One of the perks of being a scuba diver is to travel to amazing destinations and dive. This brings us to the top 10 best scuba diving books for you to pick from in 2022.
Most of the scuba diving books that you will find are related to materials such as learning to scuba dive or coffee table books. But when traveling or for offering as a present, scuba diving novels are the best.
Let us dive straight into the 10 best scuba diving books of 2022!
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Scuba Confidential by Simon Pridmore
About the book
Scuba Confidential: An Insider’s Guide to Becoming a Better Diver by Simon Pridmore is a scuba diving novel must-have in your bag.
As scuba divers, we all aim at becoming a better diver on every dive, and this diving book is essential to achieving that goal when out of the water.
The book comes with a no-nonsense read with easy-to-digest yet practical advice from a diving professional. It is a great source of general information for many different dive disciplines, techniques, and etiquette.
Called “one of the most thoughtful and readable of divers” by Diver Magazine’s editor Steve Weinmann, Simon Pridmore is a professional diver who has been involved over the last three decades with virtually every aspect of the sport.
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Under Pressure by Gareth Lock
About the book
Under Pressure: Diving Deeper with Human Factors by Gareth Lock Msc is another book that will beneficial for any scuba diver to improve their diving skills.
This diving book takes the approach to improve your diving by analyzing different case studies of ‘when diving went wrong’. The aim is for the reader to develop the skills to deal with any kind of mishap underwater. A kind visualization practice based on actual case studies.
Gareth Lock is an award-winning expert on applying human factors and non-technical skills to diving. His military aviation and research background has led to his unique training programs which focus on counter-errorism in diving.
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Drawn to the Deep by Julie Hauserman
About the book
Drawn to the Deep: The Remarkable Underwater Explorations of Wes Skiles by Julie Hauserman won the National Outdoor Book Award in the best biography category.
This brings you into the life of an extraordinary adventurer who braved extreme danger to share the hidden beauty and environmental truths of the planet with others. The life of Wes Skiles (1958-2010), a top nature photographer who died in a diving accident before the issue was published.
His passion for diving and his innovative camera techniques earned him assignments with National Geographic and Outside. Skiles was a self-taught expert on Florida’s freshwater springs and an outspoken advocate for their conservation.
Julie Hauserman, an award-winning journalist, is editor-in-chief of the Florida Phoenix. She is a former national commentator for NPR’s Weekend Edition and a former capital bureau reporter for the St. Petersburg Times.
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Neutral Buoyancy by Tim Ecott
About the book
Neutral Buoyancy by Tim Ecott is a scuba diving book that offers a mind-blowing trip through the history of the life and adventures of men underwater.
Filled with engaging stories of humanity’s conquest of the undersea world, this diving book tells the extraordinary story of man’s attempts to breathe underwater, from the sponge divers described by Aristotle, to the development of sixteenth-century diving bells, to the invention of modern scuba equipment, along with the author’s own adventures.
A delightful read for those who enjoy history reads as well as diving and the undersea world.
Born in Ireland, Tim Ecott is a former BBC World Service staff correspondent. He has worked widely in Africa and the Indian Ocean. While in Seychelles, Ecott had become an avid and accomplished scuba diver and the sport became the subject of his first book, Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World.
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Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
About the book
Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II by Robert Kurson is a one-of-kind diving book about a true tale of riveting adventure in which two-weekend scuba divers risk everything to solve a great historical mystery-and make history themselves.
It is the tremendously suspenseful story of a discovery bathed in murky water and choked with nitrogen narcosis. As a diver, you can totally associate with the passion, sense of adventure, and drive that motivates the main character.
Robert Kurson is an American author who started his career as an attorney, graduating from Harvard Law School, and practicing real estate law.
Kurson’s professional writing career began at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he started as a data entry clerk. In 2000, Esquire published “My Favorite Teacher,” his first magazine story, which became a finalist for a National Magazine Award. He moved from the Sun-Times to Chicago Magazine, then to Esquire, where he won a National Magazine Award and was a contributing editor for years.
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Setting the Hook by Peter M. Hunt
About the book
Setting the Hook: A Diver’s Return to the Andrea Doria by Peter M. Hunt follows the amazing journey of the author that went back to explore the Andrea Doria, a vessel that sunk after a collision at sea, through an introspective odyssey of memory, heart-pounding adventure, and history as thirty years of extreme diving and enduring friendships merge in a personal tale of learning to accept life’s oldest challenge.
The 1956 collision of the Andrea Doria and the Stockholm triggered a night of sheer terror for the Andrea Doria’s 1,706 passengers and crew and set in motion one of history’s most dramatic rescues at sea. From the moment the Andrea Doria settled on the seafloor in 240 feet of water, skilled sports divers have risked their lives to simply touch the “Mount Everest of wreck diving.” Not all returned alive.
Peter Hunt crewed on five Andrea Doria expeditions during the early 1980s before becoming a Navy pilot and settling in Washington State. Nearly twenty years after first exploring the Andrea Doria – and following twelve months of training in the sport’s amazing advances in equipment and techniques – Hunt hugged his wife and children goodbye and returned to New York to dive the Andrea Doria once again. The experience transformed him forever.
Hunt was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2005 at age forty-three. Hunt holds a Masters Degree from the University of Washington, lives with his wife and two children on Whidbey Island, and still dives despite the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
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Deep Descent by Kevin F. McMurray
About the book
Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria by Kevin F. McMurray is an incredible adventure where the author takes you inside this elite club with a hard, honest look at those who go deeper, farther, and closer to the edge than others would ever dream. Deep Descent is the riveting true story of the human spirit overcoming human frailty and of fearsome, mortal risks traded for a hard-core adrenaline rush. Chronicling these adventures in his page-turning narrative and in dozens of dramatic photos, McMurray draws us deeper into the cold heart of the unforgiving sea, giving us a powerful vision of a place to which few will ever have the skills — or the courage — to go.
Reading Deep Descent and Setting the Hook in parallel is an exciting and fun way to get two different perspectives of the same wreck dive.
Kevin F. McMurray is an award-winning journalist and photographer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, New York magazine, Outside, Yankee, Men’s Journal, The Sunday Times (London), Rock and Ice, Cigar Aficionado, and other publications. An avid outdoor adventurer, McMurray is an expert scuba diver and former world record holder for swimming around Manhattan. He lives in Brewster, New York, with his wife and two daughters.
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Diver Down by Michael Ange
About the book
Diver Down: Real-World Scuba Accidents and How to Avoid Them by Michael Ange is part of the scuba diving books recounting real-life scuba diving accidents to another level. This book is for you to become a better and safer diver. That by showing you how to prevent tragic mishaps in the most unconventional way.
Among the few true stories, you’ll find in Diver Down, most of them involve diver error and result in serious injury or death. Each of these tales is accompanied by an in-depth analysis of what went wrong. More importantly, and how you can recognize, avoid, and respond to similar underwater calamities. This unique survival guide explores the gamut of diving situations, including cave and wreck diving, deep-water dives, river and drift diving, decompression sickness, and much more.
Michael R. Ange is a senior member of the Technical Training Staff for Scuba Diving International & Technical Diving International. And also a contributing writer and technical editor for SCUBA Diving magazine. He has trained 2,000 divers and hundreds of instructors and has written five textbooks on diving.
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The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury
About the book
The Last Dive: A Father and Son’s Fatal Descent Into the Ocean’s Depths by Bernie Chowdhury is one of the most captivating scuba diving books of sport diving. Chowdhury chronicles the tragedy of Chris and Chrissy Rouse. An energetic father-son dive team met with disaster while attempting to explore a German U-boat 230 feet deep in the waters off New York.
Though highly competent in perilous underwater cave diving, the Rouses lacked experience on the open sea. That left them unprepared for a cruel convergence of deadly circumstances. Aside from telling the Rouses’ story, Chowdhury does an excellent job of introducing listeners to the history, equipment, and dangers of diving at extreme depth.
Bernie Chowdhury is the founder and co-publisher of The International Technical Diving Magazine. Also world-class diver, Explorers Club Fellow, and a recognized expert on extreme sport diving, he also makes documentary films and is a frequent lecturer.
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Aquanaut by Rick Stanton
About the book
Aquanaut: The Inside Story of the Thai Cave Rescue by Rick Stanton goes deep into the enthralling inside story of the Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand.
I think we can all vividly remember the events in which, in July 2018, twelve boys and their soccer coach disappeared into the Tham Luang Cave in Thailand.
Told by the leader of the daring underwater rescue mission, this scuba diving book will leave you breathless. Truly a tale of bravery where not even the Thai Navy SEALs had the skills to bring those trapped to safety. With the floodwater rising rapidly, time was running out. Any hope of survival rested on Rick Stanton, a retired British firefighter with a living room full of homemade cave-diving equipment.
Rick Stanton MBE served for years as a firefighter. But it was his “hobby” of cave-diving that was his passion. He has quietly spent forty years exploring caves around the world. Therefore steadily built his unique skill set as he defied limits and pushed boundaries. Along the way, he and his dive partners became the ones to call for the most challenging cave rescue and recovery missions. Consequently, in 2018, he found himself leading the team that rescued the children’s soccer team. Above all, Rick needed to rely on all the experiences he’d gathered. In other words, he had to plan and then successfully execute one of the greatest rescue missions in modern history.
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Best scuba diving books
In conclusion, all of the diving books here are well worth a read! Importantly start with any one of them you think will hit the spot for you and then read them all.
Buy the best scuba diving books online
- Scuba Confidential by Simon Pridmore
- Under Pressure by Gareth Lock
- Drawn to the Deep by Julie Hauserman
- Neutral Buoyancy by Tim Ecott
- Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
- Setting the Hook by Peter M. Hunt
- Deep Descent by Kevin F. McMurray
- Diver Down by Michael Ange
- The Last Dive by Bernie Chowdhury
- Aquanaut by Rick Stanton
