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Scuba Diving & Snorkeling for Dummies
For millions of Americans, diving offers the chance to get away from everyday life and enter a world of stunning natural beauty and fascinating complexity. And getting started is a breeze! Anyone can learn to dive safely and explore the world's wondrous oceans - all it takes is a little training and basic equipment. Scuba Diving & Snorkeling For Dummies presents all the fundamentals for anyone interested in getting dive certified or just looking for good snorkeling while on vacation. Written by PADI-Certified diver John Newman, this friendly guide covers everything you need to know to:
Get certified Plan a great diving trip Save money on equipment Dive or snorkel safely This user-friendly guide starts by helping you evaluate your underwater skills and walking you step by step through a typical certification program. Once you're certified, it helps you pick a dive site, purchase and set up your equipment, and take care of any fears you might have. Then you'll discover what to expect on your first dive - from which creatures are dangerous to how to protect fragile sea life. Scuba Diving & Snorkeling For Dummies also covers these topics and more:
Free diving Special breathing techniques Emergency procedures How to avoid the bends Handling dive anxiety The physics and chemistry of diving Staying healthy on dive trips Ocean ecosystems Rip tides and tidal waves Ten great dive destinations In addition to beautiful full-color photography and all the information you need to plan a dive trip, the book also includes a handy appendix of dive organizations and publications, as well as a CD-ROM sampler from PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors). Whether you're a novice diver or an old hand, Scuba Diving & Snorkeling For Dummies is perfect for anyone who wants to see the beauty of the ocean from a fish's point of view.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.
Get certified Plan a great diving trip Save money on equipment Dive or snorkel safely This user-friendly guide starts by helping you evaluate your underwater skills and walking you step by step through a typical certification program. Once you're certified, it helps you pick a dive site, purchase and set up your equipment, and take care of any fears you might have. Then you'll discover what to expect on your first dive - from which creatures are dangerous to how to protect fragile sea life. Scuba Diving & Snorkeling For Dummies also covers these topics and more:
Free diving Special breathing techniques Emergency procedures How to avoid the bends Handling dive anxiety The physics and chemistry of diving Staying healthy on dive trips Ocean ecosystems Rip tides and tidal waves Ten great dive destinations In addition to beautiful full-color photography and all the information you need to plan a dive trip, the book also includes a handy appendix of dive organizations and publications, as well as a CD-ROM sampler from PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors). Whether you're a novice diver or an old hand, Scuba Diving & Snorkeling For Dummies is perfect for anyone who wants to see the beauty of the ocean from a fish's point of view.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.
- GenresReference
336 pages, Paperback
First published June 29, 1999
4 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
John Newman
218 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 24, 2024
“Snorkeling and scuba diving are pretty easy—what could be hard about floating around? However, before you dive, you should know how to swim, but you don’t have to be able to knife through the water like an Olympic athlete. A basic, flopping-around kind of crawl is all that’s required” (9).
“Lots of non-divers labor under the illusion that diving is some kind of hairball, gonzo sport […] Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, diving isn’t really even a sport. It’s more of a pastime or activity. Under most conditions, it isn’t much more strenuous than taking a walk around the block” (9).
“You can be quite comfortable with an air temperature of 70 degrees because air doesn’t conduct heat very well. Water, on the other hand, is a good conductor, and in 70 degree water, you may become chilled very quickly. If you spend any amount of time in the water, even in the warm water of the tropics, you may want to invest in a wetsuit (a full-body suit that you wear underwater). Wetsuits are made from a material called neoprene that protects you from the cold by trapping a layer of water inside the suit that’s warmed by your body. Because the neoprene is full of air bubbles (air being a good insulator), very little heat escapes” (25).
“Water conducts heat away from the body more than 20 times as efficiently as air. That’s why divers wear exposure suits—even in warm tropical waters” (36).
“Your head loses body heat faster than any other part of your body. That’s not a very good thing because, in most people, this is where the brain is located […] Hands and feet can stand more exposure, but they don’t have much in the way of insulating body fat (compared to the rest of the body)” (40).
“Most divers need some kind of protective exposure suit in water less than 80 degrees. In water 60 degrees or less, an unprotected diver can quickly develop hypothermia” (138).
“Individuals respond differently to cold. Fat tissue insulates you from the cold, so overweight divers lose heat more slowly than thin ones. Acclimation also makes a dramatic difference” (139).
“Ocean currents ensure the circulation of ocean water, and transport nutrients and marine life from place to place. In general, because of the influence of the Coriolis Effect, ocean currents circulate clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. In places where surface currents are free to spread out, such as on the open ocean, the currents usually move quite slowly and are seldom very deep—even a fairly strong surface current may be unnoticeable at a few hundred feet….In some places the Gulf Stream moves water as deep as 2,600 feet” (156).
“While wind creates ocean currents, it is also responsible for the more familiar and visible phenomenon known as waves—chop, swell, surge, seas, and surf—they are all the result of the wind on the water” (156).
“Nearly half of all ocean waves are less than four feet high” (157).
“Lots of non-divers labor under the illusion that diving is some kind of hairball, gonzo sport […] Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, diving isn’t really even a sport. It’s more of a pastime or activity. Under most conditions, it isn’t much more strenuous than taking a walk around the block” (9).
“You can be quite comfortable with an air temperature of 70 degrees because air doesn’t conduct heat very well. Water, on the other hand, is a good conductor, and in 70 degree water, you may become chilled very quickly. If you spend any amount of time in the water, even in the warm water of the tropics, you may want to invest in a wetsuit (a full-body suit that you wear underwater). Wetsuits are made from a material called neoprene that protects you from the cold by trapping a layer of water inside the suit that’s warmed by your body. Because the neoprene is full of air bubbles (air being a good insulator), very little heat escapes” (25).
“Water conducts heat away from the body more than 20 times as efficiently as air. That’s why divers wear exposure suits—even in warm tropical waters” (36).
“Your head loses body heat faster than any other part of your body. That’s not a very good thing because, in most people, this is where the brain is located […] Hands and feet can stand more exposure, but they don’t have much in the way of insulating body fat (compared to the rest of the body)” (40).
“Most divers need some kind of protective exposure suit in water less than 80 degrees. In water 60 degrees or less, an unprotected diver can quickly develop hypothermia” (138).
“Individuals respond differently to cold. Fat tissue insulates you from the cold, so overweight divers lose heat more slowly than thin ones. Acclimation also makes a dramatic difference” (139).
“Ocean currents ensure the circulation of ocean water, and transport nutrients and marine life from place to place. In general, because of the influence of the Coriolis Effect, ocean currents circulate clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. In places where surface currents are free to spread out, such as on the open ocean, the currents usually move quite slowly and are seldom very deep—even a fairly strong surface current may be unnoticeable at a few hundred feet….In some places the Gulf Stream moves water as deep as 2,600 feet” (156).
“While wind creates ocean currents, it is also responsible for the more familiar and visible phenomenon known as waves—chop, swell, surge, seas, and surf—they are all the result of the wind on the water” (156).
“Nearly half of all ocean waves are less than four feet high” (157).
August 12, 2010
I've been donning a wetsuit to swim in the chilly 52 degree waters around my home on Lopez Island. I thought I'd better read up on snorkeling to get over my panic at having my face in the water. The book is heavy on the warm water areas but covers a bit in the cold water spots as well. Wish there'd been more on that but, really, it only makes sense. Who'd be crazy enough to enjoy being in the cold part of the ocean? Me and J. Cousteau - the San Juan Islands were his #2 place to dive.
December 18, 2015
Read it while taking the PADI open water diver course. It was very helpful to me to read this and have the concepts elaborated on in more depth than the manual I had. Read it cover to cover, and enjoyed the lists of great places to dive around the world.
December 5, 2015
En general bien, pero la segunda mitad es solamente una lista de lugares donde bucear.
August 19, 2007
Written for idiots. you can read the whole thing at Borders but there is nothing useful here.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews