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Scuba Diving by Dennis K Graver
Scuba Diving by Dennis K Graver
Produced primarily for the US market, this large, soft-backed book does an excellent job in covering the basics of diving comprehensively. Sensibly, the Americans still work in psi, ats, lb and feet, though metric equivalents are provided in most cases.
My only gripe with the content is minor - there are a few too many unnecessary and simplistic illustrations. Pictures of neoprene gloves and boots, for instance, have zero value in my view.
However, the copious, multi-coloured diagrams and charts, together with a clear, jargon-free text, do explain the more complex areas in unambiguous terms. The anatomical diagrams of the respiratory system and ears are particularly good.
I cannot agree with reviews on the back cover stating that the book will be very useful to advanced divers. To be fair, this is not a claim made by the author in the introduction, but those reviews could mislead potential purchasers. After all, areas such as wreck- and night-diving, rebreathers and nitrox are not touched on. Even drift-diving is referred to as 'a speciality activity' and considered too hazardous within the scope of the book!
Ninety per cent of the content should have been absorbed to gain the first open-water qualification of any training organisation, so I cannot see Scuba Diving being referred to much beyond this point, except by the newly certified or very infrequent diver.
However, for anybody just taking up the sport and wanting a back-up to the training manual provided, or perhaps for an instructor wanting fresh ideas on how to put things across, it is well worth considering. Jim Greenfield |
Scuba Diving by Dennis K Graver, Human Kinetics (0113 378 1708). Softback, 204pp, £16.95
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