Pair who get their high from terrifying tourists
In a new series, the Herald talks to people whose jobs are outside the ordinary. Today: Helps people bungy jump
Mason Carr’s typical working day is scaring people almost to tears — then pushing them off the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
The AJ Hackett jumpmaster spends his days in a metal pod suspended about 40m above the Waitemata¯ Harbour — a job his teenage self would never have predicted.
“I hated heights, I was terrified, but then I ended up giving bungy a go and I loved it. So it’s only spiders now.”
Carr leads bungy jumpers across the girders as traffic rumbles overhead, almost oblivious to the stunning city views to his right.
Once he’s in his pod Carr makes sure people are safely buckled and strapped for their plunge over the side.
But what brings him joy is reassuring those jumpers whose bravado back on dry land fades as they ascend the steep metal ladder to the launch pod.
“My favourite part is helping people overcome their fears,” he says. “A lot of people freak out.
“We build a rapport with the customer and adjust [the persuasion] to them.”
For some he praises their courage; others he reminds there’s no refund: the longest he had to talk someone into the jump was 45 minutes. He has a 99 per cent success rate — only about one in 100 people will eventually refuse to jump.
The 23-year-old studied adventure tourism management and started working with AJ Hackett in Queenstown four years ago,
becoming hooked after doing the Kawarau bungy.
Carr says he loves the busy summer, perched under the bridge where 40 to 60 people do the bridge jump every day.
“Everybody is working like a well-oiled machine,” he says.
“It’s busy and we’re all on to it, there’s no slacking. If any part is lacking it lets the whole team down.”
Auckland sales manager Tash Lawrence, also a jump master, says the company’s recruitment process is designed to find people like Carr, who can build a rapport with clients at a moment that, for many, represents their worst fears.
Carr is focused on honing his jumpmaster skills but also hopes to travel to the company’s bungy sites around the world.
SkyTower jumpmaster Leo Seuula also gets pleasure in scaring people. He takes paid clients around “the ring”, balancing on a 1m-wide metal platform 192m above street level, near the top of the tower.
Once he has strapped clients securely into safety belts and harnesses, he gently leads them onto the ring — where he runs them through a series of terrifying challenges: leaning forward, sitting on the edge, walking backwards and forwards with their eyes closed.
“I love scaring people,” he says.
“I say, ‘That rope looks old but it should be okay . . . ’ And I tell them they get a full refund if they fall.”
No one ever has, of course. Seuula’s big personality and the ease and humour with which he deals with customers won him a job on the spot when he went to the SkyTower on work experience while studying at the International Travel College in Auckland.
“The best part is meeting new people and helping people who are scared,” he says.
“Some start off crying and I like to see them smiling.”
He also loves the views, especially at sunset and sunrise and when the city below is shrouded in mist but he’s in full sunshine in his eyrie in the sky.
People freak out. We build a rapport with the customer.
Mason Carr