Our Story

APE was born in Cancún, Mexico, built on high-level dive education, mentorship, and genuine human connection. It was there that a thirteen year old Ivan first learned to dive with Daniel Gonzalez - APE's founder, and the mentor who would shape everything that followed. By sixteen, Ivan was already working as an underwater photographer. He went on to become a divemaster, then an instructor, managing liveaboards and following the ocean wherever it led - eventually to Timor-Leste, where he co-founded the first dive operation focused entirely on training Timorese locals to scuba dive, Dreamers Dive Academy.

Caz arrived by a different route. She grew up wanting to be a mermaid - drawn to fairytales, folklore, and the pull of worlds beneath the surface. That instinct carried her into storytelling, journalism, documentary filmmaking, and eventually to the ocean itself. Timor-Leste was where she came to tell its stories. It was also where she met Ivan.

They recognised something in each other quickly - shared values, shared principles, and a shared belief that what they could build together should feel limitless. Focused on exploration and connection, and grounded in both of their skills and passions, APE grew beyond a diving academy into something neither of them could have built alone - expeditions, scuba engineering, and a vision that continues to expand.

'We have chosen to set up our life in Timor-Leste, a country that has reminded us, quietly and consistently, of something the modern world tends to forget.

We are nature. Not separate from it, not visitors to it - part of it. We are, after all, apes: creatures shaped by curiosity, adaptation, and community. And somehow, across thousands of years of evolution, we found a way to breathe beneath the ocean. Apes. Diving. Who would have thought.

Apes are strong, intelligent, deeply social - with a powerful sense of tribe. That spirit sits at the heart of this company. We believe that strength lives not in ego or individualism, but in trust, friendship, and the kind of community that forms when people genuinely show up for one another. Every member of the tribe carries their own knowledge, their own story - and together, we become something none of us could be alone.

That belief shapes everything we do. Whether we are guiding someone through their first breath underwater, supporting a scientific expedition, servicing life-support equipment in the field, or sitting with a local community and listening - the goal is the same. Meaningful connections between people, the ocean, and the world we share.'