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| Another
installment in our series of adrenaline derived activities. |
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| From
L to R: Bent Ro Dahl, Thomas Søder, Jacob Cold and
Thomas' little brother, ca 1988.
The bridge in subject was found during a sightseeing type
drive around the Verdon region of Southern France. This time
there was only one structure so it took some visionary thinking
to see the possibilities. First we simply just wanted to jump
off the 150' high deck into the water, but the cautious voices
among us thwarted that plan, probably for the better. Then
it was discovered that a rope strung under the bridge, from
one side to the other would yield a combination free fall/pendulum
sort of fall.
Rigging was easy, the sun and water warm, and most of us were
pretty excited. To arrange the rope under the bridge, we lowered
one line from each rail, and someone swam out and tied them
together. Then we hoisted them up and adjusted things for
the appropriate slack.
Just Bent and I had previously been involved in such things,
but all members of the crew did the leap, except little bro.
So, why go to all this trouble to do a stunt like this? Not
an easy question. Maybe it's good and healthy for the mind
to be faced with the choice to step off the edge or not.
As Baz Luhrmann said: 'Do something every day that scares
you!'
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Jacob was the last to trust the old stiff line we had relocated
for the job. Being the most timid in the group, he experienced
some last minute trepidation. At this point here, clinging
on with his forearms painfully grinding into the edge of the
concrete, he pleaded us to pull him back up. We, off course,
completely ignored the request, and in fact Thomas started
peeling open his fingers.
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Eventually the strain became too much, and he resigned to
his fate.
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The risks involved with this endeavor were deemed minimal.
There was sufficient water depth in case of rope failure and
once the pendulum became manageable, one simply unclipped
and took the 30' plunge into the warm water.
As one can see, there's a huge amount of slack in the rope,
resulting in a long freefall, before the jolting sideways
catch.
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