Ah, those macho Spanish.
Bullfighting may be safer than "balconing"
There are many ways to beat the heat in the dog days of summer, but “balconing” is not one of them.
Hoteliers in Spain’s Balaeric Islands resort region—mainly Mallorca and Ibiza—are cracking down (if that’s the right wording) on an alarming trend: hotel guests diving into swimming pools from balcony ledges.
Known among practitioners as “balconing,” the daredevil stunt is not new, but it has gained in popularity this summer, say local hoteliers. Authorities in the Balaeric Islands report that four people have been killed this year in failed “balconing” attempts, with another 30 estimated accidents causing injury. Depending on the height of the balcony, the human wreckage is too terrible to contemplate.
With the escalation in this off-the-wall activity, hoteliers have been warning guests that they are taking a zero-tolerance approach to the act, evicting all who try it—assuming of course that “balconers” don’t check themselves out first by taking a flying leap and missing the pool.
