There are spaces for the essentials: depth, time, gas, buddy, dive site and other details, a brief description or sketch plus a dive centre stamp. The covers feature original artwork of whales, sharks, jellyfish and starfish by Bristol-based designer Bethan Buss.

Coach Blythe's Swim Workouts are appropriate for the self-coached swimmer and triathlete, as well as for coaches looking for workout content for the athletes they train. The third book in the series, called "Challenge Workouts for Advanced Swimmers" contains 100 advanced level workouts that focus on speed and yardage, with specific workouts for freestyle, individual medley, sprint and distance swimming. The workouts in this book use pace work, descending and building sets, and goal swims, that total up to 6,000 yards/meters. Each workout is accompanied by a 'Personal Challenge' to meet advanced training goals through controlled exertion, and improved pace and recovery time.

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.

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