Steve Davis
Steve Davis is the host of the acclaimed podcast, “Speaking Sidemount”, author of the books, “The Canterbury Wreck - A Diver’s Guide” and “Sidemount Fundamentals” and is the principal instructor and founder of Sidemount Pros.
As a child, Steve was inspired by the television series, "The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau" and by pioneer New Zealand divers such as Kelly Tarlton. He started snorkeling at the age of six before he could even really swim. From there Steve has always had a connection with the sea and diving.
Steve joined the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1980 and enjoyed a successful 14 year career culminating in him being the Marine Engineer Officer of the Leander Class Frigate, HMNZS Canterbury. Now sunk as a dive wreck in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, his old ship is one of his favorite dives both personally and for various training courses.
As a former "Chief Engineer" of Canterbury, it is not an understatement to say that Steve knows "every rivet" on this ship and loves to share this with other suitably qualified divers. Based on his intimate knowledge of Canterbury, Steve has authored the book 'The Canterbury Wreck - A Diver's Guide' now available from the Sidemount Pros Store and Amazon. More info here.
Steve took his first steps in diving in the 70s when his step-father, a Navy Diver, gave him a crash course in Scuba. Steve was hooked. He was certified in 1981 and accumulated hundreds of recreational dives all around the world including; New Zealand, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, USA, Mexico, Tobago, Croatia, Turkey, and Egypt.
In 2011, Steve became a Divemaster and in 2013 decided that he wanted to take his already substantial recreational experience and build his skill-set such that he could perform more technically demanding dives. After a lot of research he decided that sidemount cave diving was the pinnacle in terms of diving skill and mindset.
Steve trained with sidemount cave instructor and explorer, Jason Renoux in Riviera Maya, Mexico and then completed Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures with Shane Housham at Northland Dive.
With sidemount, overhead and open water tec skills under his belt, Steve built on this by diving exclusively in sidemount for the next two years. Over this time he had accumulated more than 200 sidemount dives in cave, wreck, and open water environments, and felt he was ready to continue his training.
Steve's philosophy has always been, "to be world-class, you need to learn from the best". To this end, Steve undertook Advanced Wreck training with renowned wreck diver and explorer, John Chatterton and followed this with an intensive two months of training with Tom Steiner at Gozo Technical Diving, in Gozo and Malta. During this period, Steve undertook; Tec-Sidemount, Normoxic Trimix, SDI Instructor and Specialty Instructor, Advanced Gas Blending and Full Cave training under Tom's mentoring and watchful eye. Steve is now a TDI Tech Sidemount and Advanced Gas Blending Instructor.
Steve has continued his own diving journey subsequently qualifying as a CDAA Advanced Cave Diver, completing KISS Sidewinder CCR and Cave DPV training in 2019 with Edd Sorenson in Marianna FL, and in 2022 KISS Sidewinder MOD 2 Normoxic Trimix, and Cave CCR training with Patrick Widmann at Protec Mexico.
In 2023 InDepth Magazine dedicated a complete issue to Sidemount Diving. Steve was invited to be a guest editor and was named in the InDepth “Who’s Who” of Sidemount diving for his contributions to sidemount diving education and promotion.
You can find some Testimonials from those that have dived and trained with Steve here.