It was a crisp cool morning in the bright sunny town of Queenstown on Friday the 23rd of November. The class from Queenstown Resort College (QRC) and I met at the Canyon Swing base shop in town at 8:30 in the morning. There on the wall hung the glorious as we entered the shop with the 70 + jump styles that you are able to do of the canyon swing. Each of which have a different underpants rating. If the jump style has only one pair of underpants it meant that it is an easier and less scary jump. If the jump has five pairs of underpants it means that it’s the hardest and scariest jump. After looking at the board for a while I still had not decided on which jump I was going to do so I thought I would decide when I got there. The staff greeted us very welcomely on the desk and they asked us to stand on the scales so they could measure out weight. They drew small symbols on our hands instead of righting the actual weights so that people would not feel self-conscious. I found this to be a great idea as the Ledge Bungy wrote our weights on our hands. Our jumpmaster Rob met us in the shop and walked us out to the van. I liked how they got the jumpmaster to come and get his clients instead of just meeting them at the canyon swing; this made the experience a lot more personal.
We all got in the canyon swing van, Rob spoke to us for a bit and he let us know what we would be doing at the canyon swing. He put on a video for us all to watch, it showed us people jumping in all the different styles. Once we arrived up along side the Shotover River, we all got out and went to the toilet as Rob said this is the last toilet stop you will get. Offcourse we were all nervous and needed to go to the toilet. There was a bit of a walk down the hill to the canyon swing office, which was filled with nervous chatter, we were met by Brooke who was on the front desk and was to make up our videos and photos for the group from the jump. The team at Canyon Swing gave us a briefing and soon after that the first person from our group jumped. Our group all gathered around the big TV and watched as the first person made the leap of the edge. But soon it was to be my turn. I brought with me a teletubby suit to wear whilst I made the knee trembling jump. I put my teletubby suit on and started thinking about what jump I was going to do, but still had no idea.
I was called to come down to the platform, by this stage I thought I would have been a nervous wreck but I was the complete opposite I was smiling and excited to be there. The jumpmasters from Canyon Swing are notoriously known for there mind games and there tricks that they play on you whilst you are looking over the edge of the cliff. Down on the platform one of the staff was putting my harness on, he was making sure that I was already and safe to go. The jumpmasters were all laughing at me and making jokes about my purple teletubby outfit but I think they enjoyed it. They wanted to know what I type of jump I was going to do off the edge, I told them I had no idea so Rob decided for me. Offcourse he picked one of the hardest jumps for me to do, which is the gainer flip. They clipped me on the ropes and sorted out all the technical things to make sure I was completely safe. One of the jumpmasters gave me a push and I freaked out, they made me lean out over the edge so they could take some photos. At this stage I was completely calm and was ready to jump, Rob was teaching me how to do this gainer flip. Ok I was already to go, a group of nerves ran through my body as I ran vigorously towards the edge. I threw my body into the air, started to bring my arms back and rotated my body backwards in a back flip like motion. I was flying through the air for so long as the jump gives you 8 seconds of a free fall, which is a very long time to be falling, I then started to swing across the canyon it was the most amazing feeling I have ever felt. I dangled in the canyon for a few minutes until the jumpmasters pulled me up. I shook their hands and we talked about the jump for a bit. I then sat down in the office to watch my video and regather myself.
I would highly recommend this Canyon Swing activity to anyone and everyone. It was highly professional, safe and enjoyable. I am definitely going to go back and to it again in the near future and so should you. The Ledge Bungy was exciting but if you want a serious thrill I say go straight to the Canyon Swing.
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