My First Season

My guest today was a Scuba G.O. in his first season in Club Med Columbus Isle in June of 1997. Please help me welcome, from Calgary, Alberta, Jay Tighe! Jay started to scuba dive at a young age in Indonesia of all places and got certified in Thailand. Fast forward a few years later and Jay was working as a Scuba instructor in Harbour Island, Bahamas where he would meet the odd G.O and they would tell him about working at Club Med. He snuck over to Club Med Eleuthera one day to check it out and found it was for him. Jay worked roughly 10 years in Club Med and has quite the stories to back it up. From Jennifer Lopez getting a private boat on her honeymoon in Columbus in ’97, to six-time NHL Stanley Cup champion Mark Messier buying about $1,500.00 in bar books to treat the G.O.’s on Canada Day, to catching an end zone touchdown from New Orleans Saints & Atlanta Falcons NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert during a game of beach football, to playing hockey with another NHL six-time Stanley Cup champion, Glenn Anderson in Turks, he’s got ‘em all! He even saw the current Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, on the dive boat in Columbus in 2005 on his honeymoon. One of Jay’s other stories from Columbus 1999/2000 (a hilarious story I had completely forgotten about) involves Jay, myself, a beautiful girl from Montreal named Sabrina (that we both liked) and a late-night, fence-scaling mission gone awry (for Jay) coming back from the Riding Rock. You will just have to listen to this entire entertaining episode to find out what happened. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

**My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to.

My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes.

Hey everyone, today is a special day as it’s the one-year anniversary of My First Season! So let me officially welcome you to the second season of My First Season (see what I did there?) I called upon a special person to do a My First Season takeover, the amazing and current Vegas Golden Knights super-fan, Gabrielle Seidenberg! (wife of the Coney Island Striker-she’ll hate that I wrote that). Gaby graciously agreed to interview yours truly, Greg Hannah, (mostly to make fun of him) and I could not be happier with the interview as she is an amazing host! My first season was in Club Med Turks & Caicos on June 4, 1994, as Scuba Gestion. I was working in Westmount, Quebec as an investment banker when a client and EXGO first told me about working at Club Med. Having never been to Club Med or any resort for that matter, I did not understand the stories he was telling me about his former job. I discovered upon my arrival to Turks that judging by the many stories he used to tell me, he was an Animator. I have very vivid memories of my first season in Turks and I recount them here: The amazing “Rhino Records” celebration that we had that summer with the Village People (and others), my late-night arrival, my special encounters with JoJo, my first very confusing Bastille Day, my trauma of being put in the Rocky Horror Picture Show (my first show ever) and so much more. Spoiler alert: though everyone knows I did not like the power walk, water aerobics, or midnight rehearsal (I'm still on the fence about Crazy Signs...), I LOVED everything else! Fair warning, this interview with Gaby and myself goes slightly off the rails at times, but in a good way (I think?). If you are looking to bookend this interview with another episode, then I suggest listening to Gaby’s interview first so you will get an idea of her sense of humour (I spelled humour the Canadian way to irritate her). You can follow My First Season on all the socials (see below). **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to. My First Season is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM and Listen Notes.

**It might be a good idea to listen to Gaby's interview first if you have not yet! (see link below).

https://www.myfirstseason.com/e/my-first-season-gaby/

My very special guest today has a career spanning 25 years as a professional skydiver, BASE jumper and Wingsuit pilot, He is one of the most experienced extreme sports athletes on the planet with over 13,000 jumps combined. His adventures have taken him around the globe with success in all areas including becoming a world champion, a world record holder and representing his native country ​of Australia in both skydiving and BASE jumping in several disciplines. Please help me welcome to the podcast, from Melbourne, Australia now living in Switzerland, Chris “Douggs” McDougall! Through his extreme sports background and expertise in risk management, Chris founded the world's leading BASE jump school Learn to Base Jump, training hundreds of students ​- from beginners to experts. His life has been a series of mind-blowing ups and harrowing downs-life experiences that he brings to his courses.​ Chris McDougall is also an author and motivational speaker. He lives by three words: Dream, Challenge and Inspire-Dare to Dream, Challenge yourself to live out those dreams and then inspire others to do so themselves. Please subscribe to his amazing YouTube channel (with over 38 million views!) and please give him a follow on Instagram (douggsbase) and Facebook. And to check out the book he wrote, please head over to Amazon.com or wherever you buy books. Please enjoy this episode with Chris McDougall. He gives great advice that everyone should hear. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. My First Season is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM and Listen Notes. **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to.

https://www.youtube.com/user/douggsloosedude

https://www.instagram.com/douggsbase/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/ChrisDouggsMcDougall

https://www.douggs.com/?fbclid=IwAR33cRJc182VuFsyK1jcJbmmJgcKx1GKcV5iSisXZGhRCDByNiqNKkNYZTQ

https://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Idiot-Colourful-Tale-Freefall/dp/0620449756/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=confessions+of+an+idiot+chris+mcdougall&qid=1638477999&sr=8-1

My guest today and I have never worked together before, despite having a whopping 80 mutual friends on Facebook. Her first season was in Club Med Sandpiper of March of 2003 in the Mini Club. Originally from Chicago and now living in Atlanta, please help me welcome to MFS, Susan “Suzie” Dunford Dell! Suzie’s introduction to Club Med came via her mother, who was a travel agent, and Suzie went to her first Club Med at 5 years old. During her first week at Sandpiper, she saw onstage the man she was going to marry (yes, it was Boone!) and they were even in the married couple skit of the Tennis Cabaret. Suzie said that it was Boone’s sense of humour that drew her to him, but I jokingly suggest a theory to Suzie that the Waterski Show number called “The Brouette” might have played a small part. Suzie also has a family business called “Oak and Park”, which makes all kinds of arm bags: mesh, clear, and XGO arm bags to name just a few. Her arm bags can be currently found in the first Club Med to open in Canada, the beautiful resort of Club Med Québec-Charlevoix! So if you are in the Club Med resorts of Sandpiper, Turks and Caicos or Charlevoix, please stop in and buy some! You can also visit her website and please give them a follow on Instagram (please see below for links). Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to.

https://oakandpark.com/

https://www.instagram.com/oakandpark/?hl=en

https://www.facebook.com/OakandPark

https://www.tiktok.com/@oakandpark

This is part three in the series, “Amazing Women Doing Amazing Things”. My guest today is a pop-culture geek with seventeen years in the travel industry as a Travel Consultant and Tour Director. She is the owner and operator of "The Geek Travel Agent". From Ottawa, Canada, please help me welcome, Erin Novodvorsky! Erin shares with us at what age she got bit by the travel bug and how she got the idea to be a geek travel agent. Erin runs tours for TV shows and movies like Game of Thrones, Lord of The Rings, K-Pop/K-Dramas on Netflix, Anime tours to Japan (Studio Ghibli) and the TV show “Outlander” on the Starz network (and oh boy, does Greg have thoughts on Outlander!!). If you want to hear me rant and rave about “Outlander” while Erin tries to talk me down, then this episode is for you! Though we may differ slightly on Outlander, we do agree on "Gilmore girls"! Erin shares a Hurricane Dorian story from 2019 that involved a nine-day trip to the East coast of Canada and a busload of tourists. She also attended Ottawa Comic Con on November 19 2021 and let’s us know what it’s like attending a Comic Con from the vendor side (no Sailor Moons?!). Please check out Erin’s website below and give her a follow on Instagram and check out her Facebook! Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://thegeektravelagent.wordpress.com/

https://www.instagram.com/geektravelagent/

https://www.facebook.com/GeekTravelAgent

My guest today was a Nurse G.O. in her first season in Club Med Sandpiper in May of 1997. She is from Connecticut, so please give a warm welcome to, Kendra Welch! As a nurse in Club Med, you can imagine they have seen it all and must have great stories to tell and Kendra does not disappoint! Kendra and a friend went to Club Med Cancun on vacation as G.M.s and it was there that she decided to apply to Club Med to be a nurse. Why? She got bit by something in the water while snorkeling in Cancun that required 10 stitches. They took her to see the nurse and she didn’t know at that point that Club Med resorts had nurses (light bulb moment). When she showed up for her interview with Club Med, she was told she’d have to showcase a talent. Kendra’s talent involved a bowl of mints and that is all I will say so I don’t spoil the story! The stories don’t stop there either. Kendra has so many stories over so many seasons that it would be tough to list them all here so I will try to economize: She recounts a story about a G.M that did an excursion to the Cancun waterpark, Wet’n Wild, that definitely was wet and wild for this guest. Another story involves a German G.M that got stung by a stingray in Cancun and this story has such an unusual ending that you just have to listen to the entire episode. Another story involves Kendra and a tarantula in Punta Cana and no, it wasn’t her pet! Please enjoy this episode with Kendra and listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeart Radio, Player FM & Listen Notes.

My guest today was an Excursion G.O. in his first season in Club Med Rio Das Pedras, Brazil in February of 1998. I knew him as a Sailing G.O in Club Med Paradise Island during the Winter 2002/2003 season where we met. He was working in a travel agency in Rio de Janeiro when he applied to Club Med. He actually had his interview with the South American president of Club Med! (no pressure, right?). He first learned to sail with an uncle who had a 45-foot yacht and he also learned how to surf in Brazil. Everyone, please help me welcome to MFS, Phillipe! I am pretty sure Phillipe is the only G.O to ever choose to bike ride to the village instead of taking the bus. The difference? The resort was a 6-hour bike ride away! Phillipe takes us through his first season in Rio Das Pedras, as well as the season we met in Paradise Island. During the interview, I bring up the song by Coldplay that Phillipe played incessantly in the sailing shack during that winter season that drove me crazy! The happy ending to this story is now that when I hear that song, it brings back only good memories of our time on Paradise island. Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

My guest today and I worked together during the Winter 1994/1995 season in St. Lucia. She was right out of high school when she started her first season in Club Med Huatulco in October of 1988 as an au pair Hostess G.O. From Mexico City and now living in Norway (we get into that!), please help me welcome to the podcast, Diana! Diana spent roughly 17 years in Club Med and she has many amazing stories to tell during this interview. I told Diana the impression she made on me in my second season in St. Lucia, as I had a very distinct and long-lasting memory of her that involved windsurfing. Diana worked in many of the resorts in the American Zone but also in Tunisia, Turkey, Israel and Switzerland to name but a few. She shares a story from Punta Cana involving the cover of night, a shipwreck, “borrowed” kayaks and a bottle of Dominican Brugal rum. Also discovered in this interview: she speaks seven languages, had a pet tarantula in Huatulco named Lencha, her most memorable CDV and the fact that she knows how to make Viking beer. Trust me, stay to the end of the podcast because you will be fascinated by Diana’s story! Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts. Below is the link where Diana has been working, which we talk about at the end of the episode.

https://www.lofotr.no/en/

My guest and I worked together in Club Med Paradise Island in the 2002/2003 season, but his first season was in Club Med Itaparica, Brazil in Winter of 2000, where he was a Tennis G.O. Prior to joining Club Med, he had never played tennis before in his life (huh?!). Everyone, please help me welcome from Brazil and now living in California, Renato! You see, Renato was a ranked professional Squash player in Brazil. He started playing at 9 years old and by the time he was a teenager, he was the South American and PanAmerican champion and was #10 in the world. Renato lived close to the resort of Itaparica and would visit many times a year as a G.M. The manager of the resort at the time thought tennis and squash were the same as it involved a ball and racquet, and offered Renato a job as a Tennis G.O. Renato left college to join Club Med, but after he stopped working for Club Med, he went back to finish his degree in Business Administration and is now two months away from obtaining his MBA. Below is the link to the “I Want it That Way” Backstreet Boys number we did in Paradise Island that I mentioned during this episode. And again, apologies for the SD quality. The video was HD when I uploaded it 14 years ago (Renato is in the middle in the Kangol hat and Peter Anthony is immediately to his right in the yellow shirt). Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S07ZddsXQY8

This is part two in the series of "Amazing Women Doing Amazing Things". My guest today got 1^st place in the 2021 Almaty World Cup in freestyle aerial skiing, qualifying her to represent Canada in the Beijing Winter Olympics in February of 2022! Everyone, please help me welcome, Beijing Winter Olympics-bound, Marion Thénault! Marion is from Sherbrooke, Quebec and while she was and is on the freestyle skiing World Cup circuit in Aerial, Marion is also an Aerospace Engineering student (BEng) at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec in the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science. In 2017, at age 17, she discovered her talent in freestyle aerial skiing and then was invited to join the Canadian National Team in 2020. During this episode, we will talk about her start in gymnastics and trampoline, which led to aerial skiing and we will talk about her first season on the World Cup tour. Below are links to Marion’s gold medal-winning jump in Almaty, Khazakhstan and the link to her Instagram (please give her a follow!) Good luck in Beijing, Marion!! Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OhtWlUYlXM

https://www.instagram.com/marionthenault/

UPDATE: Marion won a Bronze medal in the Mixed Team Aerials-Freestyle Skiing!