The Editor's Book Picks
The Best of the Dive Books for Serious Divers

Step Zero
by Dennis Adams and Cathy and Peter Swan

Getting Started on a Scuba Photo Trip; Seven days on an underwater photography trip to a resort or on a liveaboard requires twice as many days to plan and organize, so if you haven’t done it completely and correctly you can waste a bundle of time and money and shed buckets of tears over missed shots. Not only does this 80 page book by Dennis Adams and Cathy and Peter Swan provide a full 17 page checklist of everything you will need to travel and shoot, but it provides an orderly planning and procurement schedule and scores of insider's tips. Its an essential book for anyone planning a first time photo safari, but just as useful for any of us who have spent a week kicking ourselves about leaving home that one crucial item and having to beg, borrow and jury rig while out of the water missing that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity below.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.

Fifty Places to Dive Before You Die
by Chris Santella

In this new book, edited by Chris Santella, a bevy of well-known divers wax about 50 top dive destinations, most of which are on everyone’s list. The descriptions are brief and to the point, just enough to help you decide whether to do more research. Divers will agree on most choices (what, no Red Sea? And there are better places for whale sharks than Utila) with Indonesia getting the most selections (5) But there are Australia and Fiji, Cayman and Costa Rica, and even plenty of cold water spots: British Columbia, Washington State, the UK and New Zealand. The perfect book to stimulate your fantasies.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.

An American Underwater Odyssey: 50 Dives in 50 States
: by Charles Ballinger.

Underwater Odyssey is the story of a scuba diving safari to every state in America. Tired of touring coral reefs, the author embarks on a year-long quest to discover the incredible assortment of adventure diving found in our nation's backyard. His dogged determination to follow his dreams and explore everything from flooded missile sites to abandoned mines should be an inspiration for any diver. Underwater Odyssey transcends the limits of a dive guide to reveal the broader adventure that diving provides.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.

Diving Cozumel ... Cayman Islands ... Belize ... Bahamas ... Bay Islands ... Bonaire ... Bermuda ... British Virgin Islands ... Hawaii ... Micronesia
by Speck, Garoutte, Middleton, Cancelmo, Strohofer, Lewbel, Martin, Douglass, Verdure, Rosenberg, Hanauer...

No matter where you are headed, the Aqua Quest Books covering your destination are the only way to supplement Undercurrent's hardhitting critical information. Each of these books describes specific dive sites, depths and location, shore diving entries, the critters you'll see, local history and customs, places of interests. Take one as you travel or buy one after you return for the memories. Scores of excellent colorful pictures and maps supplement each of these 7x10 paperback 128 page books.

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
by Robert Kurson

Janet Maslin, writing in The New York Times, says that "Kurson's new book features undersea thrills, a gripping mystery, incredible discoveries, true-blue friendship, life-or-death crises, and history unfolding before the reader's eyes. ... Written with great you-are-there intensity and dynamic verve." "It is one thing, wreck divers will tell you, to slither in near-total darkness through a shipwreck's twisted, broken mazes, each room a potential trap of swirling silt and collapsing structure," Mr. Kurson writes with typical brio. "It is another to do so without knowing that someone did it before you and lived." A U-boat discovered at 230 feet off of New Jersey in 1991 is the setting for this thrilling adventure, where divers on compressed air fight narcosis, ripping currents, bad visibility - and themselves. Perhaps the best dive adventure ever, this book is so compelling that Hollywood has already purchased the filming rights for $1,000,000.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.

Bennett and Elliott's Physiology and Medicine of Diving
Edited by Alf Brubakk and Tom Neuman

Here is the "bible" of diving medicine. This fifth edition, published last year, is the first in a decade. Featuring thirty chapters, this 779-page book focuses on the physiological basis of safe diving, the pathogenesis of diving illnesses, and the clinical diagnosis and management of related disorders. Diving methods, pressure effects, decompression, and long- term effects receive particular attention, but ventilation, thermal considerations, drowning, accident investigation, and diving equipment are also discussed. Edited by Alf Brubakk and Tom Neuman, the book has 45 international expert contributors.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.

Open Water
Starring by: Saul Stein, Blanchard Ryan, Directed by: Chris Kentis

It's "Jaws" meets "The Blair Witch Project" when a vacationing couple on a scuba diving expedition accidentally gets left behind and must fend for themselves in shark-infested waters. The movie, directed by Chris Kentis, features unknown actors and was filmed on a shoestring budget, sans camera tricks or mechanical man-eaters. The circling sharks you see are … real! "Open Water" was inspired by a real-life account reported in the pages of Undercurrent.

Click here to buy it at Amazon.

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Complete List of Diving Books

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