The Expedition Manual: Taking your diving further

The Expedition Manual: Taking your diving further
by Geoff Hide and Andy Hunt
£25 from www.bsac.com/shop
(£15 for members)
ISBN 9780956481306

By a happy co-incidence the BSAC Expedition Manual thumped onto my desk just as I was planning a minor expedition of my own. Now, this is a question that has vexed mankind every since he thought he might take a bimble out his cave. What is an expedition? Well, my definition of an expedition is that you know one when you're on one, and more pertinently you know one when you're organising one. As my trip involved RIBs, the rugged Pembrokeshire coast, 12 hairy bummed divers, and a large, unruly dog, I decided that it just about squeaked in.

And that is the beauty of this excellent book. Whether you're organising a club weekend or a pioneering exploration of the mid-Atlantic ridge, there are principles and tips within that will help you administer and follow up on your diving project.

Having devised and led several large scale dive trips overseas in my time, I could see straight away that the book is not only based on good solid research and sound writing, it has also drawn from a deep well of experience. In terms of the principles and concepts, each chapter and segment has an example – drawn from real incidents – where someone has got it right (and occasionally wrong). It makes for a very good read indeed – breaking up the theory-based text with mini anecdotes and drawing conclusions and lessons from them directly. I found myself flicking through to the stories and thinking ‘Oh, I did that’ and ‘Aha, if only I'd done that then my life would have been a lot less emotional on that dive’. It makes the inevitably drier segments of the book all the more pertinent, and keeps you thundering on chapter after chapter.

The book is broken down into ten chapters, covering topics as ethereal as the definition of an expedition and of leadership, right through to the hard, take home stuff such as how to do a risk assessment, locate sites, make kit lists, and of course a good section on dealing with diving emergencies.

I recommend not only buying this book, but using it well. It should very quickly become tattered, salt encrusted, and well thumbed, as it is a passport to all sorts of diving adventures.

Monty Halls