Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: I picked this book up with no intention of buying it whatsoever. Once I began reading it in the store I knew that it was one that I wouldn't be able to put down. I bought the book and finished all 350 pages in a night. It was a gripping story with the author paying excellent attention to the history and detail of scuba diving. As a recently certified diver, I found myself realizing things that weren't apparent to me before. The stories within this book will forever stay in my mind..both in the water and out
Rating: 
Summary: The Last Dive
Review: The liner notes say "Like `A Perfect Storm,'" and that's not a bad comparison. It has a similar feel to it, although the author(s) aren't quite as gifted writers as Junger, they tell the story well. Stories probably is a more accurate description, since the father-son tragedy may be the centerpiece of the book, but there are many tales related about the (crazy) pioneers of technical diving. If you read "The Right Stuff," you might recall the constant refrain about test pilots crashing and "being burned beyond recognition." In The Last Dive, it's divers constantly getting bent, drowning and other awful tragedies. It's a very personal story for Chowdhury, a friend of many of the victims, and one himself. His exploration on what drives people--including himself--to risk their lives diving for artifacts on wrecks 200 feet and below is fascinating. All in all, an excellent book for anyone who pushes the envelope, especially divers. After reading this, I think I'll stick to rec diving.
Rating:
Summary: A diver's must-read
Review: As a wreck diver and technical diver in training, I jumped at the opportunity to read The Last Diver. I could not put it down, partly because of the gripping narrative, and partly because I had done so many of the things writting about in the book. But unlike the divers in the book, I am not a cowboy and I am SAFETY all the way. The lesson of the book is that both recreational AND technical diving is still relatively safe as long as you obey the rules of the game. The divers who lost their lives in the book The Last Dive all violated the rules - big time. Do that, and sooner or later you are going to pay the price. Its a lesson that we all need to learn again, whether we are doing our first dive or our thousandth.Dive safe, D. Keith Lamb
Master Diver
Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading
Review: Essential reading for any budding deep or wreck diver. This book is not a technical diving manual, but rather an account of what not to do when you go diving. The book is well written and you will have difficulty in putting it down. Well worth the money and essential reading for any diver with intermediate experience.
Rating:
Summary: Taking the Plunge
Review: Scuba diving at the extremes...taking the big plunge. This book was a fascinating look into the world of "tech diving." Chris and Chrissy Rouse were lured into the underwater realm and we are lucky enough to get to follow their adventures. The father and son team consistently strived to be the best, and ultimatly paid the price. This book not only chronicles their story but also gives history of how scuba diving developed and the current advancements. The descriptions of diving theories and principles are explained very well and offer the non-diver a good background. The Andrea Doria, a shipwreck that lies at 250 feet below the surface of the Atlantic is considered the "Mount Everest" of scuba diving is pictured and beautifully brought to life in this book. The hunt to disclose the identity of a mystery U-boat discovered in the Atlantic is the scariest part of the book, and as an outside observer you will find yourself yelling "turn around, turn around!" The description and harrowing bravery displayed in this book will make shudder. A must read for non-divers and divers alike, it just may make you think twice next time you want to "take the plunge."
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating stuff
Review: I read the excellent book Shadow Divers after hearing Dick Estelle read from it weekday evenings on public radio, and wanted to know more about Chris and Chrissy Rouse. "The Last Dive" covers their story plus many stories about the history of diving and the stories of many other wreck and cave divers. I did some easy warm-water recreational dives in the 1990's and my instructors and dive masters always spoke of cave diving as being extremely hazardous and something to stay away from. Without intending to, this book strongly reinforced those admonitions.
Although I loved both of these books, I have to strongly question the judgement, common sense and responsibility of the people described in them. Was it really that necessary that all of those hazardous dives be made on the unidentified U-boat, even after three people had died trying? Maybe instead of calling the boat the "yoohoo" they should have called it the "who cares?"
Rating:
Summary: Wreck Diving at a Price
Review: As a life long wreck diver this book, though a bit uneven, riveted me from start to finish. The author furnished a lot of information that was new to me, primarily about cave diving and the Rouses. Some of the other players were people I knew or knew of which made the book doubly fascinating.
One phrase that constantly ran through my head (a hundred times) as I read the book was "Gee, that was stupid". Stupid and diving don't mix.
It was fascinating to read about the dysfunctional Rouses and their motivation for this type of diving. Diving for fame or recognition is asking for trouble. It is like flying, the best pilots and divers are those who pursue their avocation because they love it, all else being secondary.
When I got to the end of the book and read the part about the Rouses fatal accident my skin literally crawled and I cringed in an empathy of pure terror. I know what it is like to be trapped in a wreck with zero visibility. I also know that panic equals death in diving and it must be controlled at all cost. Part of a good divers job is to work diligently at extrication from a problem right up to the end, calmly, and then if you have to die, to die quietly. Reading between the lines a bit I feel that the younger Rouse, after being freed from entrapment by his father bolted from the U-boat and went straight up in wild panic. The father followed.
Also sad was the author's thoughts on the last pages of the book on an expert cave and wreck diver whom he held in high regard as a personal friend. After the book was published this diver, too, died cave diving. By himself.
The book is an utterly fascinating litany of everything not to do as a diver or a dive boat Captain and belongs in the library of every serious scuba diver.
Rating: 
Summary: Feels empty
Review: Bernie does a nice job of documenting the lives of the Rouses and the events that surrounded their tragic deaths. However, this book reads more like a report than a story. The writing lacks depth and it's nearly impossible to establish a connection with the characters. Non-divers will probably find it unappealing and bland. If you are looking for a book that you have a hard time putting down, where you feel your heart pounding as you read it, where you can experience the emotions and tribulations of the characters, then this IS NOT it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Story
Review: Stirs up my desires to dive deeper, but reinstills the fear of what is possible. Bernie does an excellent job of tying in some history with cave and wreck divers into this excellent account of father and son, as well as his own brushes with disaster and death. I would recommend this book not only to scuba divers, but to any adventure enthusiast. However, I would say his writing techniques leaves something to be desired. I had just finished reading the Stand by Stephen King, and the writing abilities were in stark contrast. Nevertheless, I couldn't put this book down, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Don't expect "Shadow Divers"
Review: I picked up Chowdhury's "Last Dive" after reading --and thoroughly enjoying-- Robert Kurson's excellent book, "Shadow Divers." (see my other reviews) If you read and enjoyed Kurson's book, be forewarned: this book isn't in the same league.
In "Shadow Divers," Chris Rouse and his son Chrissy were among the divers involved in the quest to uncover the identity of a sunken German U-boat discovered in 230 feet of water off the coast of New Jersey. They (along with another diver), lost their lives during the six years it took to unravel the mystery.
The Rouses were interesting characters. Seemingly always at each other's throats, they gave me the impression that watching them was sort of like witnessing a latter-day "Two" Stooges. No one doubted that they loved one another, but their antics and belittling comments to one another while aboard dive boats had become legendary by the time they took their final dive.
Since the subtitle of this book is "A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean Depths," I sort of expected that the book would be about them. Actually, it's focus was seemed to be more on Chowdhury.
Bernie Chowdhury was a friend of the Rouses, and also participated in the extreme sport now known as "technical diving." (As opposed to recreational diving, which imposes some pretty strict limits on depth and time for safety's sake.) Indeed, Chowdhury himself very nearly died, and was lucky to avoid being permanently crippled as the result of a dive accident. He writes rather extensively about this incident... and many others, involving other friends and acquaintances --thus filling a pretty significant fraction of the book's 356 pages.
Don't get me wrong. The Rouse family IS discussed at length. But it seemed that the author was way too quick to go off on a tangent that all too often seemed like he was writing his own memoirs.
As an aside, though I found the deaths of Chris and Chrissy to be a sad case of lives cut short, I can't bring myself to consider the case "tragic." These guys (and those like them), lived life on the edge. They took chances, played the odds, and lost. This was not a toddler with leukemia. They may have been nice guys, good to their friends, and decent, upstanding people, but their actions almost ensured their own obituaries ...and in reading Chowdhury's epilogue, it seems that quite a few people seem hell-bent on joining them.
|
