Dive for cover: why travel insurers won’t cover a risky swimming pool plunge

Dumb dives and travel insurance

Dear 16 – 25 year old males on holiday, Please could you stop jumping off balconies into swimming pools. The end.

Yours faithfully, The hotel owner, the ambulance men, the coroner and your forever-suffering parents.

My fellow chaps, holidays do funny things to our brains, but if the pool at your hotel doesn’t have a diving board then it is a good indication that the water isn’t going to be deep enough to resist your 10m showboat plunge.

Unless you have taken part in the men’s plain high diving event at the Olympics or were raised on a travelling circus, dressing every day as a clown before leaping from great heights into a small wooden bucket, then it is advised that you stick to splashing about with a ball or wrestling an inflatable killer whale. A lot safer with a much more predictable and positive outcome.

I completely understand that there are ladies to impress at most swimming pools you visit on your holidays. However, it is probably worth bearing in mind that “I really like the guy who jumped off the balcony and smashed his head on the bottom of the pool, if he’s still alive” was said by no girl ever.

Travel insurance companies will not have to pay your, most likely, rather expensive claim for hospital expenses if you happen to injure yourself in this manner. I didn’t need to investigate too much to find that the exclusion for this event is not hidden in the fine print either.

Eugene Wylde “Insurance Geek Extraordinaire” from Comparetravelinsurance.com.au explains "travel insurance policies are there to cover you for unforeseen events. Take a moment to think about the 'unforeseen' element to jumping off your balcony into a swimming pool, subsequently banging your head on the solid tiled floor and thus injuring yourself, rather badly."

Not really that 'unforeseen', not when you think about it, for more than 2 seconds anyway. This possibly sounds a bit alarmist but it’s not at all.

• There are on average 2400 swimming pool related incidents claimed by Aussie travellers per year.

• 70% of injuries are from males under 25.

• Every year it is estimated that 18 Australian men will come a cropper from somersaulting or diving into swimming pools whilst overseas.

• At least 2 will die.

It is a fact that the male human brain isn’t able to assess risk / reward until around 25 years of age, so technically it is not your fault. Travel Insurance claims mirror this statistic to the year. The risk / reward see saw gets even more out of balance when you are on holiday.

So if you ever find yourself perched high above a small blue rectangle, your friends shouting “go on” in a quiet muffle below. Ask yourself, would I do this at the Ian Thorpe Aquatic and Fitness Centre?