Ecott's meticulously researched stories into the history of diving, interspersed with his own provides a delightful read.

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Product Description

In Neutral Buoyancy, journalist and diver Tim Ecott takes you on a guided tour of the history of undersea exploration and the emergence of diving culture. He tells the extraordinary story of man's attempts to breathe underwater, from the sponge divers described by Aristotle, to the development of sixteenth-century diving bells, to the invention of modern scuba equipment. Along the way, Ecott intersperses the story with his own thrilling adventures, from the waters of the South Pacific to the remote islands of the Seychelles, from explorations in the clear, flowing tides of Sardinia to a near-death experience in the cold gray depths of the English Channel. Filled with engaging stories of humanity's conquest of the undersea world -- and heart-pounding action that will leave you breathless -- Neutral Buoyancy is a compelling blend of history and adventure, an exciting overview of the world of undersea diving. "As elemental, entertaining, and stimulating as the environment it traces." -- Kirkus Reviews "Engaging ... Neutral Buoyancy will certainly become cult reading for divers." -- Alexander Urquhart, The Times Literary Supplement "Ecott's encyclopedic recounting of diving history ... should be awarded a place on any diver's reference shelf." -- Paul McHugh, San Francisco Chronicle

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30207 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780802139078
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
In Neutral Buoyancy, BBC journalist Tim Ecott recounts his ongoing adventures in the "liquid world" of scuba diving, from battling rip tides off the Dorset coast in southwest England to exploring the shark-rich waters of the Caribbean, musing along the way on the history and meaning of humanity's fascination with diving and reflecting on how his underwater experience has reshaped his life.

Four days after my mother's funeral I went scuba diving for the first time.... Surfacing from a dive ... I often think it strange that this mind-cleansing, emotionally charged experience is one that my mother never knew I had. It is something akin to the sense of regret I feel that she never met my daughter, born a few years after her passing. How odd that something so wonderful was not part of our shared experience.

Be warned: if you are already a diver, Neutral Buoyancy will heighten the sense that you are wasting far too much precious time on dry land. For the rest, even if your underwater ventures are largely confined to the bath, this book will have you contemplating a trip to your local swimming pool at the very least. Truly inspirational. --Alex Hankin, Amazon.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly
Plunging off the shores of Florida, Australia, the Western Pacific islands and other coastal locales, BBC world service reporter and producer and certified dive-master Ecott provides a fascinating, albeit uncritical, look at the fast-growing world of undersea diving. Vivid descriptions of what's to be seen show skeptics what they're missing: coral as green as a "fine piece of carved jade," as scarlet as a "humming-bird feather" and as pink as the "petals of a carnation in a buttonhole." Along the way, he recounts the history of the sport, which has grown from a risky enterprise practiced by a brave few to a far more mainstream, increasingly high-tech recreational endeavor. In interviews, the sport's pioneers (crusty individualists, not surprisingly) express some resentment toward Jacques Cousteau; they believe he stole glory due others. Though Ecott at times suggests discomfort with the diving world's competitive ethos, he seems reluctant to criticize it outright or to question the sport's cult of extreme risk-taking. And while mindful of the sport's dangers (in one particularly terrifying incident, Ecott nearly dies in the English Channel), he emphasizes its spiritual appeal: the title refers to a state of equilibrium that scuba divers aspire to a feeling of weightlessness. Agent, Natasha Fairweather of A.P. Watt. (July)Forecast: Ecott's journalistic acumen his pieces have appeared in Esquire, the Economist, National Geographic and elsewhere makes this an above-average look into a microculture. Lifestyle magazine coverage, plus word-of-mouth recommendations or summer-oriented displays, will lead fans and curious readers alike to this title.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Whenever I think about my years of scuba diving, the phrase that comes to mind is "variety of experience." This is also the best characterization of Ecott's book. An excellent writer and veteran reporter for BBC World Service, the author runs the gamut of the diving experience: he includes almost poetic descriptions of the mystic experience of weightlessness and being one with the underwater world, a history of diving, a discussion of hyperbaric physics and physiology, travel narratives of exotic diving locales, and an extremely interesting chapter on Florida sponge divers. This broad sweep is both the book's strength and its weakness. With something to appeal to everyone, it lacks an overarching focus. This also makes the book difficult to classify and hence to recommend to a specific audience. However, it is both enjoyable and informative and would be of interest especially to those who are new to scuba diving and looking for wide-ranging information. It would make a good supplementary reading assignment for a beginning scuba class. Recommended for academic, high school, and public libraries where there is interest in scuba diving. Margaret Rioux, MBL/WHOI Lib., Woods Hole, MA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Interesting reading about diving
It's a little hard to imagine that any thinking person who is a diver, or maybe wants to be a diver, would not enjoy and be informed by this book.

I know I learned lot. There is a lot of history of diving, combined with modern diving anecdotes. I would say the history part I found most interesting and informative was the discussion about the bends. Of course all divers today take this knowledge for granted, but if you stop and think about it, the connection between working in a tunnel, for example, and pain in the joints, and sometimes painful death, is not obvious. The author does a good job of telling this medical detective story.

His visit to volcano-ravaged Rabaul is also particularly interesting, and I would have thought the topic of free-diving was of no interest to me, but it turned out his treatment of this subject held my attention completely.

I first got certified to dive in 1967 when PADI and NAUI were both infants. I recently got re-certified, and now dive actively in the Philippines. Diving is a great sport, and this book is a useful and delightful addition to the literature on the subject. I will almost certainly re-read this one.

Love and Incredible Insight...
Tim Ecott's love for diving comes through these pages in myriad ways -- it should be read by everyone interested in man's experience in the undersea world, from the beginning recreational diver to the experienced marine scientist. These 'adventures in a liquid world' trace the history, motivations, and science of our efforts to be free under the waves -- from Aristotle's 4th century BC sponge divers, to the diving bells and barrels of three hundred years ago, through the development of scuba equipment in the 1900s and today's very modern technical and deep sea free divers.
Throughout Ecott brings us to the source -- he takes us with him to Tarpon Springs, for years a major center of sponge diving; we meet with him the veterans of Sealab; we're with him to talk and dive with Umberto Pelizzari, a legend in the world of free diving.
Ecott weaves and intersperses the history of man's adventures beneath the surface, the science of changes in the body at varying depths, and the subculture of the modern sport of diving with his own very personal experiences of the wonderful silent weightlessness to be found under the waves. He shares with us his open and soul revealing delight -- the mustering of courage needed as he enters the sea in the dark of night, the awe of the underwater city-like arches deep off the coast of the Seychelles, the bewitching peaceful calmness of a chance meeting with a pod of gray-steel dolphins hunting mackerel in the shimmering blue space -- certain that this is their first encounter with man.
Rarely does a writer capture the spirit and color of the experience so well. Read it -- he's been there -- he knows...

A Liquid Pleasure
This book is a pleasant read, a well written popular history of scuba diving and underwater exploration. This book would be enjoyable even for non-divers, because the author does such a good job, Bill Bryson style, of communicating experiences to those who did not share them. His descriptions of the beauty and wonder of simply being weightless, of confronting the stranger-than-fiction life forms under the ocean, and of the ocean's call to the heart, will help non-divers understand why we spend so much time and effort and money for those brief hours in the ocean.