The Certified Diver's Handbook: The Complete Guide to Your Own Underwater Adventures
  The real-world guide for divers who want to enjoy their sport to the fullest
More than half of the 1.5 million people who achieve scuba certification each year are stymied in their pursuit of the sport because they lack time and money to enjoy the exotic diving experiences they've read about, and don't want to be confined to group dives.
The Certified Diver's Handbook is the only guide to help them create their own diving adventures on any budget, on any schedule, in waters local or distant, and without the restrictions of group demands.
Thirty-year diving veteran and photojournalist Clay Coleman provides the insider's tips and how-to advice divers need to equip, plan, and execute their own diving expeditions. Divers will learn how to:
- Buy or rent the best SCUBA equipment at the best prices
- Plan dives to maximize enjoyment and safety
- Find great diving sites close to home
- Master underwater rescue procedures and shore- and night-diving techniques
- Explore wrecks, reefs, and underwater caves
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments | Introduction
Chapter 1: Switching Attitude Gears
Diving as a Lifestyle | Pursuing Your Own Interests | A Realistic Assessment of Risk | A Realistic Assessment of Cost
Chapter 2: Equipment
Masks, Fins, and Snorkels | Dive Knife | Regulators | Buoyancy Compensators | Depth Gauges | Dive Computers | Exposure Suits | Tanks | Weights and Weight Belts | Dive Bags
Chapter 3: Gear Maintenance
Mask | Regulator | Submersible Pressure Gauge | Computer | Buoyancy Compensator | Tanks
Chapter 4: Gadgets That Work, and Good Ideas
Hose and Gauge Retainers | Clip Systems | Dive Lights | Dive Slates | Plastic Ties | Clip-On Weights | Spare Air | Moldable Mouthpieces | Safety Sausages | Dry Boxes | Dry Bags | Medical Dive Insurance | Dive Equipment Insurance
Chapter 5: How to Buy Equipment
Buying New Gear | Buying Used Gear | Personalizing Your Gear
Chapter 6: Kindred Spirits and First Trips
Finding Dive Buddies | Where to Go
Chapter 7: An Introduction to Mother Ocean: Water Weight and Density
The Characteristics of Ocean Water | How Water Density Affects Light | How Water Density Affects Sound
Chapter 8: The Weather: Wind and Waves, Storms, Tides, and Currents
Wind and Waves | Thunderstorms | Currents
Chapter 9: The Marine Environment
Organization of the Ocean | The Four Life-Forms | Anatomy of a Coral Reef | Spooky and Potentially Hazardous Marine Animals
Chapter 10: Going Diving
Diving from Charter Boats | Diving from Privately Owned Boats | Diving from Shore | Drift Diving |
Night Diving
Chapter 11: Staying Out of Trouble
Underwater Navigation | Buddy Problems
Chapter 12: When a Good Thing Goes Bad: Basic Rescue Procedures and Diver Problems
Rational-Patient Surface Assist | Passive-Patient and Panicky-Patient Surface Rescue | Unconscious-Patient Surface Rescue | Unconscious Patient on the Bottom | Decompression Sickness | Lung Overpressure Injuries | Some Problems of Breathing under Pressure | Hypothermia | Hyperthermia
Chapter 13: Diving in the United States
Road Trip | The Gulf Coast | The East Coast | The Great Lakes | The West Coast | Inland USA: A Place Near You
Chapter 14: International Dive Travel
Getting There | Where to Go
Appendix: Underwater Photography
Resources | Index
About the Author
Clay Coleman began diving, photographing, and spearfishing beneath the oil rigs off the coast of his native Louisiana in 1973. A member of the Louisiana State Bar since 1979, his first article appeared in Sport Diver magazine in 1994. His writings and photographs have been published in numerous diving, conservation, and boating magazines.
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