David “Sunny” Sundberg

Known around the shop as “Sunny,” David Sundberg brings a career’s worth of discipline, leadership, and hard-earned diving experience to 20,000 Leagues Scuba and Outdoors.

A native of Bismarck, North Dakota, David joined the Army on active duty straight out of high school, serving as an intelligence analyst before earning his commission as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) officer at West Point.

His diving story started almost by accident. On a trip to Mexico, David was the only one in the group who wasn’t a certified diver, and that stuck with him. Not long after, while stationed in Korea, he earned his Open Water certification, and diving became a constant alongside his military career from there. He went on to serve in Italy and deployed to Afghanistan in 2012–2013.

After commissioning, David served with 7th Special Forces Group at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where he progressed through the PADI professional ranks from Divemaster all the way to Master Instructor. From there he came to Atlanta to earn his Master’s in Nuclear Engineering at Georgia Tech, achieving his Course Director rating along the way and working with Georgia Tech’s dive teams. A subsequent posting took him to Hawaii, where he reached Gold status as a Course Director, before returning to Atlanta to pursue his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering, also at Georgia Tech. He is still serving in the active-duty Army today.

Today, David serves as Course Director at 20,000 Leagues Scuba and Outdoors, bringing the same standards he’s held throughout his military and academic career to every diver he trains: the highest level of instruction and experience, put to work building the next generation of dive professionals. We are honored to have Sunny as a crucial part of the 20K team.