More than 35 passages from novelists, journalists, poets, playwrights, essayists, and scientists detail an intertwined passion for diving and the written word in this collection. From Robert Stone’s portrayal of a diver who faces the terrorizing prospect of his air running out to Clare Booth Luce's search for the treasures of the underwater realm, every passage reveals a perspective of the world that only divers have known. Humor columnist Dave Barry battles a lobster and explains why staying on the ocean’s surface is like “going to the circus and staring at the outside of a tent.” From Rangiroa to the Red Sea, from deep within caverns to the eerie light under ice, from the lethal silliness of nitrogen narcosis to the elation of soaring over unfathomable depths, every selection, like every dive, is a unique experience.
Ed Kittrell is a writer and editor and an avid diver. He lives in Glenview, Illinois. Casey Kittrell and Jim Kittrell are writers and licensed scuba instructors. Jim lives in Glenview, Illinois. Casey lives in Austin, Texas.
Read an Excerpt
To halt and hang attached to nothing, no lines or air pipe to the surface, was a dream. . . . From this day forward we would swim across miles of country no man had known, free and level, with our flesh feeling what the fish scales know.
I experimented with all possible maneuvers of the aqualung—loops, somersaults, and barrel rolls. I stood upside down on one finger and burst out laughing, a shrill distorted laugh. Nothing I did altered the automatic rhythm of air. Delivered from gravity and buoyancy I flew around in space."
What People are Saying About This
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Jean-Michel Cousteau
Divers often struggle to put their experiences into words, but here are the voices of well-known writers who have ventured into the underwater world. They turn diving into a journey of the mind and spirit.
