Please suggest diving book

[northcoast_diver]

My suggestions would be the NAUI Master Diver Manual or the PADI Encyclopoedia of Recreational Diving. Those are beginner level.

The NOAA Diving Manual does have a large portion of history in it, but it is of most benefit to Nitrox certified divers, stage deco divers, altitude divers, or trimix divers.

 

[String]

Get your hands on "Sport Diving - the British Sub Aqua Club Sport Diving Manual"

As a new diver you will find it educational and interesting reading. A good reference book for years afterwards.

Seadeuce

Might have to disagree here..

I had this book when learning to dive and even for an unqualified novice found it simplistic and not a lot of use.

 

[DORSETBOY]

Agreed, no disrespct to BSAC but I found it about as useful as a chocolate fireguard! ;o)

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

No one's said Shadow Divers yet. Great book. Also, on my list to read is Last Dive because I hear it's good.

I have read both Shadow Divers and The Last Dive and found them both to be very educational and very interesting. Awesome reads that every diver should have on their shelf.

 

[padrediver]

Bought the " NAUI NITROX:A guide to diving with oxygen enriched air" book last year at my local dive shop...fifty bucks....and a really nice intro to tech diving, nitrox,
and rebreathers. (when I first heard of Nitrox diving twelve years ago I thought they meant nitrous oxide and I thought "no wonder they're going on shark feeding tours".
(my old DTA training was strictly heliox/trimix)That NOAA book appears to be the ultimate...I'll be getting it soon when I have time to read it.

 

[r37691]

If you want a lot of information, try The Technical Divers Encyclopedia, by Tom Mount. I picked mine up on Ebay, Here's a link to the seller I purchased from:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1300&item=3694992815
Shadow Divers, The Last Dive, Deep Descent & Dark Descent were pretty interesting also.

 

[Daryl Morse]

Thanks for the replies.

As far as books for interest's sake go, one book I read is Fatal Depth, which is about the deaths that occurred diving the Andrea Doria.

I'm looking more for reference books. I want to learn about diving techniques, physics, dive planning, and decompression, even if I won't be doing deco diving any time soon.

I saw two votes for the Fundamentals of Better Diving. I guess that's gotta be on the list, even if I don't end diving DIR.

I also saw a vote for the NOAA manual. I looked on the NOAA website. This book is almost 700 pages long. It has sections on physics of diving, diving physiology, nitrox diving, decompression diving and dive planning, but there are a number of topics such as diving polluted waters that aren't of much interest to me. Are there any other books that cover these topics or is this book the best "one-stop-shop"?

I looked on scubadivingbooks.com and noticed a few interesting looking books. Anyone read any of these:

• Essentials of Deeper Sport Diving, by John Lippmann : Reviews on Amazon were that it's a good book, but dated. (1992)

• Deep Diving, Revised: An Advanced Guide to Physiology, Procedures and Systems, by Bret Gilliam : No reviews. (1995)

• The Technical Diving Handbook, by Gary Gentile : There was one review that said it was a bad book. (1998)

 

[headhunter]

Read the Navy Dive Manual.

I tossed a zipped copy of it on my website. It's about 9MB, but it's free and talks about all sorts of different diving issues.

Anybody who wants to read it can go to the URL below and click on the link. It will ask you if you want to save the file. Just save it where you want it on your hard drive.

http://nativecreative.com/navy/

Inside the zip file there is an executable file (.exe) that installs an entire set of pdf files with a Table of contents that leads to each one. You access it by going to Start > Programs > Navy > Navy Manual

It is definitely reference material. It does not read like a novel. But it is definitely educational.

Enjoy!

Christian

 

[idratherbediving]

definitally have to get "shadow divers", a great read, and the the "last dive" is a good book about 2 of the divers mentioned in shadow divers. "fatal depth" is about the andrea doria and dark "descent" is a good book about the empress of ireland. all good books and very informative.

 

[Pliskin]

Last Dive, Deep Descent, and Shadow Divers are all great books.