GENTLEMAN DIVER
I was diving at Alcyone in Cocos, a sea-mount and known for quite difficult diving conditions. Most of the divers had already retreated to the panga but I was on closed-circuit, so had more time.
When I finally decided to leave, I came across Stan Waterman, still busy in the fierce current, effortlessly focused on a tiny jawfish with his massive video outfit while countless hammerheads whirled about his head, ignored.
He opted to join me on the ascent and we hung together while he made quite long open-circuit deco-stops on the way up.
Above us, the Pacific Ocean was exploding with power, and I watched the underside of the panga as it bucked and dipped on its anchorline. The surface was punctuated from time to time with clouds of vomit from those waiting above. I had time to reflect that diving was not so much an active as an intellectual sport.
Stan was then 80 years old. He is now 84.
The growing frailty of age can mislead the less-experienced into thinking that it reduces competence. Stan has the diving competence that comes with having spent more time in the water than some of our companions on that trip had had on the planet.
However, he is also one of the kindest gentlemen I know, and he usually responded to well-meaning advice from youthful "experts" with a merry "Good for you!"
As you can guess, I am a fan. Stan could fill a set of volumes to match the Encyclopaedia Britannica if he were to commit all his experiences to paper.
So his modest volume Sea Salt: Memories and Essays can give only the briefest of tastes of what this wonderful man has tucked away in his memory banks.
I suppose Stan Waterman is best known for his underwater camerawork during the shooting of the feature film The Deep, but his break came when he sold National Geographic the rights to a film he had made of his family's tropical odyssey, after he had taken them to live in Tahiti many years earlier.
In 1968 he collaborated with Peter Gimbal on the shark classic Blue Water, White Death, and his film-making continued with 10 years of production with friend Peter Benchley for the American Sportsman series on US television. In 1994 the Discovery Channel broadcast a two-hour special on Stan, The Man Who Loves Sharks.
Stan is a diving raconteur of the first order. I can't do better than quote from Benchley's foreword to this volume: "Stan Waterman has spent more than half a century in, on and under the sea, and in these pages he takes you with him on the amazing ride he calls his life.
"Sea Salt is far more than just a catalogue of critters and close calls. Stan has a profound rapport with the sea, and his command of language and literature eloquently conveys the depth of his feeling.
"As you enjoy each grain of Sea Salt, I hope that your richest reward will be a sense of comradeship with the very special man who's sharing with you the story of his utterly beguiling journey."
There are plenty of quietly spoken, well-read, educated Americans and Stan is one of them, but it is rare that such a man has devoted so much of his life to scuba-diving. I only wish I had met him 40 years before I did.
John Bantin

ON A MISSION TO EXPLAIN
There have been a few attempts to produce the Great Diving Novel, none of them notably successful. I fear that Cayman Cowboys by Eric Douglas won't be on the Pulitzer Prize list either.
It's a gently predictable thriller about corrupt, physically unappealing developers and politicians pitted against tall, handsome, environmentally minded divers in the Caribbean (most of the plot is in fact divulged in the back-page blurb).
A very easy read, I appreciated having lots of diving content written by someone who knows what he's talking about. Mr Douglas is a journalist and diving instructor and works as DAN's Training Director. He is also clearly very familiar with the Cayman Islands, US divers' favourite playground.
If you can't fault his factual grasp, you can question his insistence on under-rating his readers. Eric Douglas clearly suffers from EEC - Explain Everything Compulsion.
His characters' appearance, background, motivation and shoe size is invariably provided in detail as soon as we meet them. And they frequently take time out to lecture each other and total strangers on anything from basic rebreather theory to the geology of the Cayman Islands.
Perhaps one reason why the Great Diving Novel has never been written is that if the mainstream audience doesn't grasp the technical aspects (what oxygen toxicity is, for instance), it won't really follow the finer points of the plot. But you really can't ram this stuff down people's throats.
By all means read this book, as it's a bit of underwater fun, but be prepared to feel like a special needs reader.
Steve Weinman

ACCIDENTALLY BRIEFED
As divers, we all receive some sort of accident management and diving first aid training. The trouble is, unlike diving, these are not skills we regularly practise. When it comes to a real incident, do we really remember everything that we should?
This is where the DDRC Underwater Diving Accident Manual, the fourth edition of which is now out, comes in handy. Take a diving accident victim, open the manual, and page 3 provides a simple flow-chart to get you started. Subsequent sections describe the procedures in more detail, and cover the whole spectrum of diving mishaps from DCS to jellyfish stings.
All this is presented in a clear, concise and easily readable format. Even better, it's printed on waterproof paper so that it can be taken on diving trips. It does just what the title says.
While the sections on accident management are very focused and up to date, some of the later sections give the impression of being afterthoughts that have received less attention. The web address given for the Coastguard is wrong, and goes to Netserve's default page. The emergency numbers worldwide include Sharm el Sheikh, but not Hurghada.
I already have an earlier edition, but it got me thinking. Maybe I should get the latest and, niggles aside, stay up to date.
John Liddiard

SHIPWRECKS OVERSOLD
I was off to visit the Caymans. so Lawson Wood's Shipwrecks of the Cayman Islands seemed ideal reading material. It has 190 magazine-sized pages of text mixed with the author's own photos, and a foreword by Jean-Michel Cousteau.
I settled down to a long flight's reading, only to be faced with disappointment. Lawson Wood has catalogued vessels wrecked in the Caymans, but reading it simply made me realise that one would hardly beat a path to this Caribbean island nation simply to dive its wrecks.
Putting aside the Captain Keith Tibbetts, intentionally sunk for divers at Cayman Brac, most of the vessels are of either historical or archaeological importance only, and evident only from anchors or other lasting debris. Other wrecks more intact and shallow enough to dive are merely a couple of inconsequential vessels.
There's an interesting historical introduction that includes facts about pirates, though scant mention of the most famous of all - Sir Francis Drake. Descriptions of sailing vessels from caravels onwards are useful, but illustrations of contemporary vessels of the type one might actually see under sail are missing, too.
There's a good historical section on anchors. The text is telling: "Quite often, all that divers can find amidst the coral reefs is a huge pile of anchor chain, barely discernable from the reef itself."
One section is devoted to the Wreck of the Ten Sail, 10 vessels tragically wrecked at the east end of Grand Cayman in 1794. All that remains of this event is the odd iron cannon.
Shipwreck City, a project to sink more wrecks for divers, sounds interesting but is very much a work in progress liable to be delayed by the economic setback of Hurricane Ivan last year.
I found a handy list of dive operators, many of which were still in business after the storm. But go to Cayman for its reef diving - there is not enough in this book to capture the imagination of keen wreck-divers.
John Bantin

NOTES FROM NOVA SCOTIA
I'll start this review of Wreck Hunter back to front. I enjoyed the book. Now I will try and explain why.
A few years ago I visited Nova Scotia for DIVER, and Terry Dwyer was my host. It soon became clear that in this Canadian province with a small population, a large coastline and many wrecks, Terry was Mr Shipwreck. He learned to dive as a teenager, and has been involved full-time in everything to do with wreck-diving ever since.
Terry could always come up with some good diving stories, and in Wreck Hunter he has compiled much of this knowledge into a book. It's a mixture of wreck guide to Nova Scotia, tutorial on shipwreck research, treasure hunting, and a range of diving anecdotes. The only thing I would change would be to include a map.
Why did I enjoy it? Partly because I know the author, and it reflects his enthusiasm. Also, I have dived a small selection of the wrecks described and would like to dive more, so the book has stirred my dormant enthusiasm for Canadian wreck-diving.
Would Wreck Hunter be a good read for divers not heading for Nova Scotia? I'm not sure. Some chapters have a wider appeal, but others are very specific.
John Liddiard

PUBS FOR DIVERS
What could be more agreeable? Out diving all day, a few judicious drinks at the bar that evening and, when everyone else has been chucked out, no further to find your bed than up a flight of stairs.
Staying In A Pub could be just the thing for UK divers planning a trip. It's a book with a CD-Rom, and it leaves nothing to chance for those of us slow on the uptake - hence the first chapter, headed What Is A Pub?
If you can get your head round that, you'll manage fine with the rest of it, which is simply a county-by-county directory of hostelries, not scored but including a rough price guide, and some brief reviews.
Editor Dave Cromack has run three Weymouth pubs in his time, the last being the Weatherbury, familiar to more than a few divers. He reckons that only about 8% of the UK's pubs provide accommodation - one per 20sq miles - so this will take you straight to the motherlode.
He lists 2200 establishments throughout the UK, which should include a reasonable choice at coastal or inland dive locations, and presumably he had a good time compiling it. There is also a useful guide to local breweries.
Steve Weinman

JUST WHAT IT SAYS ON THE COVER
There are many books that describe themselves as "lavishly illustrated", but in the case of the Collins Field Guide Sharks of the World there can be no argument whatsoever. It is exceptional in this regard, with Marc Dando's artwork more than doing justice to the 453 shark species included in the book.
This initial impression of fastidious attention to detail is reinforced once the reader gets stuck into the book, with a splendid introduction covering the ancestry, life history, and physiology of the shark, followed by a species-by-species breakdown covering areas such as distribution, behaviour, and biology.
I thought my knowledge of sharks was pretty good until I read this book, but I was constantly surprised at the nuggets I picked up as I bowled through the text - aided throughout by diagrams, sketches and beautiful colour pictures.
If "lavishly illustrated" fits, I'd also say that (certainly as far as field guides for non-scientists go) "definitive" is also a pretty fair description. If you are interested in sharks - and, let's face it, most divers are - this excellent book is a must.
Monty Halls

THAILAND OUT OF TIME
It must be frustrating to publish a guide book, only to have events beyond anyone's control make some sections obviously out of date.
While the dive sites of the west coast of Thailand generally survived well, the Tsunami of Boxing Day 2004 did trash Christmas Point, which Diving in Thailand describes as a "four to five star" dive. Such glitches are disappointing, but excusable considering the circumstances.
What is less excusable are other parts that are out of date. I don't know Thailand as well as the authors do (or did?), but I do know that Fantasea Reef has been off-limits for the past five years.
I also know that the first few Similan Islands are off-limits. Yet Diving in Thailand describes these sites with no mention of such restrictions.
Turning back to the introductory chapters, the photography advice mentions Nikonos cameras, no longer in production, yet fails to mention digital cameras.
It makes me wonder; if I, with my limited knowledge, can pick up such obvious examples of how Diving in Thailand is out of date, how much can we trust the rest of the text?
It's a shame, because the book is attractive and has accurate maps, and photographs of better quality than most guide books.
A clue lies in the first pages. This edition was published in 2004, but the first edition was published in 1994. It's an attractive book that was no doubt excellent 10 years ago.
What a pity that the publisher skimped on updating it for the current edition.
John Liddiard

SOFT SPECIES, HARD FACTS
Back from a DIVING trip, and with my photographs processed, the next stage is the hard work of sorting and cataloguing them all.
For UK diving, the first reference books I reach for to help me are the Marine Conservation Society/ Seasearch guides.
Someone in the MCS must have sat down one day and thought out in detail just what the average diver wanted to glean from guide books about marine life in our home waters.
These principles have been refined with each new book. Clear organisation, so that a book can be read or referenced. Common, as well as scientific, names. A bit of science, but without bogging you down in jargon. Sex (and lots of it). Where to find them. Good-quality colour reproduction. Attractive layout. Photographs that illustrate the species but, in many cases, are good underwater photographs in their own right.
Sea Anemones and Corals of Britain and Ireland is a worthy addition to the MCS portfolio. It includes about 70 species of anemones and corals, all of which can be seen by divers.
Next time a non-UK diver or non-diving friend questions what there is to see beneath our home seas, you can show them the evidence.
With this book on numerous divers' bookshelves, I'll have to work harder to make sure I get my anemones right, but at least I'll have the right book to help me.
John Liddiard