Best Comprehensive Book on Diving

[tursiops]

Latter editions have jacket BCDs, maybe not BP/W but BP/W is generally taught at advanced / technical training. Regulators are for all intents and purposes the same today as they were in 1980. Dive Computers are new technology that was just beginning in the 80s [ remember the Orca Edge? Bueller? Bueller?]

Best practices? I and many others who learned to dive before 1980 believe, with good reason, that the practices were better back in the 1970s than they are today with most O/W diving courses only covering a fraction of what we learned back in our classes.

Enjoy your fantasies.

 

[TheBullfrog]

It is an excellent book, but VERY oriented toward Navy operations.
The NOAA Manual is much better for sport divers.

...and people with deeper pockets

 

[CT-Rich]

Latter editions have jacket BCDs, maybe not BP/W but BP/W is generally taught at advanced / technical training. Regulators are for all intents and purposes the same today as they were in 1980. Dive Computers are new technology that was just beginning in the 80s [ remember the Orca Edge? Bueller? Bueller?]

Best practices? I and many others who learned to dive before 1980 believe, with good reason, that the practices were better back in the 1970s than they are today with most O/W diving courses only covering a fraction of what we learned back in our classes.

I was certified in 1980. I think diving was much more stripped down back then, but I wouldn't say better. We did a lot more in detail instruction and pool training than today, but the understanding of DCS, was quite a bit more rudimentary than it is today. Also, today you can go online and read very detailed discussions of many aspects of diving and look at videos that demonstrate every thing from perfect trim, proper weighting 18 different ways from Sunday to set up your gear.

Reading materials and equipment reviews were much sparser and spread out. Skin Diver Magazine never met a piece of equipment they didn't give a good review. You usually learned from someone else that had already made stupid mistakes or you made them yourself. Information is far easier to find and share today. In the 1970s there was really just one one course to take for a recreational diver. Those courses and books cover more, but much shallower. They are fun to read, though.

 

[old frogman]

Google the latest edition of "US Navy Diving Manual" - and it's free! Benchmark by which all diving manuals, recreational or professional are judged. However, beware of the dive tables. They are OK if doing a single dive per day. If you do repetitive dives, (which you can with their repetitive dive tables), there is a higher risk of DCS (the bends).

NOAA diving manual. Scientific diving manual used by NOAA divers. Incorporates USN dive tables.

Another book, if you can find it (out of print), is "Deep Diving and Submarine Operations" By Sir Robert Davies. It was the diving manual by Siebe Gorman (legendary British diving equipment manufacturer dating back circa 1830). Used for training British professional divers. Siebe Gorman developed the standard diving suit (hard hat diving) circa 1830. Involved in development of first dive tables circa 1905 in conjunction with John Haldane. Developed first oxygen and nitrox dive exposure tables during WW2 for British combat and EOD divers. Developed first submarine escape apparatus by Robert Davies circa 1920s, etc... Absolute legend of a book

 

[elvenhome21]

I'd say watch anything from Simon Mitchell on YouTube. Yes they can be very technical but he breaks it down in a way if your curious you can understand.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Google the latest edition of "US Navy Diving Manual" - and it's free! Benchmark by which all diving manuals, recreational or professional are judged. However, beware of the dive tables. They are OK if doing a single dive per day. If you do repetitive dives, (which you can with their repetitive dive tables), there is a higher risk of DCS (the bends).

NOAA diving manual. Scientific diving manual used by NOAA divers. Incorporates USN dive tables.

Another book, if you can find it (out of print), is "Deep Diving and Submarine Operations" By Sir Robert Davies. It was the diving manual by Siebe Gorman (legendary British diving equipment manufacturer dating back circa 1830). Used for training British professional divers. Siebe Gorman developed the standard diving suit (hard hat diving) circa 1830. Involved in development of first dive tables circa 1905 in conjunction with John Haldane. Developed first oxygen and nitrox dive exposure tables during WW2 for British combat and EOD divers. Developed first submarine escape apparatus by Robert Davies circa 1920s, etc... Absolute legend of a book

If you dive the U.S. Navy method, the U.S. Navy Diving Tables, even for repetitive diving, are more conservative than today’s diving computers. Why? Because the tables diver starts counting bottom time from the time (s)he starts on the surface to the dime (s)he comes off the bottom to ascend to the surface. It uses the total time at depth, and doesn’t count time during an ascent that includes extended times coming up (that’s still bottom time under the U.S. Navy rules). So if the dive is done according to these rules, it is more conservative that those divers using dive computers; e.g. less risk of decompression sickness.

SeaRat

 

[BoltSnap]

If you dive the U.S. Navy method, the U.S. Navy Diving Tables, even for repetitive diving, are more conservative than today’s diving computers. Why? Because the tables diver starts counting bottom time from the time (s)he starts on the surface to the dime (s)he comes off the bottom to ascend to the surface. It uses the total time at depth, and doesn’t count time during an ascent that includes extended times coming up (that’s still bottom time under the U.S. Navy rules). So if the dive is done according to these rules, it is more conservative that those divers using dive computers; e.g. less risk of decompression sickness.

SeaRat

The only less conservative part of the US Navy method is the ascent rate they use with their dive tables. Have they changed it to be more conservative than they used to be? Also, do they teach making precautionary/safety stops now?

 

[BoltSnap]

For the recreational entry-level diver training program, there is nothing more comprehensive than the NAUI textbook. The NOAA manual is the one to use for university-level and scientific diver training.

 

[jseyfert3]

The only less conservative part of the US Navy method is the ascent rate they use with their dive tables. Have they changed it to be more conservative than they used to be? Also, do they teach making precautionary/safety stops now?

What ascent rate did they used to use? I've scanned revs 4A (2001) through 7 (2016) and they all indicate an ascent rate of 30 fpm is to be used when ascending normally during open-circuit SCUBA diving operations.

If you dive the U.S. Navy method, the U.S. Navy Diving Tables, even for repetitive diving, are more conservative than today’s diving computers. Why? Because the tables diver starts counting bottom time from the time (s)he starts on the surface to the dime (s)he comes off the bottom to ascend to the surface. It uses the total time at depth, and doesn’t count time during an ascent that includes extended times coming up (that’s still bottom time under the U.S. Navy rules). So if the dive is done according to these rules, it is more conservative that those divers using dive computers; e.g. less risk of decompression sickness.

SeaRat

What about the US Navy method of...using a dive computer? The US Navy doesn't require, but absolutely allows, the use of dive computers instead of tables. Tables are required to do a general plan of the dive, but are not required to be used for the dive itself.

Rev 7 of the US Navy Dive Manual, Chapter 7, section 4.1.10, Dive Computers, states that dive computers have proven useful in optimization and management of dive time and decompression. Appendix 2B-3.2 gives further details, outlining how a dive can be planned with limits stated in NDL from a computer, rather than using a table:

For ease of dive planning, dive supervisors may elect to limit the maximum depth and remaining no-decompression time, or the maximum time at a specific ceiling. The allows the divers flexibility in conducting underwater tasks throughout the water column rather than being held to an arbitrary square table. For buddy pair, or group diving, the governing NDC sets the limitations.


Example: A dive supervisor for a square table dive would brief, "no deeper than 60 fsw, no longer than 50 minutes". A diver supervisor for an NDC dive would brief, "no deeper than 60 fsw, no less than 3 minutes remaining no-decompression time," or alternatively, "leave bottom after incurring no more than :05 of total decompression time."

(NDC = Navy Dive Computer)

 

[BoltSnap]

What ascent rate did they used to use? I've scanned revs 4A (2001) through 7 (2016) and they all indicate an ascent rate of 30 fpm is to be used when ascending normally during open-circuit SCUBA diving operations.

It used to be 60 fpm.