Scuba books worth reading?

[rawls]

I would suggest "The Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving"...Has everything you are looking for...

 

[TheFoggyMask]

some excellent suggestions.. my amazon 'wish list' is now pretty big

Foggy were you serious about the DIR book? (Hard to tell from your signature!) I don't know much about DIR, is it useful for a noob? Can you take some principles and apply them to improve your saftey, or is it a 'do everything as we say' method? I heard some stuff about having to buy all gear from one manufacturer and having to wear your gear exactly right that seemed unescessarily prescriptive.. I might get into tec diving in the future but I have only logged 5 dives right now!

I'm not being rude about DIR, just curious.

ns

Its perfectly applicable to rec diving and has a helluva lot more information than the tiny books padi sells. It has a huge amount of information in one book. The reason why a lot of the equipment is made by Halycon is because Halycon's purpose is to make gear that is DIR oriented. There is a lot more than can be explained in one post to DIR.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

Check out the books by airspeed press.

 

[Midnight Star]

Cousteau's "Silent World", the story of the invention of scuba...

I read that two weeks ago (from the public library) and really enjoyed it. In a way, I envied them as I read ... they were completely free; experimenting and learning things that we are now taught in the classroom. Everything was new and undiscovered. What an adventure that mustv'e been

-----

Mike.

 

[Ben_ca]

Another vote for Doing It Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving...

It poses some good questions on the "Why" people dive the way they do...

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

I read that two weeks ago (from the public library) and really enjoyed it. In a way, I envied them as I read ... they were completely free; experimenting and learning things that we are now taught in the classroom. Everything was new and undiscovered. What an adventure that mustv'e been

-----

Mike.

Yes, it's amazing that any of them survived:11: --- breathing pure oxygen at depth, entangled in wrecks diving alone, breathing contaminated air from industrial compressors, and all the time hiding their discoveries from the Nazis (and no computers, no dive tables, no wings, nothing but guts.)

 

[Vie]

1) general scuba skills/ saftey at a more advanced level than PADI OW

Jablonski, Jarrod. Doing It Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving.

2) Scuba equiptment and how it works/ is serviced (I'm into gadgets and like to know how stuff works)

NAUI Master Scuba Diver manual.

Harlow, Vance. SCUBA Regulator Maintenace and Repair.

Bozanic, Jeffrey E. Mastering Rebreathers.

3) The physics of diving? Maybe this would be a little hard core. I am a scientist, but I aint too good with math!

4) Physiology/ diving medicine/ decompression theory

NAUI Master Scuba Diver manual.

Wienke, Bruce R. Basic Decompression Theory and Application.

Jablonski, Jarrod. Getting Clear on the Basics: The Fundamentals of Technical Diving.

The Mysterious Malady; Toward an understanding of decompression injuries. (DVD).

5) General good diving stories, inspirational reading

In no particular order, I would recommend:

Norton, Trevor. Stars Beneath the Sea and Underwater to Get Out of the Rain.

Harrigan, Stephen. Water and Light.

Farr, Martyn. Darkness Beckons: The History and Development of Cave Diving.

Waterman, Stan. Sea Salt.

This last one is not scuba related but is a really good read:

Hamilton-Paterson, James. Three Miles Down.

 

[Swamp]

If you don't mind used books, check out http:\\www.abebooks.com. "Silent World" can be found for as little as $1.00. http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&isbn=0345275292.

I have had very good luck buying books from them.


Brian

 

[Vie]

Can anyone recommend a good book on saturation diving? Not study material, just general interest or even an autobiography.

Just off the top of my head, chapters 19 and 20 of Mark V. Lonsdale's United States Navy Diver, Performance Under Pressure.

 

[WarrenZ]

I have heard excellent things about the book Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson I just picked it up today and will have a personal review available in a couple of weeks.