Legend tells the story of the South Pacific island princess who invented bungee iumping to escape an unwanted suitor. He saw her jump and, in despair jumped to his death, not knowing that she had tricked him - her ankles were bed to a rope, and historys first bungee was born.

Another version is that it all started as a coming-of-age ritual performed by tribes of Pentacost Island. April and May were the daring months, when the vines which were tied to the ankles of the jumpers are more flexible.

The boys would climb 25 metres, tie a vine to their ankles and launch into the air. The ones who made it were considered respected men in the community, the higher the jump the more respected the man. The ones who didn't make it... well, for them respect was no longer a prob- lem.

The ritual in modern form attracted the world's attention when its New Zealand pioneer, A.J. Hackett, bungee jumped off the Eiffel Tower. He and his crew hid their gear on the second floor of the tower, eluded the security men and slept there overnight. The next morning Hackett jumped down the hol- low centre of the tower, hav- ing carefully judged the parameters of the jump.

He was duly arrested but soon released-presumably the lawmakers hadn't got around to planning for people who jump off the Eiffel Tower. Bungee jumping had made a sensational impact and as the sport grew, stringent safety standards were established by the New Zealand and Australia Bungee Code of Practice.

Bungee Down Under, in Ayia Napa, was launched by Chris Siggelou (Hackettis former partner in developing modern bungee equipment) and Alan Brown, both from New Zealand, with their Cypriot part- ner Constantinos Constantinou.

They regularly update their bungee equip- ment-- BDU, which operates at Nissi Beach, has logged more than 200,000 jumps with no incidents or accidents.

The padding for the ankles and the two-inch climbing tape which secures the bungee to the ankle padding can carry 4,800 kilograms of weight. The climbing cord is tied in a figure eight knot which tightens no matter from which direction the pull comes. Each iump is logged and the cords, which are made in Australia, are changed after 500 jumps.

The bungee jump-master has to have several qualities to do his job properly - the ability to communicate, to be adaptable, patient and outgoing. Somehmes it takes ten minutes to persuade a reluctant jumper to go for it.

A vital ingredient is the ability to adjust the bungee to match exactly how close to the sea the jumper wants to go. Some only want their arms dipped, others want the body in the water, some don't want to touch the sea at all

The jump master can judge to within two inches by adjusting the length of the free fall rope (a climbing rope attached to the bungee and tied to the top of the cage) in relation to the jumper's weight group.

The bungee jumper is first weighed -- tandem jumps can be ruled out if the combined weight is too much- and assigned cord of appropriate thickness. The heavier the jumper, the thicker the bungee. With the jump-master, the jumper is raised in the cage by a crane to the full height of 45 metres (150 feet).The jump-master encourages the jumper to look out at the beach, not down at the water. The countdown is
"5,4,3,2,1 BUNGEE" and you're off.