The Last Dive: A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths | 
 enlarge | Author: Bernie Chowdhury
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  144 reviews
Sales Rank: 125678
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060932597
Dewey Decimal Number: 306
EAN: 9780060932596
ASIN: 0060932597
Publication Date: March 1, 2002
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Product Description
Chris and Chrissy Rouse, an experienced father-and-son scuba diving team, hoped to achieve widespread recognition for their outstanding but controversial diving skills. Obsessed and ambitious, they sought to solve the secrets of a mysterious, undocumented World War II German U-boat that lay under 230 feet of water, only a half-day's mission from New York Harbor. In doing so, they paid the ultimate price in their quest for fame. Bernie Chowdhury, himself an expert diver and a close friend of the Rouses', explores the thrill-seeking world of deep-sea diving, including its legendary figures, most celebrated triumphs, and gruesome tragedies. By examining the diver's psychology through the complex father-and-son dynamic, Chowdhury illuminates the extreme sport diver's push toward -- and sometimes beyond -- the limits of human endurance.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 139 more reviews...
 Much more than just the Rouse's "Last Dive" March 5, 2008
"The Last Dive" is a very engaging read that is every bit as much about why people take risks at the edge of human ability (diving, mountain climbing, racing, etc.), their personalities, and their weaknesses, as it is about Chris and Chrissy Rouse and their fatal dive on the U-Who.
Although I found "Shadow Divers" and "Deep Descent" a bit more riveting; after the somewhat flowery prose of the initial couple of chapters, "The Last Dive" did an excellent job of bringing me into the club of elite cave and wreck divers, introducing the history and exploits of the key divers including the Rouses, helping to understand a bit of what motivates these divers to make the deep dives and take the risks they do, introducing some of the key wrecks that help to set the stage, and taking you inside the head of the author as he experiences the same fascination, thrill, fever, risk, and pain of a dive gone bad.
The author is a friend of many of the key divers and has personally made many of the same cave and wreck dives and has been through a serious episode of the bends, so he knows what he is talking about. He does a good job of describing technical issues in lay terms, so "The Last Dive" will engage the diver and non-diver alike.
While the lives and personalities of Chris and Chrissy Rouse are a thread running through "The Last Dive"; it is just as much the author's story and that of the other deep wreck divers who take the same risks, and their inner needs and drive to do so. Once you get through the first two chapters, you will find "The Last Dive" to be a page-turning adventure.
Definitely read the postlog chapter, "Ever Deeper". It's not the same rate of adventure as the rest of the book, but the additional information about many of the divers, advances in the science and psychology of deep wreck diving, and further information about identifying the U-Who (covered better in Shadow Divers) is worth the additional reading.
great book February 27, 2008
If you are looking for a great book about scuba diving you search has ended. The last dive is amazing and is a great story about a diving family and their quest for improvement.
A book for a diver December 16, 2007
This isn't Shadow Divers. This isn't written like a NY Times bestseller. It doesn't intensify or create drama like some other books do to try to captivate your interest. This book is written by a diver and is most appreciated by a fellow diver. Some complain of tangents which they say detract from the father and son story. These only serve to richen the experience for me. It not only tells the story but teaches valuable lessons and makes a diver desire further understanding on the many subject which are touched upon.
 Duffy July 30, 2007
Maybe I shouldn't write my review, because I didn't finish the book, but it just isn't good. This is supposed to be a tragic story of a father and son that lose their life to a sport they thoroughly enjoy, yet all I get from the writing is a couple of guys who are arrogant and immature. Chowdhury goes between writing technical diving information to dialogue between characters, that reads hollow and adolescent. Not a good read for me. If you're into diving and wrecks, ready Kevin McMurray. He's BRILLIANT!!!
A Great Read for All Divers July 12, 2007
This book will make you laugh, will make you cry, but more importantly, will make you think. This book contains a lot of good, and usable information about diving, the history of mixed gases, and makes you realize even the best can fail. Even with the amount of info contained, Bernie ties it all in to make an enjoyable and easily followed story. Anyone who claims it was boring or he rambled too much, has ADD.
This book SHOULD be read by all new divers!
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