The subtitle is How to Buy, Upgrade, and Use Snorkeling Equipment, Identify and Understand Aquatic Animals and their Ecosystems, Keep Safe, Swim Better, Plan Trips, Protect Our Living World, And Have Great Fun. The book is obviously geared to those who have no experience
of snorkelling or diving, and Burgess does provide a good introduction to choosing sites and kit.
He tends, however, to get bogged down in unnecessary detail that spoils the flow of good advice. Do we need to know exactly how to apply sun cream? An entire chapter devoted to different fin-strokes feels over the top, and I doubt whether snorkellers need to be told how to deal with a fear of flying.
Wes Burgess’s use of personal anecdotes does enhance the guide, though it reads a bit like a PADI manual with added journal extracts. That the writer is American is particularly apparent in his discussion of what to wear when snorkelling offshore, and which lakes provide great inland experiences.
But ultimately it’s the graphics and lay-out that let down The Ultimate Snorkeling Book. Rather than the good-quality photographs of fauna I would expect with such a guide, the low-grade clip-art-type illustrations used are of little relevance to the inexperienced snorkeller.
These graphics, along with the cramped layout and small print over a wide measure, stop the book feeling like a combination of journal and guide, and make it look cheap and home-made.
The chapter devoted to fauna identification, though spoilt by lack of decent images, carries good background information on a selection of Burgess’s favourites, and the look-don’t-touch message is rammed home.
For the uninitiated, the words are relevant – it’s a shame that the production makes them so hard to digest.
Harriet King
Whippet Books
ISBN: 9781451544435
Softback, 104pp, £16.34
Archive | 
