Mike Coltman

My guest’s name is frequently brought up on this podcast when I ask them which CDV they enjoyed working with, so I am very happy he agreed to share the first part of his story with us. Why just the first part? Well, he worked for Club Med from 1967 to 1999 and spent twenty of those years as a Legendary Chief of Village! His first season was in 1967 in Club Med Caprera in Sardinia, Italy as a Scuba G.O. Everyone, please help me welcome the amazing, Mike Coltman!! I hope you are sitting comfortably because Mike came with some stories!! It’s impossible to take a distinguished career like Mike’s and condense it to one hour, so Mike will be back at a later date to talk about his Chief of Village years. Before Club Med, a leg injury curtailed his burgeoning football career, so he went into the Merchant Navy as an Engineer Officer. But a chance viewing of “Thunderball” in 1965 starring Sean Connery as James Bond and being entranced by the underwater scenes, led Mike to scuba diving. Twelve months later from that viewing, Mike was a certified Scuba Instructor. What’s included in this interview? Well, if you worked in Martinique as I did, you probably wondered where those cannons came from. Wonder no more, because Mike helped in raising those cannons to the surface from the Diamond Rock dive site!! He tells the amazing tale of how they found the cannons and the incredible amount of work it took to raise them. Mike also opened the village of Club Med Fort Royal in Guadeloupe in 1969/1970 and lets us know in vivid detail what that was like. So many stories in one hour, too numerous to mention here! Mike also worked with a lot of the legendary Chief of Villages back in the day, so if you are a Club Med historian, you will love this episode! **My First Season podcast has always been ad-free and 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.