Reading recommendations for someone prior to discover dive?

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Having seen or have had first hand accounts of things going wrong on DSDs or try dives I would advise starting on a proper course such as PADI scuba diver where you will learn basic skills and understand the risks before going to much depth. Things that have gone wrong on try dives among people I know or have first hand experience are, ran out of air at 13m followed by panicked ascent (never dived again), Mask filled with water, reg spat out and panic ascent from about 7m. Reg out of mouth, panic, water inhaled at about 10m followed by night in hospital. 2 cases of failing to equalise causing severe ear pain/problems and trips to doctor or hospital - rest of holiday spoiled.
 
Don’t let them over think it... watch The Deep, Into the Blue and Silent world. Vet the people who are running the dive. Let them have fun, what you enjoyed was your adventure, let them have theirs.
 
In my opinion two common causes for screw ups in DSD are people that have so little control over their animal instincts (or their body in general) that they have no business doing something as unnatural as scuba diving, and idiot instructors that think its like leading tourists down a trail on a train of pack horses, when its really more like holding your toddlers hands as they learn to walk.

As was stated its a perfect idea to find the basic scuba instruction videos, books are good for theory and tables but a crappy way to learn actions.

And tell your buddy to rely on him/her self first.
And second.
And last too.
 
On the flip side, if you are very comfortable in water already (especially if you've done some snorkeling), you may consider just taking the full OW course. You'll learn all you need to know to start diving, other than some important "rescue" techniques. DSD can be very good for some and a waste of time for others.

Actually I see Scuba Fundamental not as a training or how to dive manual at all it's more focused on cultivating the right mindset for diving. Anecdotes about peoples journeys to getting certified (mask removal fears/gear being too heavy/stingy bites thing concerns) and how they logically overcame them make interesting reading. I've recommended this book to a Chinese lady who couldn't swim at all but couldn't contain herself from yelling Scuba Diver! Scuba Diver! When she saw me pop up from the canyon/cave system in Vanuatu to a former colleague who'd surfed around the world and desperately wanted to dive but had a thing about being bent because a work colleague had. I do agree too much reading and overthinking can hold negative net gain and there is no substitute for being in the water DSD or OW course. TBH I'd never read any scuba books at all until I'd been diving Rec OC around the South Pacific for quite a few years. I just would like to see more 'positive' books on the market as opposed to your Shadow divers type book....I've been trying to read that for years and just can't get into it.

I guess I like books that have a little humour in them - another couple of books I love are 'Does this island go all the way to the bottom?' And 'Lost wife, saw Baracuda'
 
Books to read beforehand? These:
To Kill a Mockingbird
Confederacy of Dunces
Night
Enders Game, and Speaker for the Dead
Oryx and Crake
Ramona and Beezus
The Brothers Karamazov

And if your friend just refuses to read, you can rent something for the TV (the fundamental principle of which is the vacuum tube, because the TV sucks your brains out):
Open Water

Be sure they know this scientifically proven fact: a human being can survive underwater for as long as they live.
 
I have no reading to suggest, but this is a nice beginning diver buoyancy video from GUE. It might help get them pointed in the right direction, not on GUE, but on buoyancy.
Isn't that a little over the top to recommend GUE-quality buoyancy work to a DSD diver? When I did my DSD dive on Hawaii years ago, I knew nothing about diving whatsoever. It was just a fun thing to do in the water. And once I got my bearings a little, I enjoyed it so much that I was doing somersaults underwater, having fun with being weightless in a beautiful environment. I wouldn't have even known wha proper trim is. But I went on to get certified shortly thereafter, and eventually they beat buoyancy and trim into me.
 
Go find some awesome underwater pictures/videos of the location where they plan to do the DSD. Get them excited for the chance to go scuba diving and see it for themselves. The rest of the basic skills will come with the DSD pre-dive training.
 
Isn't that a little over the top to recommend GUE-quality buoyancy work to a DSD diver? When I did my DSD dive on Hawaii years ago, I knew nothing about diving whatsoever. It was just a fun thing to do in the water. And once I got my bearings a little, I enjoyed it so much that I was doing somersaults underwater, having fun with being weightless in a beautiful environment. I wouldn't have even known wha proper trim is. But I went on to get certified shortly thereafter, and eventually they beat buoyancy and trim into me.
I'm not recommending achievement of GUE level buoyancy and trim to DSD'ers.

I'm picking a good representation of how graceful fun 3D movement in this environment works, a decent description of the factors that play into it, and that this is how beginning divers can move, not just years of diving experts. It is a bit of a flat helicopter like version of movement, ascent rates dictate that a bit, but I think that is a far better starting image of diver movement than standing on the bottom, kneeling as if you were a land creature, or occasionally kicking the crap out of the bottom as if it did not matter. And I have nothing against mid water somersaults, or barrel rolls, etc, nor any vested interest in GUE or any tech agency.

If they see good divers moving in 3D, and then have a crappy DSD instructor, they have a chance of realizing it was a crappy DSD instructor. And not thinking that this underwater thing is just kneeling and clomping about, oscillating between level and vertical based on whether they are kicking or not, and not that fun at all.
 

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