Word: leapings
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When the huge foreign-born challengers showed up at Angels Camp, Calif., they filled U.S. competitors with dread. Back home in Cameroon, it was said, giant African frogs routinely leap up to 40 ft. How could such a performance fail to win the Calaveras County Frog Jump Jubilee...
...when the hopping began, the two aliens, sponsored by animal importer Andy Koffman, managed nothing better than a puny 7-ft. 10-in. leap in the finals -- even though one of them jumped twice. Winner of the spirited annual commemoration of Mark Twain's yarn The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County: Help Mr. Wizard, a homegrown Concord, Calif., bullfrog who jumped a quite respectable 19 ft. 3 in. The prize for the best alibi went to Koffman, who insisted that his big frogs, accustomed to the equatorial tropics, just got cold feet. Said he: "They're not used...
Enthusiasts maintain that the thrills outweigh the risks. Jumpers leap headfirst from bridges, cranes and hot-air balloons, from 90 to 300 ft. above the ground, with only a long nylon-cased rubber bungee cord to break their fall. Anchored around the ankles or to a body harness, the wrist-thin cord is long enough to allow a few seconds of free fall before it stretches, dampening the force of the plunge. The jumper sometimes hurtles to within a few feet of the ground before rebounding skyward like a yo-yo as the cord snaps back to its original length...
...ritual practiced by the "land divers" of Pentecost Island in the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu. Every spring villagers there collect liana vines and wind them into long cords. Young men then scale high wooden towers, lash the vines around their ankles and jump. A successful leap is considered a demonstration of courage -- and a harbinger of a plentiful yam harvest...
...Sierras. Recognizing the sport's commercial potential, they quit their jobs as engineers and in May 1988 opened Bungee Adventures in Palo Alto. Recently the Kockelmans introduced hot-air balloons as jumping platforms. Every week 100 jumpers ranging in age from twelve to 72 pay the Kockelmans $99 to leap from a tethered balloon 150 ft. high...