DIR Friendly books?

[And]

<font color='#0000FF'>Hi

Fancy buying myself a book to read and wondered what books are out there which are kind of DIR friendly whatever that means.

I looked around for Sheck Exleys books but they seem to be out of print.

Can anyone recommend anything else? Deep Wreck, Cave etc?

Andy

[Tibbs]

I've got Caverns Measureless to Man if you want to borrow it - I can give it to Rob when you go on Tech 1.

Oh, and if you can have a look through Gary Gentile's Technical Diving Handbook. It's a hoot.

Other than that it's pretty much JJ's stuff.

Chris

[Bob Cooper]

Here are some of my favourites:

The Last Dive - Bernie Chowdhury (a &quot;must read&quot; for all divers)
Deep Descent - Kevin McMurray (all about the Andrea Doria, really scary stuff! I couldn't put it down)
The Cave Divers - Robert Burgess (about 20 different stories from around the world)
If there's one book I'd recomend it would be the little blue pamphlet &quot;Basic Cave Diving - a blueprint for survival&quot; - written by Sheck Exley over 20 years ago it presenta a basic set of rules, upon which, all cave training (including GUE) is based. &nbsp;You may not be able to get it in UK though. &nbsp;I'll get some next time I'm in USA.

[Rob Evans]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]The Last Dive - Bernie Chowdhury (a &quot;must read&quot; for all divers)
Deep Descent - Kevin McMurray (all about the Andrea Doria, really scary stuff! I couldn't put it down)

Now there's a funny thing - I've read both these books and really rated  them, however there was a post on one forum or another recently (possibly Divernet) re: diving books and they got a right slagging.  Different strokes and all that (NO PUN INTENDED ) Seriously though, 'The Last Dive' is a real eye-opener, well worth a read.
I've been after material by Sheck Exley for a while now - 'Caves measureless to man' seems to be rare as rocking horse poo these days - and I'm off to the States in a couple of weeks, so I'll keep my eyes open for Basic Cave Diving; thanks for that Bob. Best places to look?  Anyobody else want a copy?

[Tibbs]

Rob - did these books scare you? I must admit I've only read The Last Dive, and it only reinforced the DIR concept. All the macho bullsh*t all through the book made me want to spit feathers.

It also made me laugh - all the way through the book Bernie was going on about the importance of always carrying your deco with you. When he got bent and the Rouses died - what didn't they do? Carry their deco gas! His solution? Through water comms!

So often there are people who suggest answers to problems without actually dealing with the problem itself. The Last Dive does this to the nth degree.

Chris

[Rob Evans]

Hi Chris,
Dunno if TLD scared me so much as gave me a bloody good idea of what might happen if I indulged in the sort of muppetry they got up to. &nbsp;If ever there was a good reason for steering well clear of deep air amongst other things, this book is it. &nbsp;A first hand - reasonably well written - account of a load of serious bends is I'd say fairly essential reading to anyone aspiring to those sort of depths.

As you say the through water comms thing is a nonsense. &nbsp;If you prevent the problems happening in the first place, you don't need it.

Interesting to note that tekkies have been handbagging pretty much since day 1

[Spike Jackson]

Caverns measureless to Man is available at www.simplyscuba.com
Cave diving: a blueprint for survival, also by Sheck Exley is available at www.aquapres.co.uk

[And]

<font color='#0000FF'>Hi

Thanks guys.

Bought and read The Last Dive during the week.

Ordered both Sheck's books so looking forward to them.

Andy

[Spike Jackson]

Please let me know what you think of them - keep meaning to buy them but can't justify it as too much in the &quot;to be read pile&quot; already!

[Bob Cooper]

Sheck Exley's &quot;Blueprint for Survival&quot; really is a &quot;must read&quot; for any budding cave divers. &nbsp;Even though it was first written over 25 years ago, most of it is still relevent and most of today's agency's material is based on it still.

It introduced the five basic rules of safe cave diving which are still taught today.