Anyone had one of the instructors at Ginnie Springs?

[KidK9]

Hey all, I was down at Ginnie Springs last weekend just to do some open water dives with my girlfriend. Now I want to do the Cavern/Intro to Cave class and am willing to go down for a week or weekend to get it done. Has anyone here been trained by any of those intructors? Any recommendations? I'm considering paying the extra amount to get the private lesson so that I am drilled and belittled until I get my skills down pat.

 

[The Fresh Prince]

You could ask Rose Meadows. She has trained two of my mates and is extremely competent. Johnny Richards did my DPV class and teaches there also. Great instructor.

 

[Diver Lori]

Rose, period.

 

[s7595]

they have good instructors . one of them taught "tiger woods "
the 100,000,000 pro golfer

 

[Diver Lori]

Tiger's instructor was Herb Sugden who has his own business and also takes referrals from Cave Excursions. Herb is not an employee of Ginnie Springs Outdoors.

 

[kuster500]

I just finished my cavern/Intro with Johnny Richards at Ginnie. He was a great instructor! I learned a lot about cave diving as well as improving my over all diving. He would be my recommendation.

 

[FloridaCaveDiver]

Hey all, I was down at Ginnie Springs last weekend just to do some open water dives with my girlfriend. Now I want to do the Cavern/Intro to Cave class and am willing to go down for a week or weekend to get it done. Has anyone here been trained by any of those instructors? Any recommendations? I'm considering paying the extra amount to get the private lesson so that I am drilled and belittled until I get my skills down pat.

Yes, I do have someone to recommend. I highly recommend Johnny Richards. Information about his training is available at www.CaveDiving.com. I took all my overhead training, Cavern through Full Cave, from Johnny.

I intend to take my DPV training from him in the future as well.

And I have a suggestion in my humble opinion regarding your training....

SUGGESTION #1:

I took my training in three separate steps.... First I did Cavern training. I did around 20 "cavern dives" at this level and then went to the "Intro" Level. I took my Intro training 3 months or so after the Cavern training. At the Intro Level I did approximately 20 cave dives before moving on to do my "Apprentice & Full Cave" training (both back to back) 5 months later.

I found the experience BETWEEN the classes invaluable. The time between training gives you the time and experience to become more comfortable with the environment and tighten up those skills that must be PERFECT come Full Cave training.
Not to mention going from Cavern to Full Cave at once would be plain EXHAUSTING. Also, be VERY VERY comfortable diving with double tanks before going past Intro.

I would not suggest doing more than Cavern and Intro together... take a break before going for Full Cave.

SUGGESTION #2:

Do not take a private class. I know this might sound stupid at first but think of it from this perspective. If it is a PRIVATE class it means your instructor must be a PARTICIPANT in the dive team on each dive. It doesn't give him/her the ability to "drop back" and observe things from a 3rd party perspective. He/She would have to be DIRECTLY involved in the air share and other drills...

You will want at least ONE other person in your class. I did Cavern training with one other student, my Intro training with one other student and Apprentice/Full with two other students.... and I am VERY glad that I did...

And I promise you this, have no fear about not getting drilled hard... it will happen REGARDLESS of how many are in the class. Especially at Apprentice/Full levels. During our Apprentice/Full Cave training the two other students in the class and I started to refer to Johnny Richards as the "Cave Ghost" because he would disappear (not sure where) and reappear (also not sure where) at the most "inconvenient" times to shut off your lights from behind and cause other "special" events to take place..... :11: - He really is a great instructor and I hope you give him your consideration when selecting someone to do your training.

So for whatever it is worth, my two cents worth, hope it was somewhat helpful.

Brett

 

[kuster500]

At least we agree on one thing, the instructor. Johnny is a great teacher, however, I disagree with some of your suggestions and here is why.

I think cavern and intro should be combined, your final goal is to cave dive, so why not get the intro cave cert so you can try it out. I do agree with the break. I just finished my cavern/intro, and I would not feel comfortable going for apprentice. I personally don't like to limit myself with numbers, but I figure I spent the money for the training, I want to go have fun with it before I progress further.

As far as individual classes go, they are nice in my opinion (take that for what its worth) because the instructor is doing the skills with you and can tell if you are doing something wrong a lot easier than otherwise would be able to. If you have the money and the option, I would take the independent classes. I have done five classes with Johnny now, and they were all independent, and I belive this benifited me greatly.

I'm curious as to what other people think.

The main thing for you is to get down there and do it. It was so much fun, and was worth every penny of the training. I can't wait to go back!

 

[JDostal]

I had Reggie Ross from Ginnie for my Cavern/Intro. He was amazing. A great instructor - very strict about doing things properly, but not a jerk about it. He gave quality, constructive criticism when you blew something. Then he made you do it until you got it right (or ran out of time and failed the class...).

He also loved talking about cave diving - we got to hear a ton of great stories from him.

I'm looking forward to doing apprentice/full with him this winter.

 

[Robinhood]

At least we agree on one thing, the instructor. Johnny is a great teacher, however, I disagree with some of your suggestions and here is why.

I think cavern and intro should be combined, your final goal is to cave dive, so why not get the intro cave cert so you can try it out. I do agree with the break. I just finished my cavern/intro, and I would not feel comfortable going for apprentice. I personally don't like to limit myself with numbers, but I figure I spent the money for the training, I want to go have fun with it before I progress further.

As far as individual classes go, they are nice in my opinion (take that for what its worth) because the instructor is doing the skills with you and can tell if you are doing something wrong a lot easier than otherwise would be able to. If you have the money and the option, I would take the independent classes. I have done five classes with Johnny now, and they were all independent, and I belive this benifited me greatly.

I'm curious as to what other people think.

The main thing for you is to get down there and do it. It was so much fun, and was worth every penny of the training. I can't wait to go back!

I have to disagree with your reasons why to take a private class. The max an instructor can take into a cave is 3. Believe me, they can see everything you are doing right and doing wrong. They do not have to be involved with the skill to notice these things. I think its beneficial to have your buddy be at the same level of training as yourself. I took cavern with Johnny and agree with what everyone is saying about him. He is a great instructor and will ensure you get the skills down. I think, though, that mistakes will happen naturally when working with another novice cave/cavern diver. Johnny will insert mistakes to make you think and react, but taking the class with other people will allow the mistakes to be a bit more 'realistic' because they are occuring naturally. I'm primarily referring to skills such as lights out-air sharing-touch contact.

At any rate just my .02.