Over The Edge, Inc.

I first jumped on my own bungee cord system from the 144-foot Bitch Creek Railroad Bridge in Eastern Idaho in 1990. Brady Simon was my sole crew. With no model or convention available I was left to design a system based on stress/strain relationships of military spec cord samples whose properties I measured in the materials testing lab where I worked during college. I used this lab data and relied on textbook engineering principles to design a system with comfortable deceleration and a healthy safety factor.

Within a few years, through cooperation between neighboring clubs in Utah, Wyoming and Washington, the systems merged to become somewhat uniform and conform to standards later adopted by various bungee associations. Jumpers and thinkers along the way shared and contributed immeasurably to improve technique and retrieval systems.

Meeting a bunch of friends to jump some far off bridge soon became a tradition. Idaho and the west was bungee Mecca with its tall scenic bridges, rather light traffic and outgoing adventurous crowd. Full Moon Bungee depicts something about what some would call the renegade beginnings of the sport. It is one of our named annual events along with The Boise Rubber Festival, which coincides with “The Boise River Festival”, High Desert Bungee, (self-explanatory), Navajo Sunrise at Marble Canyon on the Navajo side, and Jumpin’ Fools Bungee held April 1st in the spirit of the Dangerous Sports Club of Oxford who invented the sport.

Over the Edge incorporated in the State of Idaho in 1991 and have jumped over thirty major bridges in the western United States: the 490-foot Perrine and 370-foot Hansen in Twin Falls, Idaho, the 464-foot Moyee Springs Bridge in north Idaho, the 670-foot Rio Grande High Bridge, Taos, New Mexico, the 467-foot Navajo in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona; Also Glenn’s Ferry 1,2 and3, Bitch Creek, Malad Gorge 1,2 and 3 Clear Creek on the Hiawatha Trail, White Canyon, Lawyer’s Canyon 1,2, Beaver Dick’s Ferry, Mores Creek, Pine Creek Pass, Green Canyon, Conant Creek, Spencer, Idaho; Spokane City Bridge and High Train Bridges, Carbonado, Rainier National Park, Washington; White Canyon, Hite, Dirty Devil, Utah.

In 1996 we performed a series of stunts for Intersport Television’s “Extreme Weekend” syndicated on major networks. I dipped a narrow pool below the 370-foot Hansen Bridge, then a world-record highest water dip. On his second attempt from the Malad Gorge Bridge, which is astonishingly 105 feet high and only 12 feet wide, Kurt Holtan just touched with his fingers the raging 18 inches of white water. Three of us performed a double bungee and pendulum combination from the dual 160-foot Glenn’s Ferry Bridges. At the precise moment Kurt and I dipped in the Snake River on side-by-side bungees twenty feet apart, Rob Kinmont swung between us on a 150-foot pendulum rope.

In 2000, as extreme sports grew nationally, the Idaho Transportation Department sought to address its liability issues associated with bungee and other sports which used public bridges in some way. The Department initiated a legislative bill which would have outlawed Bungee, B.A.S.E. and all manner of bridge use other than vehicle transportation by the motoring public. It also would have given police more authority to arrest those who chose to participate in such scary activities. The laws were already clear on causing a hazard to the motoring public or impeding the flow of traffic which we always avoided.
We offered to the Department Board and then Chairman Chuck Winder that the bill would only increase the State’s liability by obligating them to prevent renegade jumps. We also explained that any traffic problem had in every case been caused by the police themselves who often stopped their cars mid-bridge to see what it was all about. The Department dropped the bill and proposed a permitting system. In a victory for individual freedom and also, as always, a demand for individual responsibility, the State eventually dropped the permitting idea as well which would have put them in precarious positions of having to determine which crews are competent and which are not.

Beaver Dick’s Ferry Bridge used to have signs posted at both ends that read, “NO JUMPING FROM BRIDGE, NO LOITERING ON BRIDGE.” We greatly appreciate Idaho Transportation Department administration and road crew who removed these signs at our request and who have helped us spread the word that Bungee Jumping from public bridges – unless posted by the Department for a particular safety concern – is legal as it always has been.

In 1999 Mike Dyson and I jumped several times each from 42 feet above hardwood as the halftime show to an Idaho Stampede CBA playoff basketball game at the Idaho Center. A great crew that one.

In 2000 we trained and equipped Extremo Producciones at their location in Mendoza, Argentina. We jumped with them from their crane in a vineyard at the foothills of the Andes to the delight of a few thousand. Ah, the Malbec.

In 2001, Over the Edge, Inc. held Heli-Bungee in Toronto, Canada. Veteran jumpers from round the world gathered in Toronto and jumped from a helicopter hovering 1000 feet above a green pasture on a 400-foot cord. The Travel Channel featured footage and Over the Edge, Inc. as one of ten “World’s Best Helicopter Thrills.”

We manned the icy Perrine Bridge to greet the Olympic Torch on its way to Salt Lake City’s Winter Games. We pulled off a jump as the torch runners passed behind while MSNBC captured and featured the event along with interviews of the crew.

The extensive Snake River Canyon below the Perrine Bridge and high peaks of the vast mountain ranges that surround Twin Falls, Idaho produced two adventurers who are mountaineers, river runners and also canyoneering and bungee jumping experts. Marcus Rojas, Jumpmaster, and Travas Whitaker, Crew Chief, are Over the Edge professional crew for eight years and lead jumps from the Perrine, Hansen and Glenn's Ferry bridges in Southern Idaho.

Bungee Jumping in our style has always been a team event. From rigging to rope mechanics to cheering for the man or woman standing ready on the rail, the day’s group of jumpers, trained and directed by the Jumpmaster, is the crew and does the legwork. The bridge jump makes necessary a sophisticated retrieval operation whose flawless execution is the crew’s goal and dangling jumper’s most sincere prayer. It is after the jump when the recoils subside that the jumper alone sees the bridge’s underside and realizes just how he depends on crew. There is no time to revel in the accomplishment until after the last man has been brought back up safely. From a bridge as God intended, this team-building experience outdoes most anything imaginable.

Eric Lyman, Founder