Dave Shaw is an Australian who has lived in Hongkong since 1989. He is married to Ann and has two children, Steven and Lisa. Both are now adults living in Australia.
Ann is the Deputy Head of an International High School in Hongkong. She has no desire to dive herself but tolerates Dave's passion for the sport with great patience.
Dave is a Check and Training Captain with Cathay Pacific Airways, and flies the A330-300, A340-300 and A340-600. His duties take him to all parts of the world but allow not enough time for cave diving in his opinion.
Dave was introduced to diving by his son, and immediately knew that technical diving was his area of interest. Following some penetration wreck dives in the Philippines Dave decided cave diving was worth exploring. Once completing the cave course in Florida it has only really been cave diving that has been of interest since.
As the dives became more extended it became obvious that rebreathers needed to be used. Dave's first rebreather was an Inspiration, which he eventually dived to depths greater than the unit was capable of. That prompted him to purchase a Mk15.5. He has since modified this unit by removing the analogue electronics and replaced them with the Hammerhead digital electronics. The Mk15.5 is his rebreather of choice for dives deeper than 150m. Dave has also owns a CisLunar Mk5P that he uses on extended dives in caves that are shallower than 150m. The CisLunar has greater redundancy capabilities he believes for such dives, but cannot cope with extreme depths.
Depth in a dive is of secondary importance to Dave. He is primarily interested in exploring. To be where no other man has explored before is the ultimate in his opinion. It seems that to achieve that goal, greater depths are becoming a must.