Workshop Fireside Chatters
We are working with the presenters on the sessions topics. We'll post biographies, contact information, and photos here as they are made available.
Join Woody Jasper, Wes Skiles, Jill Heinerth, Forrest Wilson, Gene Melton, Paul Heinerth, Larry Green, Bill Fehring, Hal Watts, Bill Oigarden, John Jones, and who knows whom else at the Jackson County Citizens' Lodge for a traditional picnic with Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, and lots of stories. $5 cover, and open to the public.
Bill Fehring
Bill Fehring was originally certified as a SCUBA diver in 1965 and became involved in cave diving around 1977. His initial diving was done with Jay Friend, Will Walters, and Bob Gomez in the Tampa area. He was certified as a Cavern Diver by Sheck Exley in 1978, and was certified by Sheck as one of the earlier NSS-CDS Cave Divers in 1982. Bill negotiated the original agreement for a cave diving guide program at Diepolders with the Boy Scouts of America after the property was conveyed by the prior owners. He applied for and received the research permit that allowed the exploration of Sheppard Spring in the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge. He and his wife, Sandy, participated in a number of the earliest explorations of a number of caves at the east end of Grand Bahama Island and on Abaco Island with Gene Melton, Dennis Williams, and Jill Yager, including Dan's Cave on Abaco. Bill and Sandy also participated in the first major exploration of Giant Cave in Belize with Paul and Shannon Heinerth, Sheck Exley, and Mary Ellen Eckoff. Bill served as a member of the NSS-CDS Board of Directors during the mid-1980s and also served as Chairman of the NSS-CDS. He maintains a keen interest in underwater photography, and continues to pilot his own plane to various locations in the Bahamas. He works as a Vice-President and Senior Project Manager for URS Corporation, and is responsible for environmental studies of major transportation projects around the world including the new Hong Kong Airport, the expansion of the San Francisco Airport, and major new port facilities in Houston and Charleston.
Larry Green
Larry Green is one of the most active cave and technical diving instructors in the industry. With real-world exploration experience, he is one of the few individuals who uses his far-reaching background as a basis for educating others.
From 1989 through 1991, Larry was involved in a pioneering survey project to map and explore the extents of Eagle's Nest Cave System. Using trimix, the Eagle's Nest Project brought together elite divers who were willing to serve as experimental participants in the dawn of technical diving. During this project, Larry also trained to become a certified Hyperbaric Chamber Operator and the team conducted the first civilian Doppler studies in an effort to validate and adjust early mixed gas decompression tables developed by Dr. Bill Hamilton. Through his consulting work with Carmellon Research Marine Laboratory, in 1991, Larry became one of the first cave divers to use a closed circuit rebreather in Eagle's Nest Cave System. His work in the "Eagle's Nest Project" earned him the "Bill McFadden Award" in cartography.
In 1997, as the first instructor for the Cis-Lunar MK5 rebreather, Larry was the original pilot for Bill Stone's Digital Mapper in Wakulla Springs, which secured the data for permits for the 1998 Wakulla 2 Project.
Larry is the Vice Chairman / Guide for the Florida Speleological Researchers, which controls access to the Diepolder Cave Systems located in Hernando County, Florida. He also serves as a guide at Indian Springs Cave in North Florida.
Larry has joined the Training Department of Scuba Diving International / Technical Diving International (SDI / TDI) as a Senior Instructor Evaluator and Training Director for Cave & Cavern Programs. He has final authority in the development of standards & procedures in cave and cavern programs for both instructors and divers. He also acts as a liaison with local, state and national authorities on issues related to cave training, including public access and other land use.
Larry sits on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Cave Diving (NACD). He is the current NACD Training Director, as well as an active cave instructor and the 2001 & 2002 recipient of the prestigious Paul Meng Award (most active instructor). The NACD is a not-for-profit Florida Corporation, founded in 1968, making it the oldest cave diving organization in the world.
Not only does Larry promote and encourage safety in all types of diving, but he is also active in educating divers on the conservation of the environment and the natural ecosystems related to it.
Larry is an active cave instructor with the National Speleological Society - Cave Diving Section (NSS-CDS) and a former Training Committee member. The NSS-CDS is a non-profit educational and scientific organization specifically dedicated to the conservation, study, and safe exploration of underwater caves.
Larry Green is the Assistant Director of the IUCRR (International Underwater Cave Rescue / Recovery) as well as the Regional Coordinator for Florida. The mission of the IUCRR is to support all Public Safety Agencies in the rescue and/or recovery of victims in an underwater environment with overhead. As the Regional Coordinator, Larry's responsibility is to maintain a current list of qualified divers in different areas of Florida. Larry participates and organizes IUCRR divers to assist law enforcement agencies with the rescue / recovery of divers who have entered an overhead environment, and not returned within their allotted time. His responsibility also entails conducting annual training programs and seminars.
He continues to strive to make the sport a safer activity through lectures, community awareness and agency-sponsored events.
Eagles Nest Technical Divers
High Springs, FL
386-497-3494
TecDivers Website
Larry's
Email
Jill Heinerth
Jill is also presenting at the Workshop, so please see her bio on the Presenters page.
Paul Heinerth
Paul started cave diving in 1971. In 1977, he became an open water instructor as a full time job and taught his first cave class two years later. During those years, he joined a small diving school, Scuba West, which he owned for nearly 30 years.
Several achievements, expeditions and discoveries led Paul to be renowned in the scuba diving world. His first discovery was in 1973, a cave today known as a major system in Florida: Twin Dee's. In 1979, he found the Giant Cave in Belize for which the Explore Club sanctioned an expedition in 1982 with Sheck Exley as his co-leader. He also participated in both Wakulla projects led by Dr. Bill Stone as an exploration diver and a surveyor. Spending time on several expeditions in Mexico to explore and map the Dos Ojos system, he discovered the Pit's deep section in the late 90's. His latest diving deed is the 407 feet deep dive at Weeki Wachee Springs in July of 2007.
His degree in journalism from the University of Florida helped Paul participate in several documentary productions, including two for the National Geographic magazine. Recently, he worked on several Hollywood productions.
Beside caves, Paul has shown some interest in wreck diving. In 1990, he was part of an expedition on the Empress of Ireland and in 2003 he successfully dived the OCEANOS. The latter being a rewarding experience because it was the first expedition to penetrate and film this wreck lying in the Indian ocean's tumultuous waters off South Africa's wild coast.
Paul has presented numerous times over the years with both the NACD and the NSSCDS cave diving conferences in Florida as well as giving talks in Canada, England, France and Mexico. He has written articles and chapters in cave diving books. He has been featured in several articles and books.
He has just sold the Scuba West dive store, in Hudson, Florida. Paul is staying very busy teaching at all levels of instruction. His current schedule seems to rotate between cave diving instructions, rebreather classes and guiding.
16030 Frost Drive Hudson, FL 34667
727-858-4286
Paul's
Email
Woody Jasper
Rescue 911 episode from "The early '90s" in which Woody rescues two open water divers lost in a cave! The first half of the episode and The second half of the episode
23534 NW 196th Terrace
High Springs, FL 32643-9804
Woody's
Email
John Jones
John is the current NSS-CDS training chairman. He trains CCR, Cave Diving, Nitrox, Gas Blending, Trimix, Open water sccuba, Technical Diving and he does Instructor training for IANTD, NSSCDS, TDI and PADI. John Jones is an avid cave diver who can be found most weekends in one of North Florida's beautiful underwater caves whether he is teaching or simply diving for the fun of it. He believes that the instructor student relationship does not end with the class and consequently many of his fun dives are in the company of former students.
Gene Melton
From designing electrical systems for manned deep water submarines to being responsible for the design of ships and remote controlled submarines to designing the Explorer dive computer, Gene Melton has been at the forefront of diving and underwater technology for many years. Not only that, he's found time to work on some of the earliest NiCad batteries, Space Shuttle ground support facilities, and the Superconducting Super Collider. Gene recently completed a term as the chairman of the NSS-CDS, and is currently a Program Director. He is a certified Dive Medical Technician, EMT, Flight Instructor, Submersible Pilot, and diving instructor with NAUI, YMCA, IANTD, and, of course, NSS-CDS.
HydroSpace Engineering, Inc.
6920 Cypress Lake Ct.
St. Augustine, FL 32086
HydroSpace
Engineering
Gene's Email
Bill Oigarden
Bill grew up on the water. He learned to swim off the back of a sailboat in Long Island Sound. In 1968 Bill had the chance to dive off of Islamorada using a Johnson Air Buoy. He was overwhelmed with the beauty of the ocean and excited by the exploration involved in finding the best reef to dive on. When he moved to Florida he decided three things: he would get a boat and sail to the Bahamas, he would learn to fly a plane, and he wanted to go the Keys to learn to dive. In 1972 Bill walked into Hal Watts dive shop in Orlando and since Bill was not 16 yet he had to settle on snorkeling for a bit. In 1974 Bill earned his diving certification and by the end of the year had made over 100 dives including more than 50 cave and deep dives, and yes Bill made it to Cay Sal, Bahamas. Throughout the 70's Bill was fortunate enough to have been in the right place at the right time. Organized cave diving was only a few years old and Bill got to dive with, and be mentored by, many of the original cave diving explorers and educators. Bill completed his cave diver training with Rory Dickens, David Cameron, Dale Malloy, and Barry Kerley and became NACD instructor #36. Bill was also one of the original NSS-CDS cave diving instructors and like so many others worked and lived at Ginnie Springs. Today Bill dives with the WKPP, his wife Karen, and many friends that he has known for over 30 years. Bill is an IANTD instructor and still holds a valid Captain's License. Bill is willing to share all (well most) of his stories of the early days of organized cave diver training and exploration.
Today Bill is a doctoral candidate and later this year will earn a PhD in Counseling. Bill's research interests include: novelty seeking, sensation seeking, risk-taking behaviors, and personality development. Bill is a psychotherapist specializing in individual, couple, and family counseling.
321-331-7313
Bill's
Email
www.oigarden.com
Forrest Wilson
Forrest Wilson majored in Physics and minored in computer science at Loyola University. Forrest currently serves as the Head of technology for a school system science center in Atlanta, GA. Forrest first began caving and scuba diving in the late 1950s, and then went on to combine these two passions when he took up cave diving in 1969. Forrest is best known as an early cave diving gear manufacturer and the designer of many pieces of gear used today, most notably the Wilson Line Arrow. Forrest served the Cave Diving Section of the NSS as first NSS-CDS Training Director/Chairman, and currently holds the position of vice-chairman. Over the years Forrest has been actively cave diving in nearly a dozen states, and several countries. Forrest is responsible for the initial exploration and surveying of sumps in 5 different states.
2832 Concord Drive Decatur, GA 30033
404-292-5613
Forrest's
Email
