Gallup Independent
October 19, 2000
Age 61 not too late for bungee jump
S.J. Ludescher
Staff Writer
GALLUP — A ribbon of steel across a blue sky. That's how Jimmie King Jr., 61, of Waterflow, described the gorge bridge that crosses the Rio Grande in Taos.
That was his view last Saturday when he dangled 100 feet above the Rio Grande from the end of a 600-foot rope, secured from the bridge. It was King's maiden bungee jump.
"When you're dangling from 100 feet off the bottom of the Rio Grande and look up at the sky, you know your life only hangs by a thread," he said.
King believes he isn't the first Navajo to try bungee jumping, but he may be the oldest.
King describes the feeling of sailing over the railing of the bridge heading straight for the river at terminal velocity that's 123 mph as "exhilarating."
"I fought to keep my eyes open, because I wanted to see the river," he said. "That was hard to do."
The hardest thing to do, King said, was climbing on to the rail in preparation for the fall, even though he had already been connected by the ropes.
"The first bounce isn't bad," he said, "but the second one is a jerker. It looks like the river is so close you can reach out and touch it. You can see right through it."
King said waiting to stabilize can also be disorienting due to the swinging and twisting of the rope. "It seems as though time is suspended, so it's difficult to know how long you are dangling from the drag line."
King, who has extensive skydiving experience, said he learned of the planned jump through a friend. Over the Edge Bungee Club, a group from Boise, Idaho, organized the Saturday thriller.
King is hooked. His next planned bungee dive is scheduled for the end of November over Navajo Bridge in Page, Ariz.
When he's not dangling from the end over
a river, King is a respected and well-known silversmith and goldsmith.
On weekends, he frequently sings with the Flying Eagles, a country and
western band that performs throughout northern New Mexico.
"Jaime and Colin, two great Canadians"
