Rating: Summary: Last Dive is First Rate Review: Part history of diving, part story of a father and son sharing a sport and a desire for exploration. I just got PADI OW certified and our instructor recommended this book. I am glad he did.Coincidentally, although it is not widely known, the author is also the founder and executive editor of "IMMERSED MAGAZINE". The book is well worth the money.
Rating: Summary: Five martini effect Review: A great book for diving lovers which will find an excellent description of what it takes to go from the warm clear waters to open ocean, cold, dark and strong current diving. A good description of how the bar is lifted higher and higher as divers asume more risks in search of greater recognition. It is about the people that changed deep see diving, in many cases offering their lives or getting bent for life. Bernie makes it difficult to put the book down and makes you think if a step further of Truck Lagoon is worth a try. The mount Everest of diving? chilling no?
Rating: Summary: went deep and loved it Review: I would like to thank Mr. Chowdhury for helping me to understand why people go deep . As a sports diver I never could understand why anyone wanted to go below a hundred feet . I thought that they must be just crazy , but now I see that there is much more to it then that . This book is a great read whether you are a diver or not . He does a great job of simpifying everything , so everyone can understand the most complex of therories. I hope he keeps writing because I know I will keep reading .
Rating: Summary: The Pinnacle of Diving Books Review: This is one of the most detailed and insightful books ever written about Diving, I have literally read hundreds of books on diving and diving history and this book hits the nail on the head repeatedly. I highly recommend this book to all divers and non divers alike. This is one of those books you can not do without. Five Stars.
Rating: Summary: A great read! Review: I found this to be a very interesting "history of modern diving" as well an account of a very tragic event. I liked the author's style. He takes technical details and makes them very readable. I would have liked to have seen more charts and typical sections of the cave systems and the wreck dives he describes.
Rating: Summary: How to make stupidity heroic Review: How can you make a hero out of people who broke the rules they are supposed to live by? This book is well written, but spends too much time glamorizing idiocy. If you read this book, don't think that all tech divers are self indulged egomaniacs like Chowdhury.
Rating: Summary: A must read for all cave/ deep wreck divers. (all divers) Review: I felt that the book gave a much needed and refreshing view of a dive industry that's always trying to tell the public that diving is for everyone, while they are in pursuit of the all mighty dollar. Diving is NOT for everyone, and this book points that out loud and clear. I related to many of the locations the author wrote about, it was a "Been there done that" feeling. The book clearly showed that diving is much more than strapping on a cylinder of air and jumping in. I would recommend this book to all divers of every level, from beginner to expert and even potential divers.
Rating: Summary: Great book, great story Review: Picked the book up in the airport, read a bit, bought it, and finished it in less than a day. Simply couldn't put it down. The book does an outstanding job of describing the sport, people, equipment, risk, and tragedies of technical diving, and does so in a compelling, engaging fashion. I would not put too much faith in those reviewers who knocked the writing; they know not what they preach nor do they seem to appreciate that Chowdhury is a diver first, and a writer second, in spite of which, his storytelling is superb. To be sure, there are some minor hiccups in the writing, but you would hardly notice, given the engaging nature of the delivery. It is one of those few books that, once finished, will find its way into your conscious thoughts for days to follow, with some enlightening insights as well. I think divers of all types will enjoy this book immensely.
Rating: Summary: Engrossing, though somewhat overwritten Review: If you are interested in what happens to people who push the limits of extreme sports, you will find this book engrossing. The author, an experienced technical diver himself, combines the true story of a father and son diving team with expository material on the technical and physical challenges of scuba diving at great depths. His descriptions of cave and wreck diving give the reader the sensation of being there. The author describes his own nearly fatal accident as well as the deaths of the father and son team. Their story has the flavor of a Greek tragedy, a predictable fate resulting from high-risk behavior. The author's descriptions of personal interactions within this sporting sub-culture are sometimes more than is needed, particularly when he invents dialogue for conversations he did not hear.
Rating: Summary: Poorly written - could have been soooo much better Review: Being a keen scuba diver, I felt the promise of this book was betrayed by poor writing style and an often repetitive pondering of the facts. There were paragraphs that I knew I had read many pages before; it was as if they were cut-and-pasted. I can't count how many times I read about Chrissy's car crashes. The dialog that passes between individuals is often laughable and the description of the 'light at the end of the tunnel' in the author's own near death experience was comical and cliched (although I did find the personal bends experience of the author very interesting). I feel the only redeeming features of the book (and the reason it gets two stars rather than zero) is the way the author describes the diving activity and the exposure of the sheer stupidity of some of the divers in the story. For these reasons alone I found it worth reading but definitely wouldn't be recommending buying it - wait for someone to pass it on to you... I feel this story could have been told better by a 'real' writer with Bernie being an 'advising expert'. Didn't anyone edit this book? Could have been a classic...
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