About Brave Dave

I have a YouTube channel which has a fair number of subscribers. I've been putting videos on to YouTube for a very, very long time (since at least 2005) and set up my current channel back in 2009. It has always just been a hobby and I've never taken it very seriously. I don't upload regularly, I've never monetised it and I've never relied on it for any sort of income.

My videos are generally of things that I've done which I felt were interesting enough to share with other people. These range from the small (messing about on a mountain), to the much bigger (finding adventure in other countries).

My video style is very raw and in-your-face. Some people dislike this but a lot of people love it. My videos are generally just me holding my GoPro camera and shouting at it, whilst doing something fun/exciting/interesting. I shoot in 4:3 (old school) and my post-production is almost zero, except for captions. Even though they are so frustrating to type out I have added captions to every video since 2016, because they are very useful to deaf people, people whose first language isn't English, Americans who don't understand my accent, and everyone when the wind is blowing or when I speak really fast.

Over the years I have filmed many different things. When I have been out by myself I have sometimes done things which some people might class as risky or reckless. These have included times when I did something silly or made a mistake (which usually ends up on my YouTube channel). The important thing to note here is that these have been my mistakes with only my well-being at risk. I would never deliberately put anyone else at risk.

The most popular type of videos that I have made are the ones that involve freight hopping. This is where a person stows away onboard a freight train and rides it to wherever it might be going. Freight hopping videos appeal to a lot of people because it's dangerous, it's illegal and it's exciting.

I've done freight hopping three times. Once in 2005 (in the US), once in 2013 (in Canada) and once in 2016 (again in Canada). The last one (which I called "Brave Dave's Big Fat Freight Hop") was the adventure that really got people's attention. As a four part series I think it currently has around 6 million views, which isn't bad!

I feel it is also worth mentioning that I don't care very much about views or subscriber counts (they don't affect my day to day life in any way), but it's still cool to know a lot of people have enjoyed something that I made.

A large percentage of my YouTube subscribers found me because of my freight hopping videos. As a consequence I am constantly inundated in YouTube comments with people saying that I should make more freight hopping videos. It has become a bit of a running joke with some of my subscribers that no matter what my video is about there will always be a stream of clueless 12 year olds telling me to do more freight hopping, like it's something which would take me the best part of an afternoon.

Just for the record, I have no plans to do any more freight hopping due to the time, effort, money and risk involved. I've got a life to live and bills to pay, damn it! Plus I'm no longer able to enter Canada (and I presume the US) due to an arrest warrant that was issued after Big Fat Freight Hop became popular. And anyone who insists that I should make another freight adventure video for them for free is cordially invited to get up from their computer, go outside into the real world and make their own video first so they can see what's actually involved. Have fun! ;-)

Whereas multi-week, inter-continental train adventures are all good and well, the bulk of my videos are of me doing various things on mountains. My favourite area has always been Snowdonia, so I have a lot of videos of me on Crib Goch and other camera-friendly peaks around there.

Because of this, if someone does a Google search for Crib Goch then there is a very good chance that one of my videos will pop up. This has led to a lot of people who are interested in Snowdonia finding me and subscribing to me on YouTube.

As a consequence I quite regularly get recognised when I am on the mountains. So far everyone has been very friendly, so that's nice (though I'm waiting for the inevitable run-in with someone who isn't a fan, of which there are many).

I have always loved exploring the mountains and often take my camera along when I go and check something out for the first time. This lets the viewer come along for the ride, like they're exploring it too. I don't know what's going to happen, I don't know what's ahead and I could make a mistake at any moment. Like I said, my videos are real and rugged and my viewers like that.

Every time I uploaded a new mountain video to my YouTube channel I was receiving a lot of comments from people who said that they find my videos very motivating and that they are influenced by them to get outside and do things.

At the same time I wanted to be in Snowdonia more often but it was taking a lot of time, effort and petrol money to get there (this might be surprising to some but I don't live locally at all).

I knew the place really well and other people wanted to experience it. The only logical conclusion was to become a mountain leader and start showing people the mountains in exchange for money!

So that's what I did, and that's what I do, and that's what I will continue to do.

I have my Mountain Leader qualification, I have my insurance and I have a lot of energy and enthusiasm for showing people how cool the mountains really are.

I absolutely love leading people in the mountains. It would be easy to take various routes, views and scrambles for granted due to having done or seen them so many times, but when I lead people I get to experience it all like it's the first time again :-D

Please note: I rarely post videos from when I am leading people on the mountains. This is because firstly I don't film much anyway, due to concentrating on leading the client, and secondly, it's no one's business! You want to see a Brave Dave Guided Adventure? Hire me and I'll show you first hand!

Having said that, I will film and edit a full length Brave Dave video of a client's mountain adventure if they want me to, for a modest fee ;-) (some clients want it as a keepsake or to show their family back home).

If someone just skims over my videos then it might be easy to confuse the stuff that I do alone with the stuff that I do with clients, or confuse the stuff I did many years ago with the stuff I do now. I've made over 100 videos, spanning over 15 years, but some people might just presume that all of my videos are relatively recent.

They might see a video where I am doing something dangerous, or where I have an accident, and think "Whoa! That doesn't look very safe! And this guy is a mountain leader??".

What you need to understand is that when I am by myself I sometimes do more dangerous things, because I am not responsible for anyone else and should anything go wrong then it is only me who is at risk.

But when I am leading a client I take their safety very seriously.

If you read the testimonials that past clients have written about me you will see that safety is my number one priority, with fun and excitement being number two.

I have received criticism in the past for some of my videos. Some of it was fair, some of it was not (over the years I have attracted more than my fair share of negative attention). That is why I wanted to make it double clear that whereas I enjoy risk-taking and a bit of adrenaline by myself every now and then, the most important thing for me when I am leading a client is that they get safely back to their car at the end of the day, aching and buzzing from having had such an awesome time on the mountains.