. |
| Mr. Kirke, an irrepressible daredevil and prankster, helped found the Dangerous Sports Club at the University of Oxford in the late 1970s. He inadvertently led this tiny band of eccentrics, plucked from the upper rungs of British society, into a historic plunge off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England, on April Fools’ Day in 1979. | Mr. Kirke, an irrepressible daredevil and prankster, helped found the Dangerous Sports Club at the University of Oxford in the late 1970s. He inadvertently led this tiny band of eccentrics, plucked from the upper rungs of British society, into a historic plunge off the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England, on April Fools’ Day in 1979. |
| Inspiration came in part from a rite-of-passage ritual on the South Pacific island country Vanuatu known as land diving, in which young men leap from high towers, using vines to break their fall. Mr. Kirke opted for an elastic rope used by the military to help fighter jets land on aircraft carriers. | Inspiration came in part from a rite-of-passage ritual on the South Pacific island country Vanuatu known as land diving, in which young men leap from high towers, using vines to break their fall. Mr. Kirke opted for an elastic rope used by the military to help fighter jets land on aircraft carriers. |
| “We hadn’t tested it or anything like that,” Mr. Kirke told the news site BristolLive in 2019. “We were called the Dangerous Sports Club, and testing it first wouldn’t have been particularly dangerous.” | “We hadn’t tested it or anything like that,” Mr. Kirke told the news site BristolLive in 2019. “We were called the Dangerous Sports Club, and testing it first wouldn’t have been particularly dangerous.” |
| Clad in a top hat and tails, with a bottle of Champagne in hand, Mr. Kirke, who was nursing a hangover from an all-night party, was the first to take the plunge that day. The other jumpers — Alan Weston, Tim Hunt and Simon Keeling — “waited to see what would happen to me,” Mr. Kirke told ITV News in 2019. “When I started bouncing up again, they all jumped.” |