This book is a primer for one particular and very captivating activity: diving on shipwrecks. It proposes to offer practical information, as opposed to theoretical or mathematical; that is, how to conduct a dive on sunken ships, not what happens to the body under pressure. Furthermore, it intends to address the grimmer realities that are often overlooked: entanglement, equipment flooding, seasickness, and getting lost at sea, to name a few. To a certain extent, these unfortunate events are overemphasized in order to make up for the fact that they are seldom addressed in class or in popular publications: they make uncomfortable enlightenment at best. My intention is not to scare anyone off, but to acquaint people with worst case scenarios that may never occur, and to impart information that is otherwise unobtainable.

The topics covered include equipment modification, thermal protection, access to sites, current and surge, wreck orientation and navigation, night diving, photography, pharmacology, and a riveting rivet by rivet account of how shipwrecks got the way they are and why they look the way they do. The text is extensively illustrated with color photographs from the author's collection; eight illustrations demonstrate the evolution of shipwreck collapse, from an intact hull to a field of debris.

Primary Wreck-Diving Guide is the first of the three Wreck-Diving Guides. It is followed by the Advanced Wreck-Diving Guide (deep air diving, decompression methods, wreck penetration, and more), which itself is followed by The Technical Diving Handbook. The Technical Diving Handbook introduces nitrox, mixed gas, accelerated decompression using oxygen, and other high-tech concepts.

About the Author
Gary Gentile started his diving career in 1970. Since then, he has made more than 1,000 decompression dives, over 100 of them on the Andrea Doria. He has specialized in wreck diving and shipwreck research, concentration on wrecks along the East Coast, from Newfoundland to Key West, and in the Great Lakes.

He has written dozens of articles for magazines and has published thousands of photographs in books, periodicals, newspapers, brochures, museum displays, film and television. He lectures extensively on wilderness and underwater topics, and conducts seminars on advanced wreck diving techniques and high-tech diving equipment. He is the author of several books on nonfiction diving and nautical and shipwreck history.