Alan John Hackett | |
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Residence | New Zealand |
Occupation | Entrepreneur |
Known for | Commercialisation of bungee jumping |
Alan John "A. J." Hackett (born May 1958) is a New Zealand entrepreneur who popularised the extreme sport of bungee jumping.
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Hackett grew up on Auckland's North Shore. He attended Westlake Boys High School, but left at the age of sixteen, and served an apprenticeship as a carpenter. At this time, he took up snowboarding and skiing. In 1986, Hackett performed his first amateur bungee jump from the Upper Harbour Bridge in Auckland,[1] citing it as "one of the most riveting experiences of my life."
Inspired by the Vanuatu ritual called land diving and the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club experimental jumps in the 1970s, Hackett developed a super-stretchy elastic bungee cord in the mid 1980s and demonstrated its use by throwing himself off the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1987.[2]
Becoming the Father of Bungy Jumping, he launched his own company, AJ Hackett Bungy, and created a site on the Kawarau Bridge in Queenstown, New Zealand in 1988 to become the world's first commercial public bungy. He later expanded his company by founding bungy sites in Australia, France (Souleuvre Viaduct in Normandy), Germany, The United States, Mexico, Indonesia, and Macau.[3] Hackett initially partnered with Henry van Asch, but the two split in 1997 with van Asch taking over the New Zealand-based business.[4] In 2008 the pair reunited - and currently work together on the AJ Hackett business.
Hackett is widely known for his many bungy stunts that have earned him Guinness records and personal milestones, just a few including:
On 6 November 2007, Hackett was honoured by New Zealand television show This Is Your Life.[5]