Have you ever wanted to explore the natural springs, coral reefs, and shipwrecks Florida has to offer? Looking for a new adventure near home or just want to learn a new skill? Try scuba diving!
'Scuba' stands for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus." Scuba diving is a kind of underwater diving that uses fins, a mask, weights, a buoyancy control vest, and breathing equipment that includes a tank of compressed air and a regulator. Depending on levels of experience and certifications, scuba diving can be enjoyed recreationally and professionally.
Your scuba diving adventure begins with an Open Water Diver course—in person or online—to learn the basics of safe scuba diving. During this beginner course, a diving instructor teaches future divers about diving equipment and terminology, how to read dive tables and computers, and how to plan safe and fun diving excursions. Future divers then familiarize themselves with donning and operating dive gear underwater with a dive buddy and earn their Open Water Diver certification. With this certification, Scuba divers can book dives with boats or resorts, rent gear from dive shops, and dive almost anywhere in the world!
This sport isn't just for adults—kids can join in on the fun! Children 10-14 years old can earn a Junior Open Water certification and dive with professionals from 10-11 and with a legal adult at ages 12-14. At age 15, their certification automatically upgrades to Open Water Diver.
Here are some scuba diving resources from the library and other local sources.
Local Resources
- Dive Gainesville
- A free website listing everything you need to know about diveable sites in the area, including admission costs and how deep you can dive at each location.
- Scuba Monkey Dive Center
- Located in Alachua, this dive center has facilities for locals of all ages to dive on-site in a tropical aquatic environment.
- Cave Country Dive Shop
- Located in High Springs, this dive shop offers gear and local resources.
- Extreme Exposure Dive Shop
- Located in High Springs, this dive shop includes information on its website about local diving areas and the requirements for diving.
- Located in High Springs, this dive shop includes information on its website about local diving areas and the requirements for diving.
Library Resources
- Instructive Non-Fiction
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Scuba Diving Handbook: The Complete Guide to Safe and Exciting Scuba Diving by John Bantin
An essential resource for divers. This comprehensive reference has information for divers of all levels, from the beginning basics to advanced skills and techniques for those with more experience. With its 350 full color photographs, easy-to-understand diagrams and tips from professionals, this book covers the descent from the surface and the ascent back; all breathing techniques required; and advanced skills for cave diving, wreck diving, and search and recovery using the latest technology. Combining detailed instruction with step-by-step exercises and practice programs, The Scuba Diving Handbook guides divers as they explore all aspects of the sport. Among the There is a wealth of information for planning diving trips in temperate, tropical and even arctic waters, as well as expert advice on conquering fear, using underwater cameras and avoiding the bends. This book is ideal for any diver -- both newcomers requiring intensive guidance and advanced divers seeking a quick brush-up.
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Scuba Fundamental: Start Diving the Right Way by Simon Pridmore
If you do not yet scuba dive but are thinking of learning, then Scuba Fundamental - Start Diving the Right Way is for you. It takes you from the germ of the idea that you might like to try scuba diving up to the point where you have done around 20 dives.
This is not your standard how-to scuba diving manual. It is very different. The purpose of Scuba Fundamental is not to teach you how to dive. A dive instructor will do that. But this book will make the learning process much easier. It will help you make the right choices and avoid the pitfalls that await new and uninformed divers coming into the sport. It will also set you well on the road to becoming a capable and competent lifelong diver.
Scuba Fundamental tells you how to make sure you are prepared for a scuba diving course and what a good beginners course should entail. It tells you how to choose a good instructor, how to decide which operators to dive with after you have finished your course and what sort of dives you should be doing when you first start diving.
You will learn the many ways in which diving will change your life and also acquire some extremely valuable advice on the etiquette involved in the sport. Throughout the book and especially in the chapter "It Happened to Me" you will be entertained, educated and encouraged by anecdotes from people who are now experienced divers but were once beginners too.
There is also an entire section devoted to diving safety, much of which covers vitally important aspects of scuba diving that standard training manuals don't emphasise enough or even leave out completely.
The book's message is: start scuba diving the right way and you will be relaxed and ready for the adventure. You will have more fun, make fewer mistakes and be confident in the fact that you are well informed, have made the best choices and have spent your money wisely.
Scuba Fundamental is a unique, reliable and essential guide: one that you can trust completely and follow during this formative phase of your scuba diving life.
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Reef Smart Guides Northwest Florida by Peter McDougall
The Definitive Guide to Scuba Diving and Snorkeling in Northwest Florida From the authors of the Reef Smart Guide series comes Reef Smart Guides Northwest Florida, a unique and essential scuba, snorkel, and surf travel guide for Northwest Florida diving. A great travel gift. The ultimate guide for visitors and locals looking to spend time in Northwest Florida's Gulf of Mexico.
This guidebook provides detailed descriptions and illustrations of beaches, shipwrecks, shore-accessible dive and snorkel reefs, and the top surfing sites in the area. Detailed descriptions and map art. With the help of Reef Smart's unique 3D-mapping technology, learn all you need to know about the region's top dive and snorkel sites, including the world famous Oriskany and historical wrecks of the Tarpon and Empire Mica. Snorkelers enjoy the maps of 27 shore-accessible sites along the coast, and all the information necessary for a great day in the water. Don't go diving without it. This indispensable resource helps you plan and execute dives without a hitch. Make sure to pack this unique guidebook with the rest of your scuba gear!
More from this series of Reef Smart Guides.
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Snorkeling the Florida Keys by Brad Bertelli
Planning a trip to the southernmost point of the United States? This guide will help you find the best spots to snorkel and dive in the Florida Keys.
From Carysfort Reef to Indian Key to Dry Tortugas National Park, the Florida Keys provide many excellent and diverse snorkeling opportunities among brilliant corals teeming with remarkable sea life and sunken ships from long ago. Snorkeling the Florida Keys dives into more than forty unforgettable sites, including reefs, wrecks, and beaches.
- Historical and Natural Non-Fiction
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Part adventure story, part manifesto, the legendary ocean explorer's passionate plea for sustaining life on earth.
Explorer, diving pioneer, filmmaker, inventor, and activist, Jacques Cousteau was blessed from his childhood with boundless curiosity about the natural world. As the leader of fascinating, often dangerous expeditions all over the planet, he discovered firsthand the complexity and beauty of life on earth and undersea--and watched the toll taken by human activity in the twentieth century.
In this magnificent last book, finally available for the first time in the United States, Cousteau describes his deeply informed philosophy about protecting our world for future generations. Weaving gripping stories of his adventures throughout, he and coauthor Susan Schiefelbein address the risks we take with human health, the overfishing and sacking of the world's oceans, the hazards of nuclear proliferation, and the environmental responsibility of scientists, politicians, and people of faith. Cousteau's lyrical, passionate call for action to protect our earth and seas and their myriad life forms is even more relevant today than when this book was completed in 1996. Written over the last ten years of his life with frequent collaborator Schiefelbein, who also introduces the text and provides an update on environmental developments in the decade since Cousteau's death, this prescient, clear-sighted book is a remarkable testament to the life and work of one of our greatest modern adventurers.
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Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
For John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, deep wreck diving was more than a sport. Testing themselves against treacherous currents, braving depths that induced hallucinatory effects, navigating through wreckage as perilous as a minefield, they pushed themselves to their limits and beyond, brushing against death more than once in the rusting hulks of sunken ships.
But in the fall of 1991, not even these courageous divers were prepared for what they found 230 feet below the surface, in the frigid Atlantic waters sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey: a World War II German U-boat, its ruined interior a macabre wasteland of twisted metal, tangled wires, and human bones–all buried under decades of accumulated sediment.
No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could not be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location.
Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked on a quest to solve the mystery. Some of them would not live to see its end. Chatterton and Kohler, at first bitter rivals, would be drawn into a friendship that deepened to an almost mystical sense of brotherhood with each other and with the drowned U-boat sailors–former enemies of their country. As the men’s marriages frayed under the pressure of a shared obsession, their dives grew more daring, and each realized that he was hunting more than the identities of a lost U-boat and its nameless crew.
Author Robert Kurson’s account of this quest is at once thrilling and emotionally complex, and it is written with a vivid sense of what divers actually experience when they meet the dangers of the ocean’s underworld. The story of Shadow Divers often seems too amazing to be true, but it all happened, two hundred thirty feet down, in the deep blue sea.
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Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert Kurson
Finding and identifying a pirate ship is the hardest thing to do under the sea. But two men—John Chatterton and John Mattera—are willing to risk everything to find the Golden Fleece, the ship of the infamous pirate Joseph Bannister. At large during the Golden Age of Piracy in the seventeenth century, Bannister’s exploits would have been more notorious than Blackbeard’s, more daring than Kidd’s, but his story, and his ship, have been lost to time. If Chatterton and Mattera succeed, they will make history—it will be just the second time ever that a pirate ship has been discovered and positively identified. Soon, however, they realize that cutting-edge technology and a willingness to lose everything aren’t enough to track down Bannister’s ship. They must travel the globe in search of historic documents and accounts of the great pirate’s exploits, face down dangerous rivals, battle the tides of nations and governments and experts. But it’s only when they learn to think and act like pirates—like Bannister—that they become able to go where no pirate hunters have gone before.
Fast-paced and filled with suspense, fascinating characters, history, and adventure, Pirate Hunters is an unputdownable story that goes deep to discover truths and souls long believed lost.
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Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver by Jill Heinerth
More people have died exploring underwater caves than climbing Mount Everest, and we know more about deep space than we do about the depths of our oceans. From one of the top cave divers working today—and one of the very few women in her field—Into the Planet blends science, adventure, and memoir to bring readers face-to-face with the terror and beauty of earth’s remaining unknowns and the extremes of human capability.
Jill Heinerth—the first person in history to dive deep into an Antarctic iceberg and leader of a team that discovered the ancient watery remains of Mayan civilizations—has descended farther into the inner depths of our planet than any other woman. She takes us into the harrowing split-second decisions that determine whether a diver makes it back to safety, the prejudices that prevent women from pursuing careers underwater, and her endeavor to recover a fallen friend’s body from the confines of a cave. But there’s beauty beyond the danger of diving, and while Heinerth swims beneath our feet in the lifeblood of our planet, she works with biologists discovering new species, physicists tracking climate change, and hydrogeologists examining our finite freshwater reserves.
- Children's and Middle Grade Books
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Scuba stands for "self-contained under water breathing apparatus." Divers can use scuba gear to breathe while underwater. Learn more about one of the world's most daring sports and the athletes who take part in it with Scuba Diving, part of the Extreme Adrenaline series.
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Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne
Once upon a time in France, a baby was born under the summer sun. His parents named him Jacques. As he grew, Jacques fell in love with the sea. He dreamed of breathing beneath the waves and swimming as gracefully as a fish. In fact, he longed to become a manfish. Jacques Cousteau grew up to become a champion of the seas and one of the best-known oceanographers in the world. In this lovely biography, now in paperback, poetic text and gorgeous paintings come together to create a portrait of Cousteau that is as magical as it is inspiring.
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Dive In: Swim with Sea Creatures at Their Actual Size by Roxie Munro
Splash into one of the world's most alluring—and threatened—habitats, without getting your feet wet.
Without traveling any further than your bookshelf, encounter exquisite coral reef creatures in this clever introduction to underwater life! Brightly illustrated at true-to-life size, Dive In introduces more than twenty undersea creatures. From the brilliantly colored rainbow parrotfish to a venomous southern stingray, follow the path of a scuba diver discovering the many creatures living in a coral reef—including a huge gatefold spread featuring a massive reef shark.
As you go, you'll find that each detailed, bright spread fits together with the next, charting a journey through one big scene in this meticulously illustrated nonfiction picture book.
Accompanying the vibrant artwork are detailed descriptions of the 29 featured creatures, revealing their intriguing habits and more about the Caribbean coral reef they call home. A key included in the back matter shows how the pages smartly fit together. An index, a map, and a section on protecting coral reefs are also included.
Budding conservationists will love learning about this vital ecosystem of coral reefs around the world from the comforts of home!
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Pete the Cat: Scuba-Cat by James Dean
Pete the Cat is going scuba diving! Before he hits the water, Captain Joe tells him about all the sea creatures he can encounter, and Pete is super excited to see a seahorse. But when he is suited up and swimming around, he has to search high and low to find the little guy. In this aquatic adventure, Pete makes a new friend and gets a big surprise!
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Jacques Cousteau: Conserving Underwater Worlds by John Paul Zronik
While early explorers either sailed the seas or trekked overland, 20th century explorer Jacques Cousteau's territory of discovery was underwater. This exciting new book details the expeditions of this submarining adventurer and inventor. Before Cousteau, underwater exploration was limited and dangerous. Cousteau perfected the aqualung in 1943 which made it possible for divers to stay underwater for several hours. His many undersea adventures were documented in books, films, and television shows which brought the world under the water to life for millions of people. Topics include - Cousteau's early career in the French navy - undersea exploration before Cousteau - ocean conservation and Cousteau's work with whales and dolphins - the research ships and inventions - Cousteau's work on an underwater living research program Teacher's guide available.
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Treasure Tracks by Sallie Ann Rodriguez
Twelve-year-old Fernando “Fin” joins his grandfather on a secret quest to find a long-lost treasure swept to sea. But when their first mission takes a near-deadly turn, leaving his abuelo weak and unable to speak, Fin’s left to navigate the hunt alone. Well, not exactly alone―his boring, totally unadventurous dad agrees to help out. With danger lurking at every turn, Fin dives into the mission in order to save Abuelo's life. But between Dad’s constant worrying, unwanted diving babysitters, and harrowing encounters in the deep sea, the boy finds himself in a race against time to locate the treasure. If he can’t succeed? He fears he might lose Abuelo for good.
S.A. Rodriguez's Treasure Tracks is a fast-paced story filled with heart and humor about the bonds of family, the meaning of a legacy, and most of all, the discovery of true treasure.
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Deep Water: A Story of Survival by Watt Key
A middle grade survival story about a scuba dive gone wrong and two enemies who must unite to survive.
It's the most important rule of scuba diving: If you don't feel right, don't go down.
So after her father falls ill, twelve-year-old Julie Sims must take over and lead two of his clients on a dive miles off the coast of Alabama while her father stays behind in the boat. When the clients, a reckless boy Julie's age and his equally foolhardy father, disregard Julie's instructions during the dive, she quickly realizes she's in over her head.
And once she surfaces, things only get worse: One of the clients is in serious condition, and their dive boat has vanished--along with Julie's father, the only person who knows their whereabouts. It's only a matter of time before they die of hypothermia, unless they become shark bait first. Though Julie may not like her clients, it's up to her to save them all.
- Scuba in Fiction
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The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Set on the Korean island of Jeju, The Island of Sea Women follows Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective. Over many decades—through the Japanese colonialism of the 1930s and 1940s, World War II, the Korean War, and the era of cellphones and wet suits for the women divers—Mi-ja and Young-sook develop the closest of bonds. Nevertheless, their differences are impossible to ignore: Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator, forever marking her, and Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers. After hundreds of dives and years of friendship, forces outside their control will push their relationship to the breaking point.
This beautiful, thoughtful novel illuminates a unique and unforgettable culture, one where the women are in charge, engaging in dangerous physical work, and the men take care of the children. A classic Lisa See story—one of women’s friendships and the larger forces that shape them—The Island of Sea Women introduces readers to the fierce female divers of Jeju Island and the dramatic history that shaped their lives.
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The Girl Beneath the Sea by Andrew Mayne
For a Florida police diver, danger rises to the surface...
Coming from scandalous Florida treasure hunters and drug smugglers, Sloan McPherson is forging her own path, for herself and for her daughter, out from under her family’s shadow. An auxiliary officer for Lauderdale Shores PD, she’s the go-to diver for evidence recovery. Then Sloan finds a fresh kill floating in a canal—a woman whose murky history collides with Sloan’s. Their troubling ties are making Sloan less a potential witness than a suspect. And her colleagues aren’t the only ones following every move she makes. So is the killer.
Stalked by an assassin, pitted against a ruthless cartel searching for a lost fortune, and under watch within her ranks, Sloan has only one ally: the legendary DEA agent who put Sloan’s uncle behind bars. He knows just how deep corruption runs—and the kind of danger Sloan is in. To stay alive, Sloan must stay one step ahead of her enemies—both known and unknown—and a growing conspiracy designed to pull her under.
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Next title in the Faye Longchamp Archaeological Mysteries. When tragedy strikes and everything she loves is threatened, Faye Longchamp, an expert in American archaeology, will resort to desperate measures. Because some losses cut to the bone...
A murder mystery with an archaeological twist, Wrecked is:
Florida-based mystery
Perfect for fans of James Lee Burke and Nevada Barr
For readers of archaeological mysteries
The suspicious drowning death of Captain Edward Eubank breaks archaeologist Faye Longchamp's heart. It also confuses her, because he was found in scuba gear and she's never heard him even mention scuba diving. During their last conversation, he told her that he believed he'd found a storied shipwreck, but when Faye checks it out, she finds nothing there—not a plank, not a single gold coin, nothing. If there's no treasure, then why is her friend dead?
But the situation quickly escalates beyond a murder mystery. Surrounded by a community struggling in the aftermath of a major hurricane that has changed the very landscape, Faye grapples not only with the loss of her friend, but with her fears for her daughter, who is being romanced by a man who may be very dangerous.
As a professional with her own consulting firm, Faye had long ago given up her "anything goes" attitude when the law stood between her and an interesting dig. Now that recklessness is back. There's nothing she won't do to protect her daughter.
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The Martian meets 127 Hours in this “astoundingly great” (Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author) and scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.
Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool's errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. He knows it's a long shot, but Jay feels it's the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad's death the previous year.
The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid's tentacles and drawn into the whale's mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out - one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.
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The deeper you go, the darker you fall.
Phoebe “Phibs” Ray is never more at home than when she’s underwater. On a dive six months ago, she and her four closest friends discovered a handful of ancient gold coins, rocketing them into social media fame. Now, their final summer together after high school, they’re taking one last trip to a distant Australian island to do what they love most – scuba dive.
While diving a local reef, Phibs discovers a spectacular underwater sea cave, rumored to be a lost cave with a buried treasure. But when Phibs and her best friend Gabe surface from the cave, they notice that they're undergoing strange changes. Oozing gashes that don’t heal. Haunting whispers in their heads... Something has latched onto them, lurking beneath their skin, transforming them from the inside out.
When treasure hunters arrive, desperate to find the location of the cave and hold Phibs’ group for ransom, she’ll do anything to keep her friends safe. In the process she learns that, of all the dreadful creatures of the sea, she might be the most terrifying of them all.