David Apperley

David Apperley is an Australian technical diver and cave explorer. Apperley holds instructor levels in cave diving, Deep Mixed Gas Diving and Deep Closed Circuit Rebreather Diving and was the expedition co-ordinator for the Pearse Resurgence Project 1996-2003.^[1] He was the project leader on the Royal Mail Ship Niagara 2003 Survey Project, which involved the organization and planning of putting some of the worlds most experienced divers onto the 130 metre deep Niagara wreck site, off the North Island of New Zealand.

In 2003 Tanya Streeter, world record free diver, employed Apperley to lead a group of safety divers to the British West Indies to act as support for the world record attempt. While support team Leader, Apperley also acted as deep-water support for Tanya on her 160m dive, diving in excess of 150 meters.^[2]

In the 2011, Apperley was Safety Diver and stunt double for lead character, ‘Frank’ (played by Richard Roxburgh) in James Cameron's cave diving feature film, ‘Sanctum’. Screenwriter, John Garvin, based the character ‘Frank’ on Dave’s daring life and fearless accomplishments.

A renowned technical cave diver (one of the most dangerous and demanding sports in the world) and gifted marine electrical technician of over two decades, Dave stood out in the field of international deep sea exploration when James Cameron employed him as Lead Safety Diver and Emergency Rescue Manager on the 2012 ‘DeepSea Challenge Project’/Mariana Trench Expedition, which saw Cameron solo man a 12-ton submersible to the deepest point of the Earth’s oceans.

Awards

Apperley was the recipient of the inaugural "OZTeK Diver of the Year" award in 2000 for his RMS Niagara and the Pearse River resurgence explorations. He is a founding member and one of the lead exploration divers with the Sydney Project^[3] and continues to explore the deep caves & wrecks of Australia & New Zealand.^[4] Along with Australian cave divers Paul Hosie and Paul Garske, he has been recognised as a member of the World Exploration Team of Divers in Advanced Diver Magazine.^[5]

References