Customer Reviews

Scuba Diver's Travel Companion (Falcon Guide)

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I was a bit disappointed when I first got this book as I expected something totally different. With that said I'll try my best to make a fair review of this book.

If you watched the movies on your Open Water course and read your books, then you more or less already know what Scuba Diver's travel companion has to say. The author of the book is a master scuba diver with about 20 years of experience. This doesn't help when he has very little to add to the Open Water manual. The book itself is a black and white book with some drawings and no real pictures. In other words, don't expect this book to help you choose which dive site to visit next (it explains each dive site, but it's a bit boring to read). The book contains tons and tons of information that is just common sence. Things like: don't throw up upwind or you might get it in your face, and don't swim to the ladder until the diver in front of you has climbed up or else you might get his tank in your head if he falls down. It's not hard to guess where the author's from, and the book is a bit too much Americanized if you ask me.

The chapters goes like this:

Introduction - X

Tips for dive travel - 1

Worldwide dive destinations - 23

Airlines, packing, and local transport - 49

Masks, fins, snorkels, and exposure suits - 65

BC's, regulators, tanks, weights, and dive computers - 81

Weighting and bouyancy - 95

Dive equipment accessories - 103

Predive equipment checks - 123

Enchancing your dive skills - 137

Breathing gas underwater - 163

Hazardous marine life - 173

Care of dive equipment - 187

Expanding diving opportunities - 201

Appendix A: Resources for divers - 213

Appendix B: Dice checklists - 215

Index - 221

About the author - 227

Like I said earlier, if you've read your Open Water manual, you won't need this book. But it won't hurt reading it, it will probably make you remember thing better since repetition is the best way to remember things. And you'll most likely pick up a few tips and tricks.

The book also have some positive sides. I liked the chapter about hazardous marine life. It will tell you about what to stay away from, and how to treat an "attack" by any of these animals. My Open Water book lacked this as far as I can remember. The book also have some nice checklists for packing, pre-dive, equipment and so on. The book also explains some things a bit more in depth than the Open Water manual, like the chapter that deals with care of dive equipment.