Which book on Tek diving is best?

[WRKNUT]

The new DSAT Tec/Rec book gives a good insight to tec diving plus you get
to see what the course is about and how it's structured!

 

[bwerb]

Since no one has mentioned it...I enjoyed reading "Getting Clear on the Basics: The Fundamentals of Technical Diving".

 

[MikeFerrara]

I think the original poster was looking for more technical stuff.

The DSAT text doesn't have anything technical in it on decompression or physiology and the Fundies book is pretty fundimental. LOL

 

[pipedope]

I would say that certain books are better to start.
The best is to read them all.

"Technical Diving in Depth"
"Encyclopedia of Tech Diving" IANTD
The tech book by Gary Gentile, I don't remember the title.
All of the GUE books.
Anything by Steven Barsky.
Anything by Jeffrey Bozanic.
Text books from commercial diving schools.
Everything by Vance Harlow, airspeed press.

Advanced Diver Magazine
Underwater magazine (commercial)
Nitrox Diver magazine (IANTD)

Anything and everything you can get your hands on.

There is always more to learn.

 

[bwerb]

I think the original poster was looking for more technical stuff.

The DSAT text doesn't have anything technical in it on decompression or physiology and the Fundies book is pretty fundimental. LOL

The Fundamentals of Technical diving is NOT the same as the "Fundies" book...it is the Tech 1 textbook and is much much more detailed.

 

[roakey]

It's hard to say that there is one "best" book out there, as there are many that delve into the aspects of tech diving. I've found that my simple library continues to expand, and I learn something new from every book I read.

Right, my solution to this was to stop at Best Publishing* last time I was driving through Flagstaff, walk up and down the isles of shelving (it's a warehouse, not a bookstore), load up on books and then hand my Visa to the nice lady in the office and tell her I didn't want to know what the total was until I was out the door

Roak

* Contact them in advance and they're happy to let you buy "off the shelf".

 

[Paul Fons]

Well as I am in Japan, not so near to AZ, I suppose I will have to make due with a virtual tour of the rows. At the moment, I was curious to learn more about technical diving and even more about decompression dynamics (an important thing to understand even if one is only diving to 20-30 meters instead of 100!). As I also am into modeling things, one of the things I thought would be neat to try was to try out various codes on a computer myself (physics is my day job) to learn what the strong and weak points of each model is (all models are an attempt to simplify a complicated system and preserve the essential trends and as such all have faults). In this sense, I would like to play with the code (or write a version myself based upon the information in the book). Of course, if I were to go diving and I believed in the model, I would just buy a diving computer with the program imbedded (I like taking things apart and seeing how they work -- my day job is the same, but I am not going into business! :leseratte) Besides, I suspect that my powerbook wouldn't work so well underwater!
In looking over the available titles at Best Publishing, it seemed that the books by Bruce R. Wienke were appropriate for what I wanted to experiment with. How much overlap is there between "Technical Diving in Depth" and "The Reduced Gradient Bubble Model in Depth" is there? Is there enough information in the latter to duplicate (some of) the essential physics of decompression dynamics by myself (for fun)? In any case, it would seem to be a good idea to read a summary of the literature to this point.
In terms of the other books mentioned, GUE and IANTD, I assume these are only available from their respective organizations. Any comments on what is in the books from these organizations (the details on the web sites are somewhat sketchy).

 

[Paul Fons]

The Technical Diver Encyclopedia by Tom Mount is a very good book.

Amazon says this book is unavailable and on the IANTD web site, although the book is listed in the product listings, there didn't seem to be any way to order it. Best Publishing didn't have it either. Any ideas of how to buy a copy (it is not in the local bookstore here!)

 

[SoCalAngel]

Amazon says this book is unavailable and on the IANTD web site, although the book is listed in the product listings, there didn't seem to be any way to order it. Best Publishing didn't have it either. Any ideas of how to buy a copy (it is not in the local bookstore here!)

Contact a LDS that does IANTD training...they should be able to take your visa # and ship to you. Laguna Sea Sports in CA could help you (949) 494-6965. I love Gordie at the shop and he is really very helpful ( I don't work for him, just happen to have his number in my phone!)

 

[barb]

I'm not sure how much "detail" you're looking for but.... I found Technical Diving in Depth by Dr. Wienke had a bit too much detail for me. However, his book Second Edition Basic Decompression I found more to my liking. I'd say it's a good book to read if you're planning on doing any decompression diving. This book is available through Best Publishing

Another book that has'nt been mentionned (my personal favourite, so far), Diving Physiology In Plain English by Jolie Bookspan. This book is available through D.A.N..

Gary Gentiles' book The Technical Diving Handbook is also good to read (although, some have said that some of the information is now out-dated). I think I saw this book on Amazon.com but can't remember.

Good Luck and what a great way to start the New Year!!

Barb