Turbulence 1 Woman 0

[Paddy55]

I used to look at entries in the "Darwin" awards some years ago on the web... basically people whose death helped improve the overall gene pool quality of those left behind...
There are people on that beach clearly trying to be their own entry in the Awards :shock:
Not much sympathy I'm afraid

 

[TimB]

Yeah its on my to do list as well to visit that place, but I thought i had read where they had closed part of that beach etc already so glad to hear they haven't....


If that is what a small A320 or so can do, imagine a 747 taking off from that place?? I think i would stand directly under for the landings, but maybe a bit off to the side for the take offs...

The MD-80s were pretty powerful, but the 747 wins for overall breadth of jetblast. I thought I was standing far enough off to the side to avoid being buffeted while videoing, but I still copped it pretty strongly.


My videos from my trip there in December are here: Maho Beach, St Maarten - YouTube


Sadly I was stuck in traffic for 40 minutes (on an island that's only about 16 km across!), and missed the KLM 747 landing, which was about 30 minutes early. But I got it taking off.

...and it's always uber expensive - I got into a spin recently where I was hell bent to get there and tick it off my bucket list... but alas... $4k in Economy and something ridiculous in Business really bought me back to earth lol

If $4k in Y is the best you can manage, you're not trying hard enough.


At the moment, you can fly LAX-SJU for around $1000 return, then SJU-SXM return should be about $140 on JetBlue. Then all you need to do is get yourself to LAX, and you're laughing. (BTW, LAX-SJU is in F/J on a YUPP.)

 

[samh004]

Every time I see a story about this place I start doing random airline searches to see what it would cost to get me there

No way I'd be standing there during a take-off, but I'd love to be standing under a 747 as it lands over the top of me.

St. Maarten KLM Boeing 747 landing (1080p) - YouTube

If its cheaper for two feel free to buy me a ticket too.




 

[JohnK]

I am sure there is a lesson to be learnt here....

 

[nlagalle]

Re: SXM blast riders

If people keep getting hurt on a regular basis (including the copy cat or dare factor) then they will close the beach!

It probably does happen on a regular basis, only this time it made the news...

 

[casanovawa]

Re: SXM blast riders

You probably wouldn't want to be standing there either if a 747 came in for a landing and then had to go around and ramped up the power... I saw a Top Gear episode where they had a small car behind a 747 and at full power it blew the thing into the air and rolled it several times... Be madness to anywhere close behind one of those as i would imagine with the short runway it would have to go to full power pretty quick....

I looked today and it was only about US$450 return from Miami, but i was thinking about including it on my next OW 140k award booking, so no real cost, just might have to sacrifice another destination... But then how often would you spend that sort of money just to fly to this place for a few days??? So might include it next year...

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Re: SXM blast riders

Every time I see a story about this place I start doing random airline searches to see what it would cost to get me there

What search engines or websites are you using to arrive at those prices?

...and it's always uber expensive - I got into a spin recently where I was hell bent to get there and tick it off my bucket list... but alas... $4k in Economy and something ridiculous in Business really bought me back to earth lol

If 4K in Y is the best you can manage, you're not trying hard enough.

At the moment, you can fly LAX-SJU for around $1000 return, then SJU-SXM return should be about $140 on JetBlue. Then all you need to do is get yourself to LAX, and you're laughing. (BTW, LAX-SJU is in F/J on a YUPP.)

Agree.

You probably wouldn't want to be standing there either if a 747 came in for a landing and then had to go around and ramped up the power... I saw a Top Gear episode where they had a small car behind a 747 and at full power it blew the thing into the air and rolled it several times... Be madness to anywhere close behind one of those as i would imagine with the short runway it would have to go to full power pretty quick....

I looked today and it was only about US$450 return from Miami, but i was thinking about including it on my next OW 140k award booking, so no real cost, just might have to sacrifice another destination... But then how often would you spend that sort of money just to fly to this place for a few days??? So might include it next year...

I don't think SXM is any more expensive than anywhere else in the Caribbean. Maybe we need to declare a SXM lowest fare challenge & see what everyone comes up with? What date should we use?

There's probably enough people out there collectively to warrant an AFF mini 'do' to SXM. Now there's a thought.

 

[haydensydney]

Re: SXM blast riders

There's probably enough people out there collectively to warrant an AFF mini 'do' to SXM. Now there's a thought.

Awesome! I would be in for that! Is anyone else interested?

 

[awilcockson]

Awesome! I would be in for that! Is anyone else interested?

Me. Although I doubt that I could afford it unless I could piggy back it onto a work trip.

 

[TimB]

Re: SXM blast riders

There's probably enough people out there collectively to warrant an AFF mini 'do' to SXM. Now there's a thought.

I'd love to go again, but doubt I'll have the time or money to spare to go again so soon.

However, I'm happy to offer advice and answer any questions people have about SXM and the island generally -- based on my recent experience, not any great expertise, of course.