The Dangerous Sports Club, a group of adventurers and extreme sports pioneers based in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, were active from the late 1970s for about ten years, during which they developed modern

bungee jumping Bungee jumping (), also spelled bungy jumping, is an activity that involves a person jumping from a great height while connected to a large elastic cord. The launching pad is usually erected on a tall structure such as a building or crane, a ...

and experimented with a variety of other innovative sporting activities.

Origins

The Dangerous Sports Club was co-founded by David Kirke, Chris Baker, Ed Hulton and Alan Weston in the 1970s. They first came to wide public attention by inventing modern day

, by making the first modern jumps on 1 April 1979, from the

Clifton Suspension Bridge The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Since opening in 1864, it has been a toll bridge, the income from which provides fun ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England. They followed the Clifton Bridge effort with a jump from the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...

in San Francisco (including the first female bungee jump by Jane Wilmot), and with a televised leap from the

Royal Gorge The Royal Gorge is a canyon of the Arkansas River located west of Cañon City, Colorado. The canyon begins at the mouth of Grape Creek, about west of central Cañon City, and continues in a west-northwesterly direction for approximately until ...

Suspension Bridge in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, sponsored by and televised on the popular American television program ''

That's Incredible! ''That's Incredible!'' is an American reality television show that aired on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network from 1980 in television, 1980 to 1984 in television, 1984. In the tradition of ''You Asked for It'', ''List of ...

'' Initially,

was a niche novelty; it was popularised by

A J Hackett Allan John "A. J." Hackett (born May 1958) is a New Zealand entrepreneur who popularised the extreme sport of bungy jumping. He made a bungy jump from the Eiffel Tower in 1987 and founded the first commercial bungy site in 1988. He is also the ...

, and has become a mainstream activity.

History

The club's activity and membership peaked in the 1980s, with several dozen active members and holding a wide range of events. The Club was heavily covered in the press, and made a film released in 1982 ("The History of the Dangerous Sports Club") as a supporting feature. Their activities were recorded by photographer Dafydd Jones, including an image of a young

Nigella Lawson Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is an English food writer and television cook. She attended Godolphin and Latymer School, London. After graduating from the University of Oxford, where she was a member of Lady Margaret Hall, Lawson ...

playing croquet from a sedan chair during a club tea party. The group split into various factions over the years.

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

member

Graham Chapman Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two P ...

was perhaps their most famous member, who worked on a feature film about the club prior to his death in 1989. When making personal appearances in the 1980s, Chapman would show films of Club activities. The Club, although later achieving a degree of social diversity, was rooted in the English upper class and centred in Oxford and, later, the

West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buil ...

. The style of dress adopted by members during their activities often included top hats and tailcoats, gaining a champagne-swilling image.

Activities

In addition to bungee jumping, the club specialised in high risk and surreal activities. The Club pioneered surrealist skiing, beginning in 1983 and holding three events at St. Moritz,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, in which competitors were required to devise a sculpture mounted on skis and ride it down a mountain. Entries included a

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, a Louis XIV dining set, and an 8-man boat. The event reached its limits when the Club arrived in St. Moritz with a London

double-decker bus A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...

, wanting to send it down the ski slopes, and the Swiss resort managers refused. In 1986, David Kirke was sponsored by

Foster's Lager Foster's Lager is an internationally-distributed brand of lager. It is owned by the international brewing group Asahi Group Holdings, and is brewed under licence in a number of countries, including its biggest market, the UK, where the Europe ...

to cross the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

in a

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

-shaped balloon, suspended beneath helium balloons, leading to his prosecution for flying without a pilot's licence. Other Club activities included expedition

hang gliding Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

from active

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

es; the launching of giant (60 ft) plastic spheres with pilots suspended in the centre (

zorbing Zorbing (also known as globe-riding, sphereing, orbing) is the recreation or sport of rolling downhill inside an orb, typically made of transparent plastic. Zorbing is generally performed on a gentle slope but can also be done on a level surfa ...

);

microlight Ultralight aviation (called microlight aviation in some countries) is the flying of lightweight, 1- or 2-seat fixed-wing aircraft. Some countries differentiate between weight-shift control and conventional three-axis control aircraft with aile ...

flying; and BASE jumping (in the early days of this sport).

Trebuchet death

''The Oxford Stunt Factory'', which shared many members with the Dangerous Sports Club gained notoriety in 2002 when an Oxford student was killed on launch from a

trebuchet A trebuchet (french: trébuchet) is a type of catapult that uses a long arm to throw a projectile. It was a common powerful siege engine until the advent of gunpowder. The design of a trebuchet allows it to launch projectiles of greater weigh ...

by former Club members David Aitkenhead and Richard Wicks. The trebuchet had been set up to throw a subject around 30 metres into a safety net. However, Kostydin (Dino) Yankov, 19, fell short of the safety net and suffered severe spinal and leg injuries, and died five hours later in

Frenchay Hospital Frenchay Hospital was a large hospital situated in Frenchay, South Gloucestershire, on the north east outskirts of Bristol, England, which is now closed. In 2014, it contracted to a few brain and head injuries services. It was managed by North Br ...

, Bristol. Aitkenhead and Wicks were charged with manslaughter, but were acquitted on grounds of insufficient evidence.

References

External links

* {{cite web, url=http://www.btinternet.com/~dafyddk/dsc.htm , title=''Dangerous Sports Club'' official website , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604220326/http://www.btinternet.com/~dafyddk/dsc.htm, archivedate=4 June 2011 Sports clubs in London Sport in Oxford Clubs and societies in Oxfordshire Bungee jumping