Born and bred in Cape Town, he started diving in 1990, completing a 1-star certification through SAUU. Diving quickly became an all consuming passion and in 1995 he became a PADI certified instructor and ran a dive charter boat for a number of years. In 1998 he gave up the charter business and joined the world of commerce, but continued to spend every spare moment underwater. For the next five years he concentrated his efforts on the shipwrecks of the West Coast area, researching and diving on as many wrecks as possible. Then in 2002 he bought his first digital camera in a waterproof housing and was completely hooked.