Good reads...

I remember a post where Kelly and Jax were talking about the history of cave diving and how it isn't well documented to say the least, everybody reads "Caverns Measureless to Man" which is as Kelly pointed out somewhat one dimensional. I pretty much have every cave diving book known to man and have for years as I feel education begins with acquiring knowledge, eg you should read "The Darkness Beckons", "The Cave Divers", "The Art of Safe Cave Diving", "Cave Diving; Articles and Opinions", "The Cave Diving Group Manual", "The NSS Cave Diving Manual" and so on and so forth.

However if you're like me and love reading fiction, one of the best books out there that is pretty legit is "Down to a Sunless Sea" by David Poyer, I've read it so many times and am just starting it again tonight and it will give you the chills. Written in 1996 it mentions the Luraville Country Store, Emerald, Peacock, Ginnie etc.

Just a heads up for some of the newer cave divers in our community that may not have heard of it... :)

Safe diving,

Rich

P.S. Anyone else have some good suggestions, post them here....

The one I'm currently reading has nothing to do with diving, but is a good read nonetheless. "Shakey", the biography of Neil Young. As biographies go, it's well done. And the subject is a good one for us "wannabe" musicians.

+Deep into blue holes
+Taming of the slough.

ive already read the above except "down to a sunless sea" looks like i have some xmas reading to do ;)

A guy named Jeff Carson, who I did some diving with back in the 90s, helped give Poyer some background information on cave diving for his book. It's been almost 20 years since I read it, but yeah I remember it was OK.

I would add:
Safe Cave Diving, Tom Mount 1973- will show up on Ebay once and awhile
Complete Guide to Cave Diving NAUI 1973- very rare
Wakulla Springs Project, Bill Stone,1989- CDS used to stock this
Caves and Karst of Florida-NSS Guide book, Lee Flora,2008-probably still available from the NSS
6th and 7th Annual Proceeding from NACD Seminar 1973 and 1974- ultra rare
1st Proceeding from the NACD Seminar 1968. -ultra rare.
Beyond the Deep- Barbara Am Ende aka Squirrel Girl here.

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Originally Posted by Kelly Jessop

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Beyond the Deep- Barbara Am Ende aka Squirrel Girl here.

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Good read. Another book on the same exploration, but with a slightly different perspective is Blind Descent - Quest to discover the Deepest Cave.

The first 19 volumes of Underwater Speleology (1974-1992) are available on nsscds.org under Members-> UWS Newsletter (scroll to the bottom to select a year). Much of the history of cave diving can be found here.

I'm working on organizing/scanning/uploading the rest of the archive.

I enjoyed "Into the Deepest and Darkest: Deep Diving Adventures in South Africa and the Gulf of Aqaba" the formatting wasn't the best but overall I enjoyed it.

Tha is great!!!!

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Originally Posted by Roderick

The first 19 volumes of Underwater Speleology (1974-1992) are available on nsscds.org under Members-> UWS Newsletter (scroll to the bottom to select a year). Much of the history of cave diving can be found here.

I'm working on organizing/scanning/uploading the rest of the archive.

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"A Glimmering in Darkness" by Graham Balcombe; about the beginnings of cave diving in the 1930's & 1940's in England and Wales. Cool old photos as well as very interesting stories.

"The Cave Divers" by Robert Burgess is also well worth reading.



Mike

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Originally Posted by Roderick

The first 19 volumes of Underwater Speleology (1974-1992) are available on nsscds.org under Members-> UWS Newsletter (scroll to the bottom to select a year). Much of the history of cave diving can be found here.

I'm working on organizing/scanning/uploading the rest of the archive.

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Thanks, Rod - I'm just tackling the first few volumes. There is some rich stuff there!

Down to a Sunless Sea is a good read, as Rich says. It is officially out of print but not difficult to find via Abe or other used book sellers.

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Originally Posted by cavedivingwoman

It is officially out of print but not difficult to find

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Go to my house and look in the garbage can.