| Bob Spindola was my first great mentor of koi. Funny thing though, the most important things he taught me had absolutely nothing to do with koi. Without Bob's guidance I'd never done many of the things I've accomplished, in and out of koi. I sorely miss him still.
Since then, Atsushi Suda and his son Kazutaka from Ojiya, these guys taught me koi breeding inside out and backwards. Then Shigeru Mano, VP of Dainichi who tries to refine my knowledge and help me apply it, he must be very frustrated.
For a very many years, Ron Goforth, ZNA District Chairman and the first ever non-Japanese fully certified ZNA koi judge. Just got his fish and put them into a mud pond, he's evacuated with most everybody else from around here. As far as I can tell from the folks I've talked to, Ron knows more about koi than any other English speaking (as a first language) person I know of.
Of course Jim Reilly. He is the student of koi I want to be. He unselfishly shares as much of his massive knowledge of koi as he can. Never been around him I didn;t learn many useful (and maybe not so useful) things.
Notice, my mentor list consists of a nice mix of professionals and hobbiest, both aspects are extremely important to me.
There are many others.
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Brett
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