Good Cavern Instructors?

[scblade27]

Does anyone know if any good cavern instructors in the Orlando area they could recommend? I would prefer to do a course on the weekend as I work all week. While I do understand the DIR mentality I would also prefer not to go that route as I do not think i will continue to full on cave diving. I would really appreciate anyone sharing their good or bad experiences. I assume I would have to travel north to Ginne, which i wouldnt mind for a weekend thing. Thanks!

 

[VooDooGasMan]

look in the cave section, there is tdi, iantd, instructors around your area with alot of years of wisdom.

 

[scblade27]

ok, thanks. I didnt know where the appropriate place to post was.

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

I don't know the Orlando area but here in Lakeland (less than an hour from Orlando) Steve Forman at Scuba, Etc (863-687-2822) would be a good choice. In the Tampa area I would recommend Bert Wilcher at Tampa Adventure Sports (Tampa Adventure Sports). The distance from you is probably not a big deal as you will need to drive north to the springs for training anyway. Going the other direction, you could consider Tracie Grubbs over in the Daytona Area. I don't have his contact info but you can get it on the NACD (National Association for Cave Diving) website at National Association For Cave Diving. Best of luck.

 

[scblade27]

Thanks very much. I will check those out.

 

[fldiver1]

Tom Johnson of Dayo Scuba is a VERY good instructor. He can do anything from open water to Cave to ??? Anything you are looking to do, Tom is the man. He is in Orlando and can work a training schedule according to what you need. Just look up Day Scuba website or if you need, pm me and I will give you his call number.

 

[InkDiver]

I highly recommend Rick Murcar, GDI here on SB. I'll be doing my Intro to Cave with him in April, and he has been great communicating with me via phone and email, getting me ready. He is a wealth of knowledge, and widely respected by everyone I've talked to. He is also the VP of the NACD.

You can PM him.

Here's the link to his profile: ScubaBoard - View Profile: GDI

 

[CBulla]

Ink, ya beat me to it! Yes, Rick! I've met and 'same day same ocean' dived with him at VB (seperate buddies) a few times, he's a great guy who really paid attention to his buddy who was doing check outs at the time. A few mods have used him for training as well. Talk to Mania about her experience

 

[scubafool]

I can reccomend GDI, as a student of his. I can also reccomend Johnny Richards, as I took my cavern class with him. Johnny is located in the Ginnie Springs area. I personally know Rich Courtney, and though I have never taken a class from him, I really like his serious, but still there to have fun, approach to cave diving. I could dig up their websites if you are interested.

 

[scblade27]

Wow, thank you all very much for your responses. I think I will check out several instructors and see which is most conducive to our personality/learning style. This gives me a great place to start asking questions to the different instructors.