The Caribbean Dive Guide [Paperback]

Kurt Amsler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Abbeville's Dive Guides to the World's Best Sites | Publication Date: March 1, 1998

Abbeville's new, comprehensive scuba diving guides offer the most important, up-to-date diving and travel advice necessary to make every scuba diving experience an unforgettable one. Written by leading diving authorities, each guide combines the best in underwater photography, detailed three-dimensional diagrams, and practical information pertinent to a particular diving spot. The guide concludes with an outstanding visual dictionary of the fish most common to the area. Full color throughout.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Particularly useful [are the] color drawings of dozens of fish species. -- Los Angeles Times, September 13, 1998

Language Notes

Text: English
Original Language: Italian

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press; 1st edition (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789203073
• ISBN-13: 978-0789203076
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,362,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Less than mediocre., March 1, 2001

By 

Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Caribbean Dive Guide (Paperback)

This book does not reach the standards demanded by today's discerning Scuba Diver. It is also very difficult to see where this particular publisher is coming from with a title "Caribbean Diving Guide" on the cover of a book which does not include so many of the very best diving destinations from the Caribbean islands. In short, it is difficult to match that title with the content.

A glance inside reveals a selection of 28 dive sites in 9 countries. Whilst I might view the choice of country as questionable, I did expect to find the very best diving from each chosen location but there are just not there.

Not for the first time, this particular publisher appears to have cobbled together the work of several contributors to produce a disjointed book from whatever information and photography was available - rather than commissioning somebody to go out and produce something much better. In short, they have gone for the cheaper option and it shows.

Beginning with a very disappointing selection from the Bahamas - where any mention whatsoever of the Blue Holes (for which the Bahamas are world-famous) is studiously avoided, we are then taken to the Florida Keys, neither of which are even "in" the Caribbean.

After a trip to Cuba, where we are treated to 3 very low-grade sites with maximum depths of 20m, 15m and 10m respectively - and you begin to get the idea. These are followed by Cozumel (wrongly spelled Cotzumel) where, yet again, the best sites are avoided. Four sites from the Caymans - predictably including "Stingray City" (yawn.), are followed by three in Belize - where the Author attempts to rename the "Great Blue Hole" the "Giant Blue Hole." After visiting Honduras, we are suddenly treated to a 1,600 mile journey over to Guadeloupe and Martinique for 2 dives each before rounding off the diving in continued disappointing fashion with the last 2 underwater sojourns being a further 500 miles away in Curacao.

Whilst claiming to be a guide to the "Caribbean," Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, BVI, Cayman Brac, Grenada, the Grenadines, USVI (to name but 8.) are not mentioned at all.

As always, Kurt Amsler's photographs are very good (and this earns the book its one Star) although a number of other images are under-exposed and not up to the standard expected in this day and age. The 24 pages of drawings of common fishes at the end is useful - and perhaps they should have concentrated on that particular theme instead of producing a book which is of little value to any serious diver.

NM