Do you ever wonder what are some of the best scuba diving books out there? Whether you’re looking for inspiration or want to learn a new skill, there is a book for you.
Here’s some of our favorite books about scuba diving that will expand your horizons and teach you something interesting about the underwater world.
1. INSPIRATION
Diving The World: Over 200 prime sites and color images to give you the inspiration as well as all the practical information you need to plan your next dive.
The World’s Best Tropical Dive Destinations: For divers who love warm water dive travel can get inspiration from these beautiful photos from around the world.
Dive In Style: A guide to the best and most luxurious diving on the planet, from the Turks and Caicos, Fiji, Mozambique, French Polynesia, Oman, to Indonesia.
Dive Atlas Of The World: A tour of the world’s dive sites. From well-known classics to recently discovered, this global selection will give you inspiration to expand your diving horizons.
Fifty Places To Dive Before You Die: Diving experts share the worlds’ greatest dive sites so you can experience these underwater wonders for yourself.
2. EDUCATION & REFERENCE
The Great Buoyancy Scam & How To Avoid It: A book that takes you deep behind the scenes of modern day scuba diving instruction. It provides divers, new and old, with a valuable resource before signing up for a dive training course.
The Complete Diver: A comprehensive guide to the sport of recreational diving. This book includes chapters devoted to diving history, physics and physiology, diving medicine, health and safety practices for scuba divers.
PADI Open Water Manual: The book you need to get to become a PADI certified Open Water diver. This is the newest addition with the dive tables included.
The Certified Diver’s Handbook: A guide to help you create your own diving adventures on any budget, on any schedule, in waters local or distant, and without the restrictions of group demands. It’s for divers who want to enjoy the sport to the fullest.
Scuba Confidential: A guide that will teach you how to master skills and techniques that will make you a more confident, capable and safe diver.
NOAA Diving Manual: A reference text that is useful to divers and diving scientists not just within NOAA, but for all those involved in exploring the seas and fresh water bodies of Earth.
3. CAVE DIVING
Blind Descent: The quest to discover the deepest cave on Earth. Two men spent months almost two vertical miles deep, contending with thousand-foot drops, mile-long belly crawls, and the psychological horrors produced by weeks in absolute darkness, beyond all hope of rescue.
The Essentials of Cave Diving: The latest techniques, equipment and practices for scuba diving in caves and caverns. Cave diving has been called the “most dangerous participatory sport.” But with proper training, experience, and guidance, it doesn’t have to be.
The Cenotes Of The Riviera Maya: A complete guide including photographs, maps and details of where and how to swim dive and enjoy these beautiful cenotes of the Riviera Maya.
Caverns Measureless To Man: The story of the passion of an extraordinary individual who spent his life exploring underwater caves. Sheck Exley will convince you that his death came to him in the midst of the incredibly intense joy he took in diving into the depths of the earth.
Beyond The Deep: The Huautla in Mexico is the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere, possibly the world. Shafts reach skyscraper-depths, caverns are stadium-sized, and sudden floods can drown divers in an instant. This is an account of the decent into this cave.
4. SEA LIFE
Reef Life: Comprehensive guidebook to tropical marine life featuring more than 1000 color photographs of 800 species of ocean life.
Tropical Pacific Fish ID: Guide covering the fish-rich reefs of the Pacific. It contains 2,500 underwater photographs of 2,000 species from four of the best marine life authors/photographers in the business.
Florida Caribbean Bahamas Fish ID: Marine life photographs of 683 species and the latest information on what is known about the taxonomy and distribution of Caribbean reef fishes.
Baja to Panama Pacific Fish ID: More than 500 photos of 400 species taken in their natural habitat. Includes species common, scientific and family names, size range, description, distinctive features, habitat, behavior, depth range and distribution.
The Shark Handbook: Guide for understanding and identifying the sharks of the world. Learn about sharks from their birth to death, their anatomy, how to distinguish one shark from the next, how their teeth are developed, how they hunt and attack, and their importance and purpose within our eco system.
5. SAFETY & SURVIVAL
Deco For Divers: A diver’s guide to decompression theory and physiology. This book allows the average diver to fully understand the principles behind this fascinating aspect of diving. This book bridges the gap between introductory books and source scientific information.
Diver Down: Real world scuba accidents and how to avoid them. Each of these tales is accompanied by an in-depth analysis of what went wrong and how you can recognize, avoid, and respond to similar underwater calamities.
Scuba Diving Safety: A full range of underwater environments, as well as dangerous marine life, entanglements, and equipment failures, this vital resource is an essential reference for every underwater enthusiast.
6. WRECK DIVING
Shadow Divers: The true adventure of two Americans who risked everything to solve one of the last mysteries of World War II.
Deep Descent: Adventure and death diving the Andrea Doria, the ultimate deep water wreck that is known as the Mount Everest of diving.
Pirate Hunters: Finding and identifying a pirate ship is the hardest thing to do under the sea. But two men—John Chatterton and John Mattera—are willing to risk everything to find the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister.
Setting The Hook: From the moment the Andrea Doria settled on the sea floor in 240 feet of water, skilled sport divers have risked their lives to simply touch the “Mount Everest of wreck diving.” Not all returned alive.
SS Thistlegorm: The true story of the greatest wreck of World War II. The author brings together personal and often dramatic accounts from a variety of close to the action witnesses. These include surviving crew who were traced and interviewed by the award-winning BBC television producer Caroline Hawkins in 1993.
7. UNDERWATER PHOTO
The Underwater Photographer: Practical examples take you step-by-step through the basic techniques from photographing shipwrecks, divers, marine life and abstract images to taking photographs at night.
Underwater Videos For Divers: Professional underwater photographer, filmmaker, and explorer Jill Heinerth shares tips and techniques for SCUBA divers interested in shooting better underwater video.
Advanced Underwater Photography: A reference for divers who already have strong diving and underwater photography techniques who want to learn the skills necessary to create professional-quality images.
8. UNDERWATER EXPLORERS
Silent World: Jacques Cousteau’s memoir that chronicles the early days of underwater adventure. This books include the development of his invention, scuba, his first dives with scuba, and his travels under the sea during World War II.
The Human, The Orchid, And The Octopus: Cousteau describes his deeply informed philosophy about protecting our world for future generations
Sea Change: The adventure story of Sylvia Earle’s three decades of undersea exploration, an insider’s introduction to the dynamic field of marine biology.
9. FREEDIVING
Manual of Freediving: The only comprehensive manual for the beginner to intermediate freediver. Now updated with more than 500 pages and new sections.
Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves. A voyage from the ocean’s surface to its darkest trenches, the most mysterious places on Earth.
One Breath: Freediving,Death, and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits: A guideA gripping and powerful exploration of the strange and fascinating sport of freediving, and of the tragic death of America’s greatest freediver.
Breatheology: Most of us breathe inefficiently. Only when you become aware of your breathing and how to train it, you will be able to learn to breathe properly. Your body will immediately absorb more oxygen and after a short time you will have more energy and gain greater mental calmness.
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Great list. The age of the internet lets us forget about all the good books that are out there. I definitly have to go through some of these.
Thanks Jens! Let me know if you find any other great diving books 🙂
I’m trying to find the book I read some years ago. I don’t “think” it was Scheck? The book was pretty much an autobiography of sorts, detailing a solo man’s experiences: Recovery of cave divers, investigating boat ramp deaths, I remember it was in the Yucatan maybe NM and FL? any ideas? I think I read it in the early 90’s?
Dan
Hi Dan, I’ve never read that one…sounds interesting. I had a look around online but couldn’t find it. I’ll Let you know if it turns up 🙂