Rating: 
Summary: How a bad arbidgedment can kill an audio book
Review: "The Last Dive" has two of the three keys to a great audio book. First, there is Kevin Conway's gripping naration of the text. His voice makes the words real and draws you into the panic on the dive boat that fateful day. Next is the strong details provided in the text by Bernie Chowdhury that allowed me as a non diver to understand the drive these men and women have. But the arbidgement is awful. Just plan bad. Major sections of the book dealing with the author are introduced and then droped. While books of this detail are hard to abridge, "BlackHawk Down" is a classic example of how a very detailed book can be abridged the right way.
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Summary: Awesome Inspiration
Review: Bernie Chowdhury has managed to totally captivate and intrigue me concerning the world of technical diving. The story focuses on a father and son who lost their lives in their pursuit of ever increasing levels of risk and penetration into the sport. However, the book is so much more that their story. Mr. Chowdhury weaves a spell-binding tale of pure adrenilin on the subjects of decompression sickness, mixed-gas deep air diving, diving accidents, the history of diving and an introduction to an elite group of explorers known as cave divers and tech divers. I experienced tremendous levels of excitement in reading The Last Dive. I am an advanced open water diver in pursuit of becomming a technical diver. Bernie Chowdhury, who instilled in his own students repeated drills to help ensure their safety, has helped me file away some index cards that may one day help me to solve an underwater problem underwater. Thanks Bernie. Jerry Summers Miami, Fla
Rating:
Summary: The Last Dive - Bernie Chowdhury
Review: "...for man's true purpose in life is to live, not to waste time merely sustaining himself." - Jack London as quoted by Bernie Chowdhury As an aspiring tech diver I found this inspirational while at the same time setting off warning bells as to what I intend getting into. Chowdhury tells the tragic tale of Chris and Chrissy Rouse intermingled with the technicalities of extreme diving, the psychological aspects of what make extreme divers tick and presents a good historical account of sport and technical diving. An excellent read which must go highly reccommended to all sport and technical divers - novice and swordsman alike.
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Summary: All divers should read
Review: As a newly certifed addict to diving I can clearly relate to the obsession exhibited by the Rouses (and others) Bernie writes about. This book is scary and I recommend every new diver read it, especially Chrissy's battle with the bends and ultimate death. Just as Bernie says many times, we all think it can never happen to us, but I found myself saying: "yea, I can see how that happened" with each fatality he describes. Although clearly no expert, I find his technical descriptions of diving detailed and accurate, yet simple to understand. My only reason for withholding the "5 star" rating is that I found the text somewhat disorganizaed and hard to follow, ultimately going back re-reading chapters 1 and 10 together for the full effect. Other than that, thanks Bernie, for an informative, educational and exciting read!
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Summary: Blew me away!
Review: I didn't want to read it, but my dive buddy gave it to me for Christmas. I stalled untill the night before we left for Mexico. Started reading at 9 pm in the hotel and didn't sleep till I was on the plane at 6 am the next day. Finished it on the plane. Couldn't put it down. Mentioned it to the DM at our resort's dive shop. He wanted it. We did a daily post mortem each day at the counter. He was as enthralled as I was. It's not just about two divers dying. It's about how tech diving as we know it came to be. It's about the diving greats that we read of in the magazines. It's about diving on the edge. It's about the secret aspirations of most divers. It's about the reality and danger and fear and exhilaration of going deeper longer. It's about penetrating black water-filled holes in the ground. It scared the hell out of me. It also made me very happy I had arranged to do my very first cavern dive while in Mexico. This book tells a sad story, but it's really more about why we dive. It tells us how bad it can be, and how awesome it can be. If you love diving, or think you could love diving, read this book. It scared me, but at the same time inspired me to push a little harder, but to do it with more respect for the forces we're messing with. Oh, and in case you didn't catch my message ... I loved this book. It blew me away. Read it! Now!
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Summary: Fascinating but Perplexing - Almost Everybody Dies
Review: As a diver, I found this book fascinating, although Chowdhury did jump from plot strand to plot strand a fair amount. Diving is my favorite activity, but I cannot understand why anybody feels compelled to gamble their lives with such poor odds. I didn't stop to count up the bodies, but nearly every major "character" in this book met a gruesome fate (even the author should be dead as a result of a nasty "hit"). I dive because it is beautiful and peaceful - these people seem most interested in chasing death; they dive deep, often solo, and often without the proper equipment or training. The other thing that struck me as odd about this book was the utter loathesomeness of Rouses. They may have been wonderful people, but they came across as people I certainly wouldn't want to dive with. Still, I reccomend it, especially to cocky, young divers who may be tempted to test the old maxim that "there are old divers and bold divers, buth there are no old bold divers."
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Summary: There are no old...bold...divers.
Review: This book gave me cold chills. As a Supervisor Public Safety Diver and certified Underwater Investigator, I've seen firsthand the deadly consequences of diver complacency. The author vents his frustration and anger in the pointless and senseless deaths of the Rouses by marking the clear path they took to their own demise. The Rouses killed themselves. The author makes that perfectly clear. Both the Rouses died of an overdose of testosterone. The central figures in this tragedy are people we all know. Anyone who has ever taken a scuba class will remember the "Guy we are all gonna read about someday!" The Rouses, in their sadly obvious quest for recognition in an unforgiving and relentlessly perilous pastime, give all divers a standing warning - check your attitude as well as your equipment before you dive! The book is an excellent reminder to the amateur and professional diver alike to put safety first and foremost on each and EVERY pre-dive checklist. It whispers in every exhausted breath a single, deeply personal question "Is this dive worth dying for?" Woven throughout the narrative in a clearly experienced, thoughtful, and conscientious manner is the old diver adage..."There are old divers... and there are bold divers...but there are no old, bold divers." The Rouses paid with their lives to say it again. Divers everywhere would do well to stop and listen once more about the value of weighing the risks versus the benefits... because the Rouses are talking to all of us. And as the author points out in a brutally honest way, there are always going to be the few who can't hear them above the noise of their own ego.
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Summary: A great Technical Diving book
Review: This book may not be for everyone, but if you are interested in cave/wreck/technical diving it is a must. The account of the actual incident in question is just one part of what this book achieves. It looks into aspects of why some of us want to "push the limits", not in a completely definitive way maybe, but to a depth where it does encourage the reader to question the motive for the dive. The technical aspects of deep, mixed gas penetration diving are also well covered, as well as the consequences of pushing it too hard, making mistakes and suffering the effects of "the bends". All of the above is intertwined in a very readable true story that kept me interested from the first to last page. A great book that makes me want to go diving again as soon as possible.
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Summary: If you're a diver- you will LOVE this!
Review: As a recreational diver, I found this true story that takes place within the deep diving community absolutely amazing, exciting, and a little scary because of the risks these men take. I bought the audiobook, which is one of the best abridgements I've ever come across (and thankfully, it's long- 6 INCREDIBLE hours of well-written accounts of the adventures of deep divers and why they do what they do. *Also, the reader is one of the best, if not THE best narrator I have ever heard read an audiobook.) It's written so well that you always understand clearly what is going on, and you really come to care about these guys- these divers that need to go beyond the recreational diving limits of 130 feet, risking their lives to do so, and you find yourself envious of their skill and courage to do it. Have you ever wondered what it's REALLY like to go into a recompression chamber? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be at 240 feet, diving an undiscovered shipwreck?...If you're a diver- YOU'VE GOT TO LISTEN TO/READ THIS BOOK! Take it on your next dive trip.
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Summary: The Last Dive
Review: As a person with much in common with several of the divers featured in the book, and having met a few of them (Steve Berman was my cave diving instructor), I was very impressed with the book. The premise of diving the Andrea Doria has been a lifelong desire of mine, ever since watching her sink on the news as a nine year old. I hope to accomplish that next Summer, hopefully from aboard the Seeker. I have had the "bends" myself, although not as bad a case as those described. I was forced to make an emergency ascent from 214 ft, omiting all decompression stops. 13 hrs in the chamber in Gainesville, FL did the trick for me. All of Bernie's descriptions are 100% accurate. My Email add is Dvcaves@aol.com
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