Best Books for Newbies

[goonsquad]

Just looking for good suplemental informative books for newbies. I bought "Dive like a pro, 101 ways to improve your scuba skills", it kinda blew. Nothing in it which was not covered in my OW class. Also bought "Solo Diving, the art of underwater self sufficiency" it seems to be better so far, I agree with the premise of being prepared for your own emergencies and not soley rely on your buddy to save you.

So, please, give me your recommendations. I have some time to read before I can dive again and want to learn all i can in that period. Looking more for books which are informative, not so much about a dive experience alone. (i.e. shadow divers)

 

[fnfalman]

Even though I'm not a DIR type, I still enjoyed this book.

Amazon.com: Doing it Right: The Fundamentals of Better Diving (9780971326705): Jarrod Jablonski: Books

 

[Kingpatzer]

I personally think a book that should be required reading for every OW student in every agency is Diver Down it presents a lot of really good information about how to not screw up as a diver and how to think about diving so as to stay safe.

It does give frank details about some bad events, and if you're the type of person who scares easily, then it may not be a read for you. But for most people it gives the other side of the story as to why staying conservative and diving within your training is necessary

 

[H2O 70]

The NOAA Diving Manual
Deco For Divers - Mark Powell
Oxygen Hackers Companion - Vance Harlow
SCUBA Regulator Maintenance and Repair - Vance Harlow
Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
Diver Down

Some of these are technical, but have aspects that a new diver can understand, and should understand. They will grow with you as your experience grows.

 

[TSandM]

I think PADI's Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving is an excellent compendium of diving information. I don't like the writing style much, but there is a ton of educational material in the book, with good illustrations (for example, in the section on regulators). If you were going to have only one book, I think this would be a very reasonable choice.

Mark Powell's Deco for Divers, although in need of a good editor, is a FANTASTIC book. I spent several years collecting and reading papers on deco theory, and Mark brought it all together, took all the math out of it, and made it very readable as well.

Although not a book, I'd highly recommend either GUE's open water manual, or purchasing the UTD open water on line classroom. The UTD classroom gives you access to videos of divers demonstrating good trim and a variety of kicks. (You can watch the videos on YouTube, too -- search for 5thD-X -- but you won't get the written content with them that way.)

JJ's book is thought provoking and has some interesting points to make about equipment, but you can get a lot of them from his two essays on the GUE website, and quite a bit of the book is not very relevant to the basic open water diver.

 

[ScubaFeenD]

I would also recommend upper level agency books. For instance, I bought the NAUI master scuba diver textbook and now think that it should actually be the text for the NAUI OW class. Other than that I second the NOAA book and GUE's OW book (very awesome).

 

[goonsquad]

The NOAA Diving Manual
Deco For Divers - Mark Powell
Oxygen Hackers Companion - Vance Harlow
SCUBA Regulator Maintenance and Repair - Vance Harlow
Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
Diver Down

Some of these are technical, but have aspects that a new diver can understand, and should understand. They will grow with you as your experience grows.

Fantastic! Thanks!

 

[scarefaceDM]

An other alternate to your library and a very good read.

Dress for success By Dan MacKay
Dress for Success | Global Underwater Explorers

Doing it Right as already mentioned.

 

[Thalassamania]

The NOAA Diving Manual
Deco For Divers - Mark Powell
Oxygen Hackers Companion - Vance Harlow
SCUBA Regulator Maintenance and Repair - Vance Harlow
Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving
Diver Down

Some of these are technical, but have aspects that a new diver can understand, and should understand. They will grow with you as your experience grows.

Great list, add to it the U.S. Navy Diving Manual which you can download here.

 

[RonzoTheGreat]

i know you specifically said for a new diver, but i wish i read this earlier in my career...

sheck exley Caverns Measureless To Man

and as for solo diving, although a can of worms may be open, i agree that you NEED to be self sufficient but do NOT condone solo for "new divers" which is an incredibly relative term

best of luck and dive safe ....