David has a wealth of experience, learning and expertise that has come from a lifelong interest in reptiles, snakes being his particular love and fascination, the one passion he never wants to give up.  He is proud of the depth of the knowledge bank he has developed and with which in the future he hopes to achieved great things.  David is an admirer of the great Sir David Attenborough, and shares a similar dream: that he is able to educate people about his passion and that people will eventually stop messing the world up through senseless habitat destruction which has the potential to pose an existential threat to all the species of this planet. Even in his relatively brief life of 25 years, David has noticed a remarkable depletion of snakes in the local environment with many fewer snakes spotted in an evening jaunt than even 10 years ago.  This is a very concerning factor for David and his part Thai/part New Zealander/part British but Australian-raised partner Skye, who don’t see children in their future. David believes “things will get a whole lot worse before they get any better.”

While David is a quiet man who cares for all species, even humans, he is also highly daring and adventurous.  He lives by the motto, “Find what you love and let it kill you.”  However, David is a rational and calculating man who rarely finds himself out of his depth when it comes to snakes.  He recalls his interest in snakes blooming around the age of eight, and at that time generally kept to his parents’ edict that he only catch and handle snakes he could identify as non-venomous such as a garter snake. It wasn’t till quite a few years later, at secondary school age that he started to engage with more dangerous snakes, generally hoping that what his parents didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them, or him. David estimates he has been bitten 7 or 8 times by a venomous snake, 3 occasions leading to hospitalisation.  Though they are incredibly strong, David denies ever experiencing a problem with a constrictor such as a python.

David is an American, born in Florida.  His father was born and raised in Germany, and worked there as a bookbinder before moving to the US, where he made a living buying, renovating and selling real estate.  David describes his father as a jack-of-all trades who seems to spontaneously take on a new challenge every 5 years or so, while his mother was a homemaker who often helped out his father with his projects.  The young family, comprised of his parents, David and a younger sister, moved to live in South Africa in 2006, then to Thailand when a coconut oil company took his father’s fancy in 2012, when David was in 8th grade. After a brief 3 weeks here in Hua Hin on holiday, the family packed up, ready to start their Thailand adventure. David’s family now live half a world away, but David has no interest in living anywhere else, despite the fact that he could visit family homes in both Spain and Switzerland, his parents now being divorced.

David has a profound attachment to Thailand, and to Hua Hin in particular.  It is where he spent his formative teenage years, where he completed the vast bulk of his secondary education, where he established his social circle.  Even better, there are many species of snakes to be found in the local area, especially for a young man who describes himself as basically nocturnal. David is happy waking at 6pm, and not going to bed till 11am next morning, especially if it means he can observe and photograph snakes in their natural habitats. His ultimate goal is to personally find and photograph every known native species of snake in Thailand, and with his vast knowledge of snakes, it wouldn’t be surprising if he ends up having a new species of snake named after him one day.  Indeed, on his phone, you would be hard-pressed to locate the occasional selfie of David and Skye in between the animal pictures.  David is also a bit of a wildlife warrior himself when it comes to other species in dangerous positions or injured, and displayed a shot he took of a crtically endangered Sunda pangolin he rescued from the road near Sai Noi beach recently. David could also show you a macro shot he took of a snake’s penis if you are interested.

David’s favourite childhood memory is of finding a 3 and a half metre long king cobra when he was cycling home in the wee small hours of the morning after having sneaked out to party with friends, unbeknown to his parents, when he was 15 years old.  This tale will be new to them, here.  He found the snake lying across the road, carefully lifted it by the back of the head, wrapped it around him and finished his journey home, leaving the snake overnight in the storage room until after his parents had left the house next morning.  Friends came to help him take the obligatory photo before he released the snake in a suitable location.  Yikes.

David believes his school teachers described him as bright but mischievous. After he graduated from school, David took a gap year and had to make some serious decisions about his future.  He had already begun to make money from his YouTube channel on reptiles and would have liked to pursue his focus there, but his parents were not sure that a proper living could be made that way and urged him to undertake tertiary studies.  Always rational over emotional, a calculated decision-maker, David researched possible job opportunities for those who studied a degree in Herpetology and found little to reassure him.  He opted for a degree in Graphic Design in Spain, skills learnt there helping to fund his current lifestyle.  But the call of Thailand was so strong that David flew back to the country on the very day if his graduation ceremony. David now takes on freelance jobs in graphic design, and has a range of tee-shirts featuring reptile prints which he sells on Amazon US and Amazon Europe, if you are interested.  His monetized YouTube channel is providing an ongoing income, and David and Skye take regular trips to remote parts of Thailand to spot and document their snake populations.  In fact, David’s favourite part of Thailand is the far, remote south of Thailand where he can set up camp for a week and not encounter another Westerner, but a fantastic array of snake species.

David has a rare self-awareness for one so young.  He knows he still has a lot he needs and wants to learn, but is not yet quite sure exactly what it is.  One thing he would like to improve is his time-management as he admits he has a tendency to procrastinate and is too easily side-tracked from the job at hand.  David would like to be more able to kerb his perfectionism, so as to not waste time unnecessarily, though he does acknowledge that his intensity of focus can have definite benefits.

Skilled as he is at using social media to support his lifestyle, David would return to the age of 10 if he could retain his current knowledge base.  Although he was still not an adult when he began his YouTube channel, David believes if he had pursued it seriously up to 5 years earlier than he did, he would have been one of a very small, elite group of content creators in the reptile market, and would now be making ten times the income. David is quick to acknowledge that all forms of social media have inherent dangers yet he feels hat the benefits usually outweigh the negatives.  Indeed, David and Skye first communicated on the Snakes of Hua Hin group when she asked advice about a snake her cat had dragged in.  Although they had always been aware of each other’s existence, Hua Hin not having a huge population of young Westerners, it was not until quite a while later after meeting in person at a bar, that the pair put two and two together and realised their paths had already crossed.

Interestingly, David claims to be better at relaxing than working, and knows just how fortunate he is to be able to make a living from his passion.  He has a group of friends who all have their own particular passions as well, though not all with snakes. He believes his best friend would tell you something insulting about him, given the chance, but that wouldn’t even come close to souring their relationship.  But much as he values his friends, it is reptiles David can’t imagine living without.

David lives a tranquil life in Hua Hin, but can easily mount his motorbike and be in the bright lights of Bangkok whenever he wants.  He enjoys a good burger, a good massage and the opportunity to structure his life exactly how it suits him. One particular pet peeve is people who seek out this young man’s advice, then promptly do exactly as they want, regardless.  Believe me, when it comes to snakes, you can trust David with your life.

Published 17th March, 2024