Workshop Presenters
We are working with the presenters on the sessions topics. We'll post biographies, contact information, and photos here as they are made available.
Ken Anderson, RN
Ken has been scuba diving since 1966. Back then, when you bought your tank and regulator, you didn't need to be certified. The owner simply told him, "breathe normally and don't hold your breath". Living in Michigan, almost all Ken's diving was in the Great Lakes. In 1996 he became a NAUI instructor, and his interest in underwater caves began. Through the NACD and NSS-CDS, his training progressed through full cave diver. In 2005 Ken and his wife Jayne moved from Michigan to North Florida - he was too old to shovel snow anymore and he needed to move closer to the Florida springs.
Ken is a Registered Nurse working primarily in the critical care field and emergency room setting since 1981. He has an acute interest in hyperbaric medicine, and in the education of fellow divers about health and safety issues in diving.
P.O. Box 66 Branford, FL 32008
386-935-0369
Ken's Email
Jeff Bozanic
Jeff was certified as a NAUI Instructor in 1978, and is currently certified to teach diving for the NSS-CDS, NACD, IANTD, and NAUI. He is active in teaching cave diving, rebreather, nitrox, technical nitrox, and trimix diving courses. He has published extensively on diving education topics, with heavy emphasis on cave diving safety techniques. He has edited/reviewed many diving textbooks, and is the author of Mastering Rebreathers. Since 1994 he's been maintaining the joint accident analysis files for the cave diving community (NACD, NSS-CDS, and IUCRR). He has served on several Boards of Directors in the diving community, including as Chairman of the NSS-CDS, as Vice Chairman of NAUI, and as Treasurer on the AAUS Board. He has received the NAUI Outstanding and Continuing Service Awards; the Silver Wakulla, Abe Davis, Henry Nicholson, and International Cave Diving Awards for safe cave diving; the SSI Platinum Pro 5000 Award, and is a NAUI Hall of Honor inductee. In 2007 he was honored as the DAN/Rolex Diver of the Year.
P.O. Box 3448
Huntington Beach, CA 92605-3448
(714) 775-4462
Jeff's
Email
David Doolette, Ph.D.
Dr David Doolette began diving in 1979 and began cave diving in Australia in 1984. He is a member of the Cave Diving Association of Australia and a foundation member of the Australian Speleological Federation Cave Diving Group. After completing his B.Sc. he prolonged his adolescence working as a full time a dive instructor and developed his interest in decompression physiology, later returning to academia to complete his Ph.D. Since 1996 he has conducted full time research into decompression physiology, publishing widely in the peer reviewed scientific literature. Since 2005 he has been a Research Physiologist at the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit responsible for development and testing of decompression procedures. He has been a member of the Undersea Hyperbaric Medical Society since 1987 and received their 2003 Oceaneering International Award for contribution to commercial diving safety. He has been a member of the South Pacific Underwater Medicine since 1990 where he was the Education Officer for five years.
John Faircloth
John Faircloth was born and again lives in Cuthbert, a small town in Southwest Georgia. John started diving in 1974, and he currently serves on the NSS-CDS Training Committee. He is an NSS-CDS Cave Instructor, and he also teaches CCR Cave, Sidemount, Deep Cave, DPV, Stage, Overhead Nitrox, and he is a Sponsor for the CDS. He is also a IANTD Instructor Trainer at the Technical Cave level and a IANTD Trimix and CCR Cave Instructor and a PADI and DAN Instructor.
John is retired from the Georgia Department of Corrections after spending 31 years in law enforcement. He served in several different areas of law enforcement including Homicide, Vise and Robbery Investigator, and Chief Deputy Sheriff before moving to Corrections. In Corrections he was an Investigator, Director of Investigators, Deputy Warden, Warden, Facility Inspector, Assistant Director Of Inspections and Assistant State Supervisor.
Jill Heinerth
Jill Heinerth is an explorer. Consistently searching for what lies just beyond view, her curiosity and photographic skills give us a tantalizing peek at a breathtaking world few will ever experience.
Best known as a pioneering technical diver, Jill combines a mastery of underwater technology with a formal Fine Arts education to produce artistic documentation of the natural environment above, below and inside our beautifully fragile planet.
An award-winning filmmaker, Jill wrote, produced, and appeared in "Water's Journey", the PBS documentary project that takes viewers on visceral travels through the world's greatest water systems. These programs have found a home in many educational systems, giving young people access to adventure entertainment, while raising their awareness of the need to protect water resources.
Hollywood directors call on Jill Heinerth to create and film difficult underwater scenes, earning her technical director and underwater unit coordinator credits.
Bringing technology to extreme underwater environments, Jill contributes writing and photography to international magazines and websites, including National Geographic, Smithsonian, and dozens of diving publications.
Jill is a reasonable voice in the world of conservation, and is often sought out for insightful commentary and opinions by the press and other institutions. She is also a recognized expert legal witness in matters involving SCUBA and Closed Circuit Rebreather technology.
Jill's many diving accomplishments are highlighted by an Antarctic cave diving expedition inside the largest iceberg known to man, (the National Geographic film documentary "Ice Island"), and significant contributions to the Wakulla 2 project, using paradigm-changing technology to map an underwater cave system in three dimensions. At Wakulla, secondary to a scientific mission, Jill established a women's diving world record,
Some of Jill's numerous professional diving, photographic and filmmaking awards:
- Sport Diving Magazine: Named A Living Legend
- Women Diver's Hall of Fame: Inaugural Inductee
- Explorer's Club Film Festival: Best Documentary
- Canadian Technical Diver of the Year
- Cine Golden Eagle (2)
- Gold Aurora Award
- Fellow: National Speleological Society
- International HD Film Fest: Best Documentary
Jill Heinerth holds various SCUBA, Cave Diving, and Closed Circuit Rebreather instructor credentials. An Adobe Photoshop expert, she also teaches Underwater Digital Photography workshops and classes.
A former Toronto ad agency owner, Jill takes on limited advertising clients, applying her distinct skill set to each application.
A popular public speaker, Jill gives entertaining and informative multi-media presentations to groups, clubs and organizations on a wide range of subjects including exploration, motivation and actualization, conservation, risk management, and filmmaking.
Born in Canada, Jill lives with her husband Robert, in North Florida, where she starts most days with a refreshing swim in the clear water of her local spring.
Heinerth Productions Inc. 5989 NE County
Road 340
High Springs, FL 32643
386-454-4497
Into The Planet
Jill's
Email
Brett Hemphill, Master of Ceremonies
Brett Hemphill has been married over 13 years and is the father of 4 children. He currently resides in Zephyrhills, Florida and is the general manager for a high-rise building services company. Brett has been cave diving since 1990 and has assisted with exploration in underwater caves in Florida, Missouri, Bahamas, and Mexico during much of that time.
During the early nineties, many cave divers believed virgin cave exploration was all but a thing of the past in Florida. Using redundant no-mount and side-mount techniques Brett began to probe and explore every small spring hole within a fifty mile radius of his home in Zephyrhills. After assisting in the discovery of four significant underwater caves within one hour of his residence, Brett began to realize small openings don't particularly mean small caves.
Side mount soon became his weapon of choice. After using pre-existing designs from long time side-mount divers such as Woody Jasper, Wes Skiles, Lamar Hires, and Mark Long, he designed a very holistic side mount configuration named the Armadillo. During this period, Brett began to shoot and produce short under water cave documentaries which included the National Association of Cave Diving's the Need for Training. In the mid to late nineties, Brett joined several teams in the exploration of multiple underwater cave systems consisting of some of longest and largest underwater caves in Florida.
While clear blue visibility beckoned most cave divers, Brett's only desire was visibility good enough to see and read the cave that was directly in front of him. Although many discoveries have come in the form of new cave systems, some very intriguing finds have been made in systems, previously to be believed completely explored.
In 2004, Brett joined Karst Underwater Research (KUR) in order to assist with the further exploration of the Twin D's cave system in central Florida. As severe drought continued, diving activity at Twin D's halted and KUR began to turn their interest toward topography spring research and reconnaissance in the Chassahowitzka reserve, Weeki Wachee reserve and the Green Swamp. Since his CCR training in late 2005, Brett has recently assisted in the exploration of over 4 new cave systems. In late 2006, Brett began working as technical consultant for KISS Rebreathers and is very involved with furthering safety protocols and equipment configurations for cave diving with rebreathers.
Dr. Tom Iliffe
Tom Iliffe was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. He earned degrees in Biochemistry and Oceanography at Penn State, Florida State and the University of Texas Medical Branch. Prior to coming to Texas A&M University at Galveston, Tom worked for 11 years as a Research Scientist at the Bermuda Biological Station. It was in Bermuda that he became interested in marine cave biology. On this relatively small, low lying island, all its numerous limestone caves are close to the sea. In their interiors, these caves contain tidal, saltwater pools inhabited by a great variety of crustaceans and other marine animals that are found only in this environment. Diving explorations of Bermuda caves resulted in the discovery of more than 200 species, 70 of which were new to science. Tom has led many expeditions worldwide to study and collect animals from underwater caves. Tom is currently a Professor of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University at Galveston where he teaches courses in Biospeleology, Scientific Diving and Tropical Marine Ecology. Tom has been an NSS-CDS cave instructor (#156) since 1981.
Department of Marine Biology Texas A & M
University at Galveston
Galveston, TX, USA
409-740-4454
Cave
Biology
Tom's Email
Jarrod Jablonski
Jarrod Jablonski is the president/founder of Global Underwater Explorers and CEO of Halcyon Manufacturing. Jarrod is an avid underwater explorer, author, researcher, and instructor, teaching and diving around the world. His exploration work includes dives to nearly four miles from the nearest air source at a depth of 300 feet, resulting in several world records.
Global Underwater Explorers
15 South Main Street
High Springs, FL, USA
386-454-0820
GUE
Jarrod's Email
Becky Kagan
As an award winning Photojournalist for major news networks including Fox and CBS, Becky looks forward to the challenges of shooting on the run, whether it be hurricanes or a good human interest story. Her inspiration came while earning her Bachelor's degree at the University of Tampa; she enjoys telling a story through images and creative editing. She shoots all High Definition video and digital SLR photography using top of the line, professional equipment. She has years of experience editing on Final Cut Pro, Avid xpress, and Photoshop.
Becky's photographs have been published in dive magazines, on calendars, and online diving websites. As a Videographer for the new TV series Quest for Sunken Warships airing now on the Military Channel, she has used her photographic and video skills both above and below the water.
Becky feels fortunate to be able to combine her two passions in life, photography and diving. Diving has been a huge part of her life for the past 13 years. As an active NAUI Instructor since 2000, introducing others to something she is so passionate about has been one of the biggest rewards of her career. After innumerable technical dives, she made the switch to closed circuit rebreathers in order to extend her bottom times while shooting video on technical and deeper dives. She also holds certifications in Trimix, and Full Cave. She has traveled worldwide, visiting many countries diving and photographing many unique people and places.
Having lived in Florida over 12 years, nothing makes Becky happier than creatively photographing and sharing the beautiful environments found in her backyard which she holds so close to her heart.
Liquid Productions, LLC specializes in high definition video and digital still photography in technically challenging underwater environments including caves, deep wrecks, and marine life. We are dedicated to providing unique, reliable and stunning eye-catching images.
Liquid Productions, LLC
106 Judy Way
Aston PA 19014
800-436-0260
Liquid Productions
LLC
Becky's
Email
Dr. Simon Mitchell
Simon is an anaesthesiologist and diving physician based in Auckland, New Zealand. His diving career has spanned many disciplines including sport, scientific, commercial, and military diving. He remains an avid diver, and uses a Mk15.5 closed circuit rebreather to pursue his interest in deep wrecks. Simon has devoted much of his career to diving medicine and has treated more than 400 cases of decompression illness. His PhD research addressed embolic brain injury, and he is widely published in the international diving medical literature. He recently co-authored the second edition of Deeper into Diving with John Lippmann, and co-authored 2 chapters on decompression illness in the most recent edition of Bennett and Elliott. He is Vice President of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society (UHMS), and Chairman of the Society's Diving Committee. Simon's current research interests include the pathophysiology and treatment of decompression illness and, in particular, the pathophysiology of inner ear decompression illness; a problem that is emerging as a particular hazard of deep bounce diving.
Tom Mount
Tom Mount is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of IAND, Inc./IANTD. He brings over 40 years of active diving leadership to IANTD. Tom's career includes military diving, commercial diving, research diving, saturation diving, supervision of saturation diving projects and a wide variety of recreational diving leadership positions. Tom owned a dive shop and commercial diving service company where he specialized in installing underwater communication cables for the Cape Kennedy missile range and salvage work from 1963 to 1968. During this period he formed the Aqua Marine Cave Dweller s (later renamed the Florida Cave Dwellers) from which he and Dave Desautels, Larry Briel, and Dale Malloy formed the first cave (technical) diving certification program in the USA, The National Association of Cave Divers (NACD). From 1968 to 1976 Tom was the Diving Officer at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (RSMAS). While in this capacity he developed programs that had scientists routinely performing air dives to 240 fsw (72 msw) and Heliox to 300 fsw (90 msw). In addition, RSMAS was the most active university program involved in saturation dives. Tom participated in Tek Tite II, Hydrolab (supervision and performance of numerous saturation dives) and supervised the diving on the NOAA sponsored FLARE saturation diving project. From 1969 to 1976 Tom supervised the chambers at RSMAS which treated the vast majority of diving accidents in South Florida and the Bahamas.
Tom left RSMAS to become the Training Director for the National YMCA Underwater Activities Program. While there he was the Director of the Army Corps of Engineers Diver Training Program and the lead author of its training manual. Tom then spent a short period of his career as the Vice President of Marketing for Teach Tour Dive Travel Company and Resorts. Following this Tom continued his career as a diving consultant, instructor, free lance photographer, journalist, author, and marketing consultant. Tom became the Vice President of IAND, Inc. in 1991 and developed Standards and Procedures for technical diving. In 1992 he accepted Dick Rutkowski's proposal to become the President of IANTD and then in 1996 to become the CEO of IAND, Inc./IANTD. In 2006 Tom was voted to his current position of Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Since that time Tom has been active in IAND, Inc./IANTD and Tom Mount's Quality Diver Education. Tom has logged in excess of 11,000 dives including cave dives, wreck dives and dives deeper than 200 fsw (60 msw). Tom has been instrumental in developing rebreather training programs and in particular CCR programs. He is one of, if not the most experienced CCR divers in the world. Tom was the first to be a certified CCR Instructor. His deepest dive on CCR is to 537 fsw (160 msw). Tom is truly one of the most, if not the most, all around experienced technical divers in the world today.
Tom is the author of The Cave Diving Manual, Safe Cave Diving, The Greatest Adventure Photography, Practical Diving, The New Practical Diving, Mixed Gas Diving, The Army Corps of Engineering Course Syllabus, The Advanced Deep Air Diver Student Workbook, The Technical EANx Student Workbook, The Trimix Student Workbook and The Cave Diving Student Manual and Workbook, The Technical Diver Encyclopedia, A contibutor to various CCR manuals and workbooks, a contributor to the NOAA Dive Manual, author of hundreds of articles in various magazines worldwide. His photographs have received publication and acclaim internationally.
Tom has worked with the Cousteaus, Bruno Valetti and John Stoneman and several other production companies on various TV specials and has been involved in commercial and advertising photography. Tom is also a Master in Martial Arts, a licensed Coast Guard Captain and an airplane pilot. Tom is an IANTD Instructor Trainer at all levels, NACD Instructor, NAUI Instructor Trainer, PADI Instructor number 498, and is listed in the books Who's Who In Diving, and Pioneers In Diving. Tom has received dozens of awards for his contributions to diving. He is the recipient of diving's most prestigious award, the NOGI, for his contributions to Sports Education.
Andy Pitkin
Andy is a British anesthesiologist who recently moved to Florida. He functions within the Cambrian Foundation as a research diver and expedition medical officer. He will be talking about some of their scientific work that has been generously sponsored by the NSS-CDS.
Don Shirley
Don wanted to dive since he visited Wookey Hole in England when he was 10 years old (1967). Wookey hole is a tourist cave with chambers and underwater tunnels. As there were underwater lights, he could see that tunnels disappeared into the darkness, and Don was hooked he wanted to find out where these tunnels went.
When he was 17 (1974), he joined the British Army, as it gave him the opportunity to start diving. From this base he led many dive expeditions, from Oasis to Ice, Tropical to Sub Antarctic. Jamaica, Falklands, Baltic, Florida to mention a few. The most memorable expedition was being part of the first team to find the HMS Pheasant - a WWII Destroyer, which was lost mysteriously with all hands on deck.
Don retired from the army in 1997, and decided to move to South Africa to continue technical dive education. He's been there ever since, and thoroughly enjoys the climate and water conditions. This is where he met his wife André, on a dive expedition.
Don trains predominantly from his home site - Komati Springs - a flooded mine with many shafts and tunnels - an ideal training ground. The caves start at 18 meters, and go down to 186 meters. Boesmansgat is of course also a favourite, being a vast open cave chamber that bottoms out at about 280 meters.
Currently he is an Instructor Trainer Trainer for IANTD, and owns the IANTD Southern Africa facility. He is also a DAN, PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer and DSAT RecTec Instructor. His passion is of course Cave and Closed Circuit Rebreathers, and he has a nice selection of rebreathers to choose from. He is considered the rebreather and technical expert in Southern Africa.
Technical Diving Southern Africa P.O. Box
608
Badplaas, 1190
South Africa
+27 (0) 82 650 2279
Technical Diving
Africa
IANTD Southern
Africa
Don's
Email
Wes Skiles
Wes Skiles has be en actively exploring, mapping, and filming the underwater caves of the world for over thirty years. Born and raised in North Florida, the springs were his backyard playground. He is a past Training Chairman of the NSS-CDS, a fellow of the NSS, and a recipient the NSS-CDS 'Outstanding Service Award'. He has logged thousands of dives on five continents in pursuit of imagery and exploration of underwater caves.
Wes is also the creator, director and cinematographer of the PBS series, 'Water's Journey'. He is best known for his camera work in both still photography and motion pictures. He and his crew with Karst Productions, Inc. were in charge of directing and filming all the underwater scenes in the feature film, 'The Cave'. His passion is reflected in his award winning work as director, writer and cameraman on adventure, science, and exploration films. He is also a long-time contract photographer for National Geographic Magazine.
As a native Floridian, Wes was one of the first humans to explore, map, and document many of North Florida's most treasured springs. Over his lifetime he has explored over 300,000 feet of previously unexplored passages within the Floridan Aquifer. These unique experiences exploring our drinking water, combined with a deep love for his native state, have driven him to be one of the most vocal advocates for preserving and protecting Florida's precious water resources. Wes resides in High Springs, Florida with his wife Terri, and their two children Nathan and Tessa Skiles.
Karst Productions, Inc. 5779 NE County Road
340
High Springs, Florida 32643
386-454-2376
Karst
Productions
Wes'
Email
Hal Watts
During the 1960's Hal became devoted to extended range diving and developing proven, effective diving techniques for dives to depths greater than the normal recreational range of 40 meters (132 feet). In 1967, using methods he developed, Hal set the World's Depth record by diving to 119 meters (390 feet) on air and was recognized in the Guinness Book of records. It should be noted, that as time went on, it was accepted that extremely deep air dives were indeed hazardous and the current records represent remarkable achievements. Unfortunately, the record is also at the very extreme edge of human physiological tolerance and so Guinness no longer publishes deep air records or attempts.
In 1970, Hal wrote and copyrighted the first manual for Extended Range Deep Diving for instructors and conducted specialty classes for those interested. One of the projects that Hal wanted was a film, so he commissioned Ned DeLoach of New World Publications to produce a 16mm color film "Deep Diving" on location at Wakulla Springs, Florida.
Hal Watts formed a specialty diving club known as the "Forty Fathom Scubapros" that was very active diving all over Florida especially at a sink hole that just happened to be 40 fathoms (73 meters, 240 feet) deep! Many of the other divers and organizations simply were not prepared to understand the desire of these early pioneers, so the Scubapros continued largely in quiet. During the 1970s they continued refining techniques and skills to improve in deep diving activities.
Professional Scuba Association
International
8174 Crescent Beach Road
Sand Point, Michigan
PSAI
German Yañez
German Yañez' priorities are to enable people to enjoy the underwater activities as safely as possible by providing the highest quality practical education. This can be possible through aggressive skill refinement and experience in the water. Vigorous instruction with a strong student/instructor relationship and strong teamwork will transfer to the student all the confidence and the knowledge necessary for underwater deep or cave exploration. This mission statement can only be achived with professional and experienced instructors who have been actively diving and exploring different environments. German Yañez has been one of the pioneers in underwater cave exploration in Mexico. During the last 15 years he has been teaching overhead environment courses and exploring caves all around the country and in other countries as well. With more than 2000 cave dives and more than 450 cave students and instructors trained, he still enjoys training and guiding novice and experience divers. German is the NSS-CDS Yucatan Safety officer.
Yucatech Expeditions Calle 3 Sur Esq. 5
Ave.
Centro
Cozumel, Q.Roo, 77600
Mexico
011-52-987-872-5659
Yucatech
German's
Email
