Scuba Diving Books

This book was a great mix on the culture and history of Hawaii, as well as great advice on scuba diving from people who actually dive and live there. The authors, who are also marine biologists and photographers, pointed out a lot of marine life that I previously didn't even know to look for. After reading, my dives were greatly enhanced having this added knowledge. And the photography was nice too. Very easy and interesting to read.

Covers virtually all areas with diving facilities, from popular ones like Bali or North Sulawesi to little-known gems like the Tukangbesi Islands of South-East Sulawesi or the Raja Ampat Islands of West Papua. No information for snorkellers though.

This is an excellent book on night scuba diving. It is easy to read and very infomative, I sugggest it to all my diving students!
Current and up-to-date!

The word "California" conjures up all manner of images from sun-drenched beaches to Hollywood - rarely making one think of the offshore islands that have so very much to offer the visiting Scuba Diver.

"Diving Offshore California" measures 10" x 7" and is another guide in the medium size format favoured by Aqua Quest. These particular publishers set high standards and demand all contributing authors/photographers maintain those standards at all times. This is, therefore, another worthy addition to the series.

The book is well laid out thus ensuring every page has the right mix of written information and visually informative colour photographs or maps. Commencing with an overview of the past and the present, the book then goes on to include all that useful information required by any potential visitor - weather, access boat diving, preservation, visibility, photography, currents and much more besides. We are then treated to a map of California showing the location of the offshore islands roughly situated between Santa Barbara and San Diego. The next 13 chapters are then dedicated to each of the featured islands - and one of them even includes diving around oil-rig platforms. A total of over 90 individual dive sites are included and each of these contains all the information the potential visitor will wish to know.

With a final chapter devoted to Marine Life, the book then concludes with a number of Appendices containing that all-important emergency information and useful numbers such as Charter Boats and Dive Centres.

Altogether, this book contains all the information the potential visitor will require for contemplating such a trip. My only criticism is reserved for a couple of the photographs which are not quite sharp enough and might be replaced at the next re-printing stage.

NM

For all those new divers (less than 10 years of activity) this book will really open their eyes to how sport diving, exploring and sharing the underwater world via images came about. Plus diving as a work activity and Bev Morgan's contribution helping commercial divers push the limits of that arena.

If you started diving way back in 1969 like I did, the stories and interviews with names you will recognize make reading this a delight. I practically read it straight through in 3-4 days!

Bret Gilliam may be a bit controversial, but he tells it like many already think including politics, business dealings and more of the underwater world.

Buy it!

I borrowed this book from the library and I love it. My children have spent more time in this book than just about any other book we own. They are learning about sea life and having a great time looking at the pictures, while I am learning about the world. What a fabulous book!!!!

The cover with its big "Diving with Sharks" title and the prominent picture of a great white shark suggests that this is a book about sharks, and it is, but that is not all it is. The smaller print says "and Other Adventure Dives," and then at the bottom, "includes practical advice for experienced divers." In fact, only about half of the editorial part of this excellent book is about sharks. The other half is about all sorts of other cool sea creatures and adventures like wreck diving, caverns, caves and places with strong currents. So be aware of that if all you seek is shark information.

The book's author, Jack Jackson, is one of the world's great adventurers. Though he started out as an industrial chemist, his soon directed his sights on traveling, mountaineering, writing and lecturing all over the globe. He made over 20 expeditions in the Sahara Desert, and over 160 treks and journeys into deserts, mountains, rainforests and seas around the world, and that includes places far, far off the beaten track.

The picture shown on his website is that of a grizzled graybeard, precisely what you'd expect a seasoned explorer to look like. Yet, despite his vast experience with things and places most of us can only dream of, Jackson never lectures or pontificates, nor is he excessively obsessed with arcane minutiae of whatever he sets his sights on. He is an eminently practical man who always sees the big picture, and one who truly knows how to present his adventures in large-format, compelling books with superb photography, many illustrations, sidebars, and whatever else it takes to really convey both the essence and the depth of a topic. When I first got into Scuba, his "Complete Diving Manual" was instrumental in giving me a good foundation and understanding of all aspects of diving. You wouldn't necessarily expect that from a world traveling explorer who also wrote on non-diving related adventures such as "The Asian Highway" and a book on choosing, using and maintaining go-anywhere 4-wheel-drive vehicles.

"Diving with Sharks" is divided into six sections. The first, and largest, is on sharks. Here, Jackson describes sharks, diving with sharks both in steel cages and among them, different kinds of sharks, and different locations. He covers Blue and Mako Sharks, Great Whites, Hammerheads, Raggedtooth Sharks and adds a section on shark feeding sites as well as aquarium shark dives for those who'd rather approach those magnificent creatures in the safety of a confined space. The large 8-1/2 x 11 format of the book and the heavy, glossy stock are used to the max with numerous excellent color photos. On each large two-page spread, you not only get to read Jackson's informative, firsthand descriptions, but you can also see exactly what it's like.

A smaller section entitled "Diving with Gentle Giants" covers Whale Sharks and Basking Sharks, and this wouldn't be a Jack Jackson book if the section did not include a superb illustration that shows the relative size of all those sharks and whale sharks, with a human diver and a Blue Whale providing perspective. Next comes a colorful, informative and again superbly illustrated pot-pourri on all sorts of sea creatures, from Dolphins to Mantas and other rays, turtles, jellifish, potato cod and even sea snakes.

Now Jackson moves on to diving in different kinds of environments. First underwater adventures in strong currents in places like Palau, Cozumel, Cocos Island, and the Philippines. Then it's on to wreck diving, with descriptions of a good dozen major wrecks and wreck sites around the world. In typical Jackson fashion, this includes sidebars on diving with scuba pioneer Hans Hass and an overview of extended range/technical diving. A final section is on closed overhead environments and this one, again, covers everything from generic information on cavern and cave diving to equipment to the description of half a dozen of the world's great overhead dives -- again accompanied by fantastic photography and extras like a superbly rendered cross section illustration of the Wookey Hole sump/cave system in England.

"Multimedia" glossies are often lightweight coffee table books with lots of pictures and little substance. Jackson never falls into that trap. He and his publishers are masters in using words, pictures, typefaces, photographs, illustrations and related graphics to make topics come to life and turn mere reading into a spell-binding experience.

-- C. H. Blickenstorfer

I proposed the idea of the book when I realized that very little had been written about the field of underwater rescue and recovery, other than training manuals. At the time I was a member of the Lee's Summit Underwater Rescue & Recovery team and I decided that the book would be an oral history from divers who served on the team in the 1960's up to the 1990's.

During the 1960's and 70's there were no certification programs for underwater rescue proceedures, divers learned by trial and error. The founding members of the Lee's Summit team were fortunate to have amoung their members a former Navy Frogman to whip them into shape and give them direction.

Today's divers may be shocked at some of the techniques used in the early days in the caves and murky waters as described in these stories. This book is a history and not a training manual. Many of the proceedures described in this book have been abandoned while others are the foundation of current underwater rescue team methods.

(...)

If you were putting together a trip for scientific research, a group of experienced divers, or something along those lines, this is the book you would want. It is a great reference and has many helpful checklists to get you focused.

the book is very well written, easy to read and understand. the topics covered are those that any advanced diver may encounter on any dive in saltwater. it goes just deep enough into the subjects to give you a fairly through knowlage of what to expect on a dive into the discribed enviroment without boreing you with lenghty technical terms that only a scientest would understand. it discribes boat diving, deep diving, underwater hunting, cold, kelp, wall, wrecks, night, camera, caves, dangers and hazards with life forms at depths, as well as human physiology and the hazards associated with hyperbaric activity. it also covers the equipment, and educational aspect of learning snorkling and scuba. It IS a very good book, and if you have more than just a passing interest in scuba diving, then this book is a "must read" book. It is the most fulfilling book I have read on diving. it was published in 1980, and some of diving techniques have changed slightly, (at least in my area,-pac.N.W.)the ocean and its critters have remained the same. .....Lou