Balcony Diving: Blame Tom Daley

I'm taking bets. When will this year's first balcony dive be registered? And if you fancy an accumulator, when will this year's first balcony-dive death occur? There's no point in running a book on whether there will be a balcony dive or whether there will be a balcony-dive-related fatality, as the odds are odds-on.

If you need help, 8 April was the date of last year's first registered balcony fall. But doubts were cast as to whether it qualified as a dive, as it was probably an accident, while no pool - usually an important factor in the balcony dive (indeed, it is essential) - was involved. Nevertheless, this incident in Alcúdia got the balcony-diving pre-season underway and promised a good year, which it proved to be. The first official dive with consequences, i.e. either injuries or worse, was on 24 April. So, let's see if this can be beaten this year, shall we, and see which resort can claim the first. It was Palmanova last year.

The publicity afforded to balcony diving has been a valiant attempt to make Mallorca the undisputed world leader for the sport. But unfortunately, Mallorca has some serious competition. Australia for example. It has even had something of a celebrity dive, if the world of BMX riding can be said to produce celebrities. Champion rider Dane Searls went headlong into concrete last November (without the aid of his helmet it would appear). Great Dane is sadly no more.

The Balearic Government, presumably aware that Mallorca can't really compete with a place the size of Australia, is instead meant to be considering measures to stop balcony diving. It may well, therefore, be looking with interest at a local law to be introduced in Lloret de Mar. This resort, lauded as being the most drunken in Spain, is seeking to shed a balcony-diving reputation by fining hotels.

This is rather harsh. Is it really a hotel's fault if someone decides to clamber onto a balcony railing and aim for the pool? Short of totally enclosing a balcony or making railings so high and running barbed wire along them, there isn't a great deal that hotels can actually do to prevent a determined diver.

Fines are used to try and deter the practice elsewhere. In Florida, it isn't the hotel that gets the ticket but the diver him or herself. Might there be similar fines imposed in Mallorca? Well, there could be, but the chance of them being paid is another matter. The Lloret hotels could be in for as much 1500 euros per dive. Me laddo on tour tends not to stretch to such a budget.

If a fine were not paid, or even instead of a fine, what about banging up a diving miscreant? Possibly, but the last thing the local authorities need is a whole bunch of diving tourists clogging up cells when they've got better things to do with the space, such as filling them with looky-looky men or ladies of the night. Moreover, in the absence of a new law, what offence would have been committed?

Other ways of tackling the diving phenomenon might include kicking the offender out of the hotel, always assuming he or she is in a fit state to leave it and not either in a body bag or in ICU in Son Espases, adding to the cost of a local health service with so little money that motorists will soon find themselves having to pay a tax to help fund it.

Another might be to blacklist the offender, so if he tries coming back to Mallorca, he would be turned away at passport control. This would still require an offence having been committed though. There is no actual law to stop someone diving from a balcony.

A problem is that, even if the law is used, it wouldn't necessarily prevent diving. In Lloret, unless there is an accident or a death, how would police get to know? The hotel isn't going to tell them, unless they plan on handing over 1500 euros while making the statement. Will there be a diving dobbing-in hotline for other guests to use to contact the police? One positive for any police investigation is that dives tend to be on film. And on YouTube. Evidence isn't that difficult to find.

The regional government will be hoping that incidents don't become, as spokesperson Rafael Bosch remarked last August, more "unfortunate". But there is one added factor this year. Tom Daley. Does he realise how much damage he's potentially causing by popularising diving? God forbid he does well at the Olympics, because this August will indeed be more "unfortunate".


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.