|
Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Water sports & recreations > Swimming & diving > Sub-aqua swimming
In Diving Gozo & Comino, local dive guide and instructor
Richard Salter shares his maps, experience and advice for 71 sites.
Photos above and below water, depths, durations and grades are
given - Easy, Advanced or Technical - to help you choose where to
dive. Put a copy in your glovebox and go! Gozo, Malta, has a
multitude of underwater attractions to explore from the shore or by
boat. Divers can see breathtaking caves, tunnels, wrecks, reefs and
bays. If you consider the profusion of marine life and good
visibility it is not hard to understand why the diving here is
consistently voted amongst the best in Europe. Richard Salter's
Diving Gozo & Comino covers a huge 57 dives on Gozo and 14 on
Comino, including (to name a few) the Blue Hole, Inland Sea and
Tunnel, Santa Maria Caves, Double Arch, Reqqa Point, Billinghurst
Cave and the wrecks Cominoland, Karwela, Xlendi Ferry and P31.
Original site maps include suggested routes, the location of
underwater caves and swim-throughs, depth and features. Photographs
from a variety of contributors show both Gozo's underwater scenery
and the topside landscape. Written by a vastly experienced resident
instructor and guide, Diving Gozo & Comino: The essential guide
to an underwater playground features both shore and boat dives,
including some sites which are very rarely explored. Whether
researching a self-guided trip or diving with one of Gozo's many
professional centres this book will help you to pick and plan safe
and fun dives. But not only that - Diving Gozo & Comino also
contains information about the island's rich history, fascinating
tourist sites, celebratory village festas and delicious original
food. * Diving Gozo & Comino includes changes caused by the
collapse of the Azure Window at Dwejra. Although an incredibly sad
loss, this natural event was just one of an infinite number which
have sculpted the coastline of the Maltese islands over the
millennia, as divers can see better than most. Underwater the
layout of the dive site was altered with the landscape containing
new swim-throughs and shallower parts, making it accessible to more
divers. The adjacent Blue Hole was unaffected.
This short story is about a recreational diver who spends a long
weekend in Key Largo, Florida at the Jules' Undersea Lodge.
Adventure and reflections follow.
Clues and evidence discovered at an underwater park in the Puget
Sound of Washington State lead divers and police officials to the
conclusion that the accidental death of a diver was no accident at
all. While the murder may be fictional, Bruce Higgins Underwater
Trails in Edmonds, WA is the largest volunteer diver constructed
and maintained underwater park on the west coast. The backgrounds
on the local sea creatures will bring new divers up to speed
quickly on cold water species, and hopefully the information will
be found to be interesting to seasoned divers. Hopefully, this book
is best read between dives, while crossing on a ferry, while on a
live aboard vessel, before visiting the Puget Sound, or just when
you feel like diving, but can't get the time off from the real
world.
The Missing Ones is the true account of the disappearance of
Blanche and Russell Warren. The young hard working couple
disappeared in 1929, seemingly without a trace while drive from
Port Angeles to their cabin near Forks, Washington. At the cabin
eagerly awaiting their arrival, were their two sons, age 12 and 14.
An investigation by the Sheriff's Department failed to find the
Warrens. However, clues led investigators to the belief that the
Warren's had driven into Lake Crescent. The case was largely
forgotten until 1954 when a scuba diving club stumbled upon the
story. In 2001, they passed the story on to National Park Rangers
and divers stationed at Olympic National Park. This is the true
story of how the Warrens disappeared, the 1929 investigation, how
the dive club found the story in 1954 and what they did to try to
solve the case and how the Park Rangers and dive team finally
solved the case in 2004.
This book by ex pro diver Jim Limbrick is a tribute to all 58, 20th
Century professional divers who lost their lives whilst playing
their part in effecting the extraction of oil and gas from UK
northern waters, specifically the North Sea, during the years 1971
to 1999. Diving and Offshore background is given, with all deceased
diver's names and nationalities, fatality dates, diver's ages,
accident locations, platforms, employers, equipment used, water
depths, and details of accidents, all as far as is known, or can be
told. With subsequent Safety Regulations and recommendations, this
book is a must for all those people interested in diving, and
especially budding divers of any persuasion.
SCUBA is a fun, relaxing, educational, interesting, and -- if
approached properly -- safe activity, it is nonetheless a sport
that has risks. SCUBA diving is in fact an extreme sport that can
injure or even kill very quickly, and in some very nasty ways. What
we are doing is entering an alien environment that is normally
hostile to human life. We cannot breathe in water without some kind
of mechanical assistance. These are facts and the details should be
covered in every Open Water (OW) class. All too often in today's
society, however, people do not want to take the time to properly
prepare and get the education to safely take on new tasks. Some
agencies appear to have responded to this by developing training
programs that turn out high numbers of certified divers in shorter
time frames, necessitating the reduction of time spent on what I
consider to be some necessary basic skills. While this has resulted
in great numbers of new divers entering the water, it has not
resulted in many of those divers staying in the water. New divers
are often given just enough training to enable them to dive in the
most benign conditions under close supervision. Even then, there
are still those who find out their initial training was just not
adequate. It is at this point that they either make the decision to
get more training or they leave the sport. The latter happens all
too often. The former, when it does happen, does not always occur
for the right reasons. Students should return to training to expand
their diving and learn new skills; they should not have to return
for new training just to be able to enjoy the sport safely. To
require students to come back for basic information is something I
find very troubling, and in some cases, has actually cost divers
their lives. A lack of rescue instruction has resulted in a number
of diver deaths when buddies did not know how to drop weights,
support a diver at the surface, or even stay in contact with their
buddy. This is another area frequently talked about, but all too
often not actually put into practice. The concept of always diving
with a buddy and just what that means in the "real world" is often
given too little attention. Unfortunately, it is impossible to
foresee every conceivable situation that can arise, but there are
many basic issues that can be covered. The following chapters will
hopefully address much of what is being overlooked or delayed in
many programs as they exist today. It is my hope that this
information also finds its way into the hands of those who have not
yet begun the training process. I have included a chapter on how to
select an instructor based on the quality of instruction and the
content of the course. In some cases, these classes may cost more
than the less comprehensive courses also available, but usually
they do not. In fact, when you consider the additional skills and
education gained from a more comprehensive course, you will find
that you have received much more value for each dollar spent. In
addition, you gain priceless benefits in the form of greater
confidence, enjoyment, skills, and -- most importantly -- safety.
Enjoy and dive safe
|
|