Don Shirley - 2008 NSS-CDS Speaker of the Week
Don Shirley
Bushman's Hole, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa, is one of the strangest places on Earth. It's a prehistoric crater on an otherwise endless track of desert, and for an elite but extreme fraternity of explorers, what happened there is the stuff of myth and legend.
The terrible beauty of the place can't be seen from the air, or even the ground. But if you trace the walls down, you reach a tiny pool covered in algae. Keep going, through a narrow shaft running for another 150 feet, and finally it all opens into a vast freshwater cavern tall enough to hold the Eiffel Tower, and deep enough -- nearly 1,000 feet -- to mesmerize the most experienced, technical cave divers in the world. Don will be talking about the David Shaw Story.
The Beginnings:
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
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