A pizza lover from Surbiton has completed what he believes to be the world’s first ever pizza dip bungee jump - yes, you read that right.
Dave Goodings claims he has become the first person to plunge 140ft holding a slice of Pizza Express’s American Hottest.
The DJ and social media influencer bungee jumped headfirst down into the Bray Lake in Windsor with a bowl of garlic butter dip below him.
30-year-old Dave said: “It all started when I was out at Pizza Express in Surbiton, and I was tucking into an American Hottest Pizza.
“I love their garlic dip and whenever I have a pizza, I always dip it in some garlic butter.
“Just off the back of my brain, I wondered if anyone’s dipped into the garlic dip from a significant height.
“And from there, I started doing some research wondering how or why people might do it.
“I Googled if anyone has ever done a bungee jump with a pizza slice before, and it had never been done.
“So, it was almost a lightbulb moment.”
Dave spoke to the Pizza Express team and UK Bungee Club about the idea, and plans began for the jump - which he says was complex.
Dave said: “UK Bungee Club were amazing, pulling all the planning and paperwork together because it was quite a dangerous stunt really.
“I had to do several rehearsal jumps first to stop me hitting the platform.
“They started me off jumping nowhere near the platform and then tweaked it, so I got lower and lower.
“Once we worked out a rough estimate of where I would be landing then the challenge could begin.”
Because there was so much to organise, Dave says he hadn’t really thought about the actual challenge too much.
Dave explained: “So when I got out there, it was so much higher than I ever imagined.
“It’s very similar to when you go swimming, and you get up on a diving board – it doesn’t loom that high when you’re on the ground.
“But when you get out there, you’re terrified, and once I got up there, I was terrified.”
He added: “The first jump was the scariest.
“I screamed each time I took the plunge.”
After 21 bungee jumps, Dave finally managed to dip that slice of pizza into the bowl of garlic dip.
Dave has done a few of these creative challenges in the past - he says this includes breaking the record for the longest underwater radio broadcast, attempting the highest ever pancake flip, celebrating his birthday with the longest ‘Colin the Caterpillar Cake’ and was the first DJ to host a party on the roof of the O2 Arena.
Dave found this one “the toughest, both mentally and physically.”
He added: “By the 20th jump, I had only a few jumps left in me because it was that draining.”
After he achieved the challenge, Dave celebrated with the leftover pizza from the jump and, of course, his favourite garlic dip.
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