Diver Down: Real-World SCUBA Accidents and How to Avoid Them [Paperback]

We hear about the near accidents and fatalities from our scuba pals and instructors and we often talk about what should or should not have been done prior to the dive. The author, Michael Ange, takes 20 real-world scuba accidents and retells what happened in detail from beginning to end. The most important part of the book though is the analysis. After describing the incident there is a breakdown of where it started to go wrong and what should or should not have been done to prevent it - called Strategies for Survival.

Some of the accidents are ones you would expect to hear about but others are more unusual and are good to store away in the old memory banks as a possible scenario to watch for and avoid.

I heard from one instructor that most divers are found dead on the bottom still wearing their weights. I found this hard to believe, especially since as part of our training we learn how to ditch our weights. Sure enough, most of the stories in the book end up with a diver with their weights still on - some of them survive and some do not. Many factors were involved, usually in a domino effect, to bring about the incident. The weights may not have been what did them in but what I have really gotten from this book is that when a person gets to a low or no air situation and panics, they forget to do important things like ditch those weights. This tells me that divers need to be constantly practising their skills so that they become automatic. Before diving in open water each season, my buddy and I practice our skills, but after reading this book we'll especially be doing drills on dropping our weight belts.

In addition to the two traditional scuba rules, the author has written 10 rules that he has developed after all his experience and research with diving. These rules were created as a direct result of the analysis of the dive accidents written about in the book.

Also included in the book are about 35 special topic contents on dive related things such as Regulators, Wreck Diving, Trimix Dives, Dive Briefings, etc., etc.

I just could not put the book down and found each story riveting, mostly because each story is an actual event retold using information gathered from people that were involved, family members, accident reports, etc., and I could only imagine what was going through their minds while it happened.

I believe every diver should read this book. After all, forewarned is forearmed!

Michael Ange also writes Lessons for Life articles covering diving accidents in Scuba Diving magazine.

I am a recently certified diver and I loved this book. Reading the book really drove home the reasons for the safety rules in our sport and the dangers of breaking them. The author relates the stories of these unfortunate incidents in a very readable way and then summarizes the lessons to take away from each one. Each story is quite a brief read in itself, so you can leave this book and come back to it as time allows, but I found it hard to put down. Highly recommended. I am buying other copies for friends.

good book, makes you consider all the little things that can go wrong so quickly. preparation and planning makes a good diver!