It's dangerous, so naturally young boys want to show off in front of the girls or their friends and so it has been for generations: jumping off El Peñón de Salobreña.

It doesn’t matter that this ‘hobby’ was banned three years ago through local bylaws because, the kids… (and the not so kids who want to show the youngsters how it’s done and stave off a mid-life crisis) carry on jumping from the highest point, gambling that they’re not going to hit a rock just below the surface.

There is also the rivally between the village boys and those on holidays, where nobody wants to appear to be a ‘chicken’ before the rest.

But there is the notice on the beach near the Péñón stating that you could be looking at a fine of 3,000 euros if you are caught and guess who pays it? Yes, the parents.

Then there’s the molly-cuddled society that has enveloped us, when as youngster growing up in the 50s/60s/70s, if you didn’t come home at least leaking blood and having articulations in leg or arm bones that weren’t there before… It hadn’t been a good afternoon out because summer holidays were for climbing towering trees, swinging out into an abyss on a tarzan swing, or setting fire to yourself or your mates with a stolen box of matches.

But back to Salobreña Peñon where boys will be boys (and girls will be boys, too). Local children grow up jumping off the damned rock, starting at the lower levels and slowly, as they get older, working their way up to the highest jumping point – it’s a rite of passage.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s some African lad in a rural village hunting lions with an elastic band and bluetack pellets, or an Outer-Mongolian kid pelting along on a steppe pony balancing on his head; it’s all about risking your young life (for which you have no idea of its value) in order to display prowess before your equals.

In other words, as long as there is water at the base of the Peñón, kids are going to jump from it so in the depressingly politically correct world a battle against stiffling common sense continues, interlaced with occasional tragedy and ever present thrill.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)