Steve McClaine

My guest today and I have never met or worked together before, but we do have a “Quebec” connection that we will talk about in this interview. His first season was in Club Med Martinique in May of 1987 as a Waterski G.O. From Napa Valley, please help me welcome to the podcast, Steve McClaine!! Before Club Med, Steve attended the University of California (Berkeley) and obtained a Political Economy degree. He did not want to start using his degree just yet, so he taught skiing at Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Tahoe. One of the ski instructors mentioned Club Med to him and Steve took it from there. Steve also worked in the Club Med villages of Copper Mountain (April 1987-88) and Cancun as a Waterski G.O. in 1988. Steve tells an amazing story about a pre-college basketball player, who later helped win a fifth Championship for the NBA Chicago bulls in 1997. This story is incredible, so I will not spoil it here with more details, you’ll just have to listen! Another amazing story is one Steve thought wasn’t that interesting or even merit as a “fun fact” that I ask guests to provide for their interview. While he was at Berkeley, Steve played trumpet and percussion for the University of California Marching Band. In March of 1983, Queen Elizabeth (RIP) and Prince Philippe came to San Francisco aboard the royal yacht Britannia to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, in a ten-day trip across the state of California. Steve, as part of the Berkeley marching band, performed for the Queen with the San Francisco Ballet at the Louis M. Davies Symphony Hall as part of a San Francisco/Americana-type show. Because the Queen enjoyed the show so much, they were invited back the next day to the pier where the Britannia was docked and the Queen watched the show from the balcony. Steve didn’t think this was a fun fact! We cover quite a lot in this interview and how different Club Med was back then in the 1980’s. Steve ends the interview by telling us the three things he misses the most about Club Med. Please enjoy! **My First Season podcast has always been free to listen to and is available on: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Samsung Podcasts, Podbean App, Spotify, Amazon Music/Audible, TuneIn + Alexa, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, Pandora and Listen Notes. And if you like what you hear, please leave a review at Apple podcasts.