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Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World | 
 enlarge | Author: Tim Ecott
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $4.17
You Save: $9.83 (70%)
New (15) Used (19) Collectible (2) from $4.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 67447
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.6 x 1
ISBN: 0802139078
Dewey Decimal Number: 797
EAN: 9780802139078
ASIN: 0802139078
Publication Date: June 6, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: minor shelf and usage wear
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Neutral Buoyancy March 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good book, well written, interesting facts and also for the non diver a good read.
 Great book December 18, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The first time I read this book I was in the process of completing my Divemaster certification and also reading PADI's Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving. Neutral Buoyancy covers about 75% of the same information as found in the ERD text; but does so written in a travel memoir style from the authors personal experience, allowing for a much more approachable format for the general reader. The book is well written and I found it difficult to put down, a must read.
A great read even for a non-diver April 2, 2007
I thought this book would be a technologically driven, marine-laden book about the sport. I gave it a try. What a surprise after only a few pages! Tim Ecott wrote a passionate book filled with historical chapters and memoirs of some of the best diving spots in the world, and he always includes the plants and animals as part of the experience. He introduced the underwater world to us landlubbers in such a way that the "underworld" becomes that which it truly is: another habitat that happens to be under water.
However, as the chapters rolled on, the book became a "history of diving" that showed the depth of research Mr Ecott did for this book. Jaques Cousteau and the Aqualung of the 1940s are what hastened SCUBA diving as we know it today; only the race to the moon is what slowed research down once the 1960s came.
This book is highly recommended to those spouses, friends and lovers who nag the SCUBA-obsessed divers. Give them this book and make them read it. They will then better understand the passion and beauty that's found only below the sea. Sea for yourself!
Good book! Fast service! February 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this book as a gift for a scuba diver. It came quickly, and is exactly the kind of book scuba divers love to read!
A master wordsmith contemplates on the world underwater October 2, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Understanding Neutral Buoyancy requires understanding the author. Tim Ecott is a reporter and producer for BBC World Service and has been writing for numerous prestigious international magazines and papers. He is a certified divemaster and a marine environmentalist. However, unlike the ultimate expert divers that have authored other diving books, Ecott is almost a reluctant diver. His father was a military man, and so young Ecott, a sickly, bronchitic child in his early childhood Wales fared much better in Malaya where his father was stationed for several years. A return to Ireland was a return to "varying shades of grey" for him. Though a lifelong swimmer, he came to scuba relatively late and his first experience was "just, well, fine." That daramtically changed later, but it's clear that this is a man who views diving as an emotional thing much more so than macho daring, socializing, or a scientific quest.
Tellingly, those who picked up Neutral Buoyancy with the anticipation of finding educational or instructional content regarding that important and celebrated aspect of diving will find it described in just one paragraph, an introduction to a chapter. The technical aspects are incidental; this book is really a collection of a wide variety of thoughts on diving, recorded by a deep and different soul, organized by an experienced journalist's mind, and crafted in exquisite language. Ecott, unlike many diving book autors, is a true writer, a professional, a master of language. Journalists and writers master the art of reporting facts and perhaps adapting them to the medium in which they will be published. In this instance, the medium is Ecott's own book where he is free to not just report, but also give his thoughts his personal spin.
Neutral Buoyancy is organized into a dozen chapters that each center on one general aspect of of things under the sea. There's, for example, a 30 page chapter entitled "Organic Gold" dedicated entirely to the sponge. Another deals with underwater habitats. There's "Flickering Images" that centers around Austrian diving pioneer Hans Hass and his wife Lotte, whom he seeks out and interviews. There's "Diving Free" that examines breathdiving record attempts and the whole experience around it. Or "In the Shadow of the Fire God" that describes a trip Ecott took to the Bismarck Sea. "Advanced French" deals with the various findings and advances a number of French pioneers brought to diving, most importantly, though not necessarily in Ecott's eyes, Jacques Cousteau (who he largely sees as a publicity grabbing egotist). There are other chapters dealing with underwater dangers, diving history, underwater warfare, pioneers, all presented in beautifully crafted language.
Ecott is a true citizen of the world. His world only, for sure, but of the world nonetheless. He travels to the places he seeks, delves deeply into them. His research is not just academic, no, he seeks out and interviews the pioneers, visits the places where things took place, and weaves it all into his words and descriptions.
Despite all this, I found the book an acquired taste. During the first half, I was often put off by what I found an overly negative view of things, one dismissive of essentially anything that wasn't old and untouched or at least made in the olden ways. I tired of the endless references on man's cruelty and thoughtless carelessness, and the somewhat manipulative hangdog way those thoughts were presented. That led me to becoming an overly critical reader who approached each new chapter with some bias, to the extent where I began faulting the writer for putting clearly British words like "programme" into an American's mouth. I actually put the book down for several weeks.
Then I picked it up again and I am glad I did. Having accepted Ecott's deeply personal view of the world and his tendency to craft personal biases into his accounts, I was finally able to appreciate the true magic of this book, the wealth of information and experiences it conveys without ever once falling prey to that old authors' vice, that of talking down or showing off, at least not in a technical sense. Neutral Buoyancy can be read and enjoyed by people who do not know diving, have never dived. His skillfully crafted brief explanations of diving basics explain without putting off experts while his gift of describing details, of truly painting with words, of conjuring up pictures and thoughts in a masterful way, will thrill even the most advanced diver.
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