Book & DVD recommendations
There are many books on SCUBA diving and apnea (freediving), but the choices in the technical diving section are fewer. Below is our selection of recommended books and Blu-rays/DVDs.
A few comments about the books and DVDs:
If you are just starting out, you may think "Deco for Divers" sounds very technical, but I would go as far to argue it is an essential book to read for anyone who ever goes below 20m depth (i.e. most CMAS++ or AOWD divers already). Not only is there a lot of interesting information, but it is surprisingly readable.
"Technical Diving from the Bottom Up" is, as the title suggests, definitely oriented towards advanced diving, but again I would argue that a lot of it should be of interest to most divers.
"Manual of Freediving" is probably the best book on apnea or freediving. It is motivational, has excellent, excellent training tips. In fact, I managed to up my own breathholding time by over a minute by doing these excercises on the first day of reading it. My static time after the two day apnea course was around 2:20min, and during a rest day on a (regular dive holiday) trip to Turkey at the poolside I managed over 3:20min, that was, to me, really amazing. So if apnea has your interest, you should treat yourself to this book.
"Diving and Subaquatic Medicine" is a massive book and at a high price point. It is not a casual read exactly. It is however, the leading book on diving medicine. The Amazon description says it covers every kind of medical disorder from a historical, aetiological, clinical, pathological, preventative and therapeutic perspective. I couldn't have said it better myself. Buy if you're really interested to read and learn more about all this (I am), but the target group is definitely more paramedics and doctors than casual divers.
Disclaimer: Reading is obviously by no ways a replacement for proper training and experience. But it beats hearsay and speculation common on dive boats where often people with ten more dives than yourself feel the need to dump their assortment of former "dive experience" on you upon sight of your logbook). Read up, you can't get less educated by doing it! :-)
The following books and Blu-ray/DVDs we have purchased and read/watched, and we consider them to be outstanding. There are certainly many other good books on all subjects, so this list will grow over time.
For now, let's start with our top recommendations:
