David moved from Scotland to the Canadian Arctic in 1989. After living and working in several Arctic communities, he moved to Pond Inlet in North Baffin Island in 1991.
For over twenty years, he has been involved in the Arctic expedition and travel business. To date he has led, organized or participated in over three hundred Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, trips, and projects. In that time he has travelling thousands of miles by dog sled, ski, snowmobile, boat, kayak, ship, foot, and—most recently—by mountain bike, as the first person ever to cross Baffin Island by fat tire bike. He has completed sixteen successful expeditions through the famous Northwest Passage and guided over sixty trips to the polar bear capital of the world—Churchill, Manitoba.
David was recently honoured by Canada Goose by being asked to be a “Goose Person” (one of only fifty people chosen across Canada) and share in the fiftieth anniversary of this great Canadian company. David has been recognized by the Explorers Club and was recently honoured by becoming a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society.
David has made several ship-based expeditions to Antarctica working as part of an expedition team providing interpretive guiding, zodiac driving (licenced) kayak guiding and general expedition experience. In addition to Antarctic expedition ship experience, he has guided on more than twenty-five Arctic ship expeditions. His responsibilities have included being in charge of the firearms on board, driving Zodiacs, leading shore excursions, lecturing, and general expedition team duties and responsibilities.
David’s company, Polar Sea Adventures, is an award-winning expedition company. In recent years, while still offering scheduled Arctic expeditions and trips, the company has specialized in special projects, customised trips, in particular film and television production. The company has assisted and been involved in the production of such notable productions as BBC’s Planet Earth and Frozen Planet, CBC’s The Nature of Things and Suzuki Diaries (with Dr. David Suzuki) Glacialis Productions’ Flight Of The Snowgoose and Primitive Productions’ Canada’s National Parks, as well as many more. The company has guided royalty, film stars, scientists, researchers, photographers, and filmmakers, as well as hundreds of individual adventurers from all over the world. He is regularly called upon for logistical help, consulting expertise as well as other services related to Arctic exploration and tourism.
David has recently been involved in economic development consulting work related to Arctic tourism and is committed to sustainable local business and commerce.
Experienced and comfortable exploring the polar regions, from penguins to polar bears, David’s passion and enthusiasm for sharing everything to do with ice and snow with clients from all over the world helps people understand just how unique and precious our polar regions are.
David is now based in southern Canada. Travelling extensively in the off-season, he has been asked to give presentations and talks in Europe, Canada, and the United States. He is currently working on various projects as well as promoting and marketing the Baffin region, Nunavut, and Arctic Canada. David has developed an interest in photography—his images have been featured in many publications including National Geographic, Patagonia, Canadian Geographic and Explore—and filming, and is a contributing writer to several magazines.