This is a very informative, useful, and well-written book that should be must reading for OW divers (for that matter any diver who hasn't read it). I'm AOW and have been reading the accidents/incidents section of the scubaboard forum for a while, but this book is far more informative and to-the-point. The book starts out with a brief scuba 101 overview, then goes into case studies where some ended up as scares, others resulted in fatalities. The scenarios and causalities are varied which provides an appreciation of the range of issues that can go wrong if sufficient care and training are lacking. The case studies are vividly described so that these events, terrible and tragic as some are, come to life. The author has a knack for writing. Each case study ends with a lessons learned commentary and bullet points. Embedded in the case studies are inserts describing various scuba diving features/topics, such as regulator design and the function of hyperbaric chambers. Although I'm a techie, I didn't have an interest in regulator design, and the articles I read about them (balanced/unbalanced, diaphragm/piston, environmental seal, etc.) before and after purchasing my own gear were at best vaguely useful at a 20,000 feet conceptual level (for example, environmental sealing of 1st stage helps reduce free flow due to freezing in colder waters). However, after reading the inset on balanced piston regulator design (accompanied by essentially a single picture), I could follow the essential design principle of piston based balanced design just from reading the text. That's pretty damn good writing. Since mine is a balanced diaphragm design, I googled and looked at some images and could figure out how these gadgets worked, based on the principles described for the balanced piston design.
This is one of the most informative and well-written books I've read in quite a while. I am not sure why it is not included as mandatory (or at least recommended) reading in PADI OW classes. Or perhaps it is but I haven't noticed.
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About the author
A Must Read for ALL Divers!
Michael does a great job of showing how divers, novice to very experienced, injure or kill themselves through a series of mistakes or poor decisions. He then goes on to provide recommendations that would have prevented the accident.
Top reviews from other countries
- Kindle CustomerReviewed in Australia on March 28, 2022
Interesting and easy to understand
- HolgerReviewed in Germany on August 17, 2014
A list of must keep in mind stories for every diver
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MarioReviewed in Italy on February 10, 2014
"Vuoto" è la descrizione che mi in mente.
- BarbaraReviewed in Canada on February 2, 2008
Every Diver Should Read This Book
We hear about the near accidents and fatalities from our scuba pals and instructors and we often talk about what should or should not have been done prior to the dive. The author, Michael Ange, takes 20 real-world scuba accidents and retells what happened in detail from beginning to end. The most important part of the book though is the analysis. After describing the incident there is a breakdown of where it started to go wrong and what should or should not have been done to prevent it - called Strategies for Survival.Every Diver Should Read This BookBarbara
Reviewed in Canada on February 2, 2008
Some of the accidents are ones you would expect to hear about but others are more unusual and are good to store away in the old memory banks as a possible scenario to watch for and avoid.
I heard from one instructor that most divers are found dead on the bottom still wearing their weights. I found this hard to believe, especially since as part of our training we learn how to ditch our weights. Sure enough, most of the stories in the book end up with a diver with their weights still on - some of them survive and some do not. Many factors were involved, usually in a domino effect, to bring about the incident. The weights may not have been what did them in but what I have really gotten from this book is that when a person gets to a low or no air situation and panics, they forget to do important things like ditch those weights. This tells me that divers need to be constantly practising their skills so that they become automatic. Before diving in open water each season, my buddy and I practice our skills, but after reading this book we'll especially be doing drills on dropping our weight belts.
In addition to the two traditional scuba rules, the author has written 10 rules that he has developed after all his experience and research with diving. These rules were created as a direct result of the analysis of the dive accidents written about in the book.
Also included in the book are about 35 special topic contents on dive related things such as Regulators, Wreck Diving, Trimix Dives, Dive Briefings, etc., etc.
I just could not put the book down and found each story riveting, mostly because each story is an actual event retold using information gathered from people that were involved, family members, accident reports, etc., and I could only imagine what was going through their minds while it happened.
I believe every diver should read this book. After all, forewarned is forearmed!
Michael Ange also writes Lessons for Life articles covering diving accidents in Scuba Diving magazine.
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