No this is not a quick and easy guide on how to get laid in Pamplona, my advice on that problem is quite simple…. BE THERE! Instead I am referring to the new traditional alternative to risking life and limb with the bulls, there is the opportunity to entrust your health to a crowd of drunken catchers waiting at the base of a high monument, hoping that they can prevent you hitting the ground with a sickening thud!

In order to try to remain unbiased in reporting this event I will include some articles on the subject from a variety of sources.

(Excerpt from an article in TNT)

There is more to Pamplona than drinking sangria to 8am and then trying not to get trampled by a herd of steaming bulls. It’s drinking sangria all day and night and jumping off a statue outside the Mussell Bar. GENEVIEVE SWART spoke to those who were caught and those who weren’t.

Picture it. A medium sized monument in a Pamplona plaza. Crowds of Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans soaking up the Spanish sun and the sangria. One by one they climb to the top of the statue and dive into a human stretcher of hands. And it’s all done for kicks. Leaping off the statue is as big a tradition in Pamplona as running with the bulls. And, like running with the bulls, it helps if you are a little bit crazy. Monument jumping fever starts on July 6, the first day of the festival. After the champagne has stopped flowing for the opening ceremony in the main square everyone heads for the Mussell Bar to continue the party before the bulls begin running the following day.

A triangular plaza surrounded by Spanish pubs, the Mussell Bar is the Aussie/Kiwi/South African hangout. And in the middle of this plaza stands the 20 foot high monument. But, why on earth would anyone want to hurl themselves off a monument? Isn’t running with the bulls enough of a death wish for some people? "I’ve got no brains," laughs Wanderer’s World agent, "Roach". "You see the first guy jump and think hey, that’s me, I’m on, I’m going." Smiling from ear to ear, he says, it’s great to walk through the streets and have all the girls recognise you as the hero who jumped the monument and ran with the bulls. Ten minutes of fame is great for a few kisses. "Of course its dangerous," says Roach. "Or else what’s the point?

"I was second off the ledge last year and first off the top of the monument. If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it properly. But it gets a bit dull after a while; you have to do something different. So I jumped off naked."

Kevin, an engineer from Zimbabwe, also jumped last year and said he was "scared shitless". "You get to the top and it’s a lot higher than it looks." So why jump? "Well — everyone else was doing it." "Bomber" Dale from PP Travel agrees with the power of peer group pressure and warned people to be careful. "You just get sucked in, hypnotised by the carefree party atmosphere. But it’s the most stupid thing you can ever do," he says. "You could be maimed for life and it’s just not worth it." The ground is hard cobblestones and littered with broken glass, so any injury is likely to be serious. Jo, a travel agent with Spearhead, has been to the Mussell Bar several times. "It’s the dumbest thing anyone can ever do" was her immediate response to monument jumping, before quickly adding: "Yes, I did it". Jo jumped in 1990, the year they took the monument off the pedestal. To make up for it people climbed up the pedestal and then on to someone’s shoulders, to reach roughly the same height as the monument before diving off. "I got really hurt," Jo said. "I was bruised from my neck to my knees. Never again." Spanish authorities have given up trying to stop jumpers. Accidents are frequent and people regularly walk into nearby bars and ask for an ambulance.

Ruth, from Top Deck, saw an awful accident last year: "One guy climbed up, took his trousers off, pissed on the crowd, dived, and wondered why no one caught him. The last anyone saw of him he was being carried off on a stretcher." Perhaps more dangerous than running with the bulls, jumping off Mussell Bar monument has been dubbed great, stupid, a must do, and terminally irresponsible.