Close Calls: If They Made Mistakes, You Will Too

by Stratis Kas, Michael Menduno (Foreword)

Genres: Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

Published November 19, 2020

Reviews

[Strelitzia]

A pretty interesting collection of short personal accounts (and lots of pictures). A good reminder that we all make mistakes and that they are valuable learning experiences and not just something to be embarrassed over. It's definitely more enjoyable just reading a few sections at a time. These are short personal accounts so there is a wide variety (and quality difference) in writing styles and how each 'close call' is explained. If you aren't a diver you may find this bit technical and hard to picture.

There's an underlying theme here of complacency leading to avoidable, stupid mistakes and dangerous scenarios which I find a good reminder. There is a lot to learn from these stories. It was also interesting seeing how different people & personalities handled their own "close calls" and their own reflections of each incident.

[Rolands Jegorovs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it’s an essential book for anyone doing scuba diving beyond ocasional recreational dives once a year. The only thing I’d like to have seen was a deeper dive into the reasons or details of the problem scenarios. I’ve spoken to one of the story authors in the book and what he shared with me had much more detail and nuance as to why the incident occurred. Otherwise, some of the stories left me asking a lot of follow up questions.

[Viet-Long Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for serious divers.
Stories from experienced divers who nearly died.

[Justas Maziliauskas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for every scuba diver

[Jaspal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loads of great stories of really good divers almost coming to grief.
Reads well just as a, ‘wow that’s a good story’ kind of book, but what I really liked is that there are so many things to learn from these episodes and incorporate into my own diving.