I was traveling recently which meant time to read on my Kindle. I took the opportunity to knock out a couple of titles that had been sitting in my to read "pile".
It also covers how technical diving got the name, trimix, accelerated decompression, and CCR; and how the push to get them accepted by mainstream diving culture instead of going the route of cave diving which largely stayed separate and wasn't pushing for acceptance by the larger sport diving public.
The writing might not appeal to those outside of diving, but I felt that it was well written enough that I think even those outside the tech community would appreciate the insight of how things progressed. In the appendixes it also includes a timeline of the events involved and relevant articles like the Sports Illustrated articles that Cathie Cush wrote.
I personally can't verify the accuracy but on Amazon it was reviews from those claiming to be those involved like Joel Silverstein and Bill Gleason. One negative it is written in the Queen's English, so the lack of Zs and the "our"s might make you double take as you read it.
It was an interesting look into the early years of cave diving that I had only heard as oral stores from other cave divers. Like he had been cave diving for the better part of a decade before he decided to get open water certified just in case he needed to get his tanks filled outside of shops that were in cave country.
It has a lot of color photos and maps that prevented me from reading it on my Kindle, instead I had to read it on my iPad. He goes into extra ordinary detail about some of his exploration project, which is both a positive and a negative. It is a positive as it sometimes involved basically doing zero viz dives, and he shows edited maps just showing what they knew at the time. The negative is that it drags a bit at the time as some of the exploration is just ho hum "Hey we found a lead that we didn't see before" and it just was a normal line running and survey.
Technically Speaking: Talks on Technical Diving Volume 1: Genesis and Exodus by Simon Pridmore
Yes that is a super long title, you would almost think it is a Japanese light novel. Out of the two books I think this has the most widespread appeal. It covers technical diving in the 90s which includes Nitrox as it was roped into technical diving by the recreational agencies at the time, and how they were able to push it mainstream and the lowering of the max PPO2 recommendations.It also covers how technical diving got the name, trimix, accelerated decompression, and CCR; and how the push to get them accepted by mainstream diving culture instead of going the route of cave diving which largely stayed separate and wasn't pushing for acceptance by the larger sport diving public.
The writing might not appeal to those outside of diving, but I felt that it was well written enough that I think even those outside the tech community would appreciate the insight of how things progressed. In the appendixes it also includes a timeline of the events involved and relevant articles like the Sports Illustrated articles that Cathie Cush wrote.
I personally can't verify the accuracy but on Amazon it was reviews from those claiming to be those involved like Joel Silverstein and Bill Gleason. One negative it is written in the Queen's English, so the lack of Zs and the "our"s might make you double take as you read it.
The Education of a Cave Diver by Guy Bryant
This book is a bit more niche, really would only appeal to cave divers or those interested in the hobby. Guy Bryant started cave diving in the 70s and was diving with many of the big names in cave diving like Sheck, Court Smith, and Wes Skiles. He still dives today and you will often see him sharing his latest hobby which is long multi exposure compositions of springs lit up at night.It was an interesting look into the early years of cave diving that I had only heard as oral stores from other cave divers. Like he had been cave diving for the better part of a decade before he decided to get open water certified just in case he needed to get his tanks filled outside of shops that were in cave country.
It has a lot of color photos and maps that prevented me from reading it on my Kindle, instead I had to read it on my iPad. He goes into extra ordinary detail about some of his exploration project, which is both a positive and a negative. It is a positive as it sometimes involved basically doing zero viz dives, and he shows edited maps just showing what they knew at the time. The negative is that it drags a bit at the time as some of the exploration is just ho hum "Hey we found a lead that we didn't see before" and it just was a normal line running and survey.
