Best Comprehensive Book on Diving

[happy-diver]

There are so many bits and pieces you can glean from so many manuals, that none are dated

CLASSIC DIVING BOOKS - B.S.A.C. MANUAL

Haven't done a course with them, too regimented, but BSAC comprehensive good and cheap

But when doing courses it is best to stick with with course stuff. before too much information
comes and bites you

 

[glennster]

check out the NOAA DIVING Manual. about as complete as you ne

 

[rongoodman]

Before trusting your dive computer make sure you do understand and use the dive table. There is so much to learn from dive table because they cover so many aspect of a dive. A dive computer is just a tool for reference if you don't understand how it work it's useless.

Disagree. If you want to understand how decompression models work, read a book about them, such as Deco for Divers. Tables were a way of summarizing that information before the advent of modern dive computers, but do nothing to illustrate the underlying model that they might have been using.

 

[boulderjohn]

People mistakenly believe tables teach you something about diving because traditionally tables were taught at about the same time decompression theory was taught. All learning about tables teaches you is how to plan a dive after you've learned about decompression theory.

 

[34109411]

Disagree. If you want to understand how decompression models work, read a book about them, such as Deco for Divers. Tables were a way of summarizing that information before the advent of modern dive computers, but did nothing to illustrate the underlying model that they might have been using.

well of course it goes all together didn't say the contrary. It's continuous education.

 

[34109411]

People mistakenly believe tables teach you something about diving because traditionally tables were taught at about the same time decompression theory was taught. All learning about tables teaches you is how to plan a dive after you've learned about decompression theory.

off course what i mean is start with the table to gather other useful information. Book is always good for sure !

 

[pauldw]

What is dated in it? I admit I haven't looked at it in a long time, but as I recall (it's on my bookshelves somewhere) it was a pretty comprehensive treatment of the subject without getting too far into the weeds, and written at a level anyone with just a high-shool level understanding of math and science can understand. I'm not necessarily suggesting that's what the OP is looking for--just curious what about it is dated.

The current edition, the third edition, is 2008. The second edition came out in 1996, I think. The first edition came out in 1988, I think. So it seems like it would be good for a fourth edition these sixteen years later (which is a larger gap than between the earlier editions). But I do not want to sound like what's in there now isn't valuable, because it is valuable. In fact, I think most OW divers should read it for a much better grounding in the diving world generally than they get in class. I'm just thinking that the current version doesn't include such important historical information as "Before Atomic, there was no 'best' in scuba diving."

 

[Litefoot]

I read Wikipedia’s description of the various editions of the NOAA manual. Are there anything significant changes that would compel a rec diver to buy the 6th edition rather than download the 4th edition available here on SB?

 

[boulderjohn]

off course what i mean is start with the table to gather other useful information.

I don't know what this means.

 

[34109411]

I don't know what this means.

don't worry be safe.