Club Med Insider

Skydive Over Columbus Isle

The final day of our vacation and honeymoon. Two wonderful weeks of scuba diving, sailing, and relaxing. And now we're 4500' over beautiful San Salvador island in the southern Bahamas, about to make a skydive onto the Columbus Isle beach.

My wife, Mandy, and I are fully rated professional demonstration parachutists. We jump into football games, balloon festivals and airshows around the US. For us this jump is just too cool because we had no intention of skydiving while on our honeymoon, until we landed at the San Salvador airport and gave some thought to using the local "sightseeing" plane located there for our own special purpose.

Our 'first' GO, Thomas Courtemanche, met us with the greeting crew and escorted us to our excellent room. Thomas proved to be an ally and a friend during our entire vacation.

During our walk first walk through the Club area as Thomas showed us to our room, we asked about the possibility of jumping at the club. But, as with ourselves, Thomas was new to Columbus Isle. He promised he would help us in any way possible. He certainly was involved with the entire effort leading to this moment. Introducing us to the "Excursion" team, who knew the local pilot; smoothing the process with the Chief of Village, Karim, to get us permission to touch down on the Club Med beach; and supporting our effort to get our skydiving gear to Cloumbus Isle from our home in Texas.

During our two week stay, Thomas was always present to assist us in having a great time. He even used his day off to escort an impromptu bicycle expedition around the island for 4 GM's so we could all 'explore' our new environment. He 'backpacked' lunch for us all, and we had sandwiches and snacks at the top of the island lighthouse.

While atop the lighthouse we continued to plan and discuss a 'beach jump' and compare the lighthouse view to what we might see from the open door of the airplane. Our thoughts did not nearly compare to what we were presently seeing as we circled to gain altitude for our jump.

Now, on the morninig of our "honeymoon jump", Thomas, again on his day off, was on the beach with many of our new friends and the 'support team' from Columbus Isle that helped make this wonderful experience happen.

We had brought along 10 lbs of cooking flour from the Club Med kitchen crew. As we passed over the village at 4500' we poured the flour out the airplane door to make us more visible from the ground below. As the flour ran our, we climbed out of the door, waved good-bye to our pilot, and new friend, Manfred, and fell away over the beautiful island.

We opened our matching parachutes above our normal 3000' altitude so we could enjoy our descent for a longer time. Several minutes later we made our last turns over the Club Med pool area and approached the beach. As we came in to land the entire GM, GO, and GE team there cheered. The landings were great, the pictures wonderful, and our friendship with the entire Columbus Isle team will not be forgotten.

Thanks to you all from Tom and Mandy !