Ask Mike Heard what kind of kid he was and he’ll tell you he wasn’t overly adventurous.
But at the age of seven, he remembers hearing about bungy jumping for the first time, and tying a cord around his ankles with his brother and diving off the top bunk bed onto the pillows below.
As a teenager, he competed in the rock-climbing national championships and did several skydives. And as a 41-year-old father-of-two, he leapt off the Auckland Harbour Bridge in October 2023 for 24 hours straight, bungy jumping 941 times in a row to set a new Guinness World Record.
Alongside his wedding to wife of 13 years Helen, and the birth of his daughters, Summer, 12, and Layla, eight, Mike counts it as one of the best days of his life.
“I get emotional talking about it,” says Mike, who first broke the record for most bungy jumps in 24 hours in 2017 with 430 jumps. In 2022, Frenchman Francois-Marie Dibon topped it with 765 jumps and Mike instantly knew he’d try again.
The former radio DJ and engineer says he can recall every single one of the record-breaking jumps, but two stand out.
“One was jump 766, which was when I broke the record, reclaimed it and brought it home,” he says. “When I came up, the celebration was amazing – they had a confetti cannon, someone had set up a TikTok live stream and 1.3 million people from all around the world were watching. It was such a cool feeling.”
Mike raised funds for the Mental Health Foundation during the challenge and didn’t waste a single second of the 24 hours, only stopping twice for a toilet break, for medical and safety checks, or to wait
for boats passing below.
“The last jump, I had 10 seconds to go and we really pushed hard. I was hanging under the bridge at 7am after going for 24 hours, and had this incredible emotion and relief. I was uncontrollably crying when I got pulled back up. My girls and wife were standing there at the top and they just grabbed me. It was amazing.”
Helen, 40, says she’s incredibly proud of Mike, who has now set four world records, and the preparation work he put in.
“With some of the records, he has been pretty spaced out, but this last one, he was really in control,” says Helen who, despite being terrified of heights, has bungy jumped with Mike twice.
“You know it’s true love when someone will jump off a bridge with you!” laughs Mike, who is also a marriage celebrant and works in broadcast technology and design.
While twice is more than enough for Helen, the pair say their young daughters are much more likely to follow in Mike’s footsteps, with both doing their first bungy jump at just seven years old.
“I was incredibly proud and Layla asks all the time to do it again,” says Mike. “She’ll probably break my record one day and I’ll be right there with her.”
For the Auckland daredevil, it all began in 2008 after radio station The Rock’s 16th birthday, when Mike and several colleagues decided to try and shake their hangovers by bungy jumping for the first time.
“We all dared each other to do different types of jumps,” he recalls. “My first was backwards and I absolutely loved it.”
Befriending the AJ Hackett Auckland Harbour Bridge Bungy staff, Mike started jumping several times a week. “They’re a special type of human – positive and upbeat – and it was an amazing atmosphere.”
They’ve become lifelong friends, with many who had moved on to different jobs recertifying as jump masters and signing employment contracts so they could legally work and support Mike during his recent record.
One friend, Natasha Lawrence, even flew back from Singapore to be there, staying on the bridge the whole 24 hours with him – a show of dedication Mike will always be grateful for.
Fast-forward 15 years, and Mike has pushed his boundaries and achieved more than he ever imagined.
With the record safely back in Aotearoa, the question remains: Will he attempt it again?
“I’ve never experienced levels of anxiety or stress like I did before this record – it was consuming me,” admits Mike, adding mental stamina was the key to his success. “But doing it and loving every single second of it, I feel like I have that drive back.
“I used to think mindset was mumbo jumbo, but I’m a total convert now. Being able to push through, enjoy it and see my hard work pay off was an incredible feeling. So, if someone pulls out the calculator, does the maths and beats it, I’m coming back!”
