Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves

What drives a person to dive alone into the ocean as deep as they can at the risk of drowning, stroke, paralysis, and death?
This book BLEW MY FREAKING MIND. I am terrified of the ocean and will barely get in a swimming pool, so naturally I would read a book about free diving (and all the ways it can go terribly, awfully wrong). I learned so much about a variety of topics (breath holding, dolphins and the people who give them handjobs, free diving competitions and the people who compete in them, plus so much more) and was fascinated the entire time. I 100% recommend this book. Even if you don’t think you would be interested in this, I promise you will be astounded by what you read.

This is a very good book on a topic I knew nothing about, free diving. It's up there with free climbing for extreme craziness. Nestor is a reporter for Outside but he decides to learn how to do it himself and that brings the book to a new level. He travels around the world to cool places and meets interesting people, recounts some harrowing stories. And shows this "sport" was once common among native people who searched for food in the sea. And there it occurred to me: this is Christopher McDougall's Born to Run. Instead of running in bare feet without shoes, it's deep diving without scuba gear. There is the connection with primitive people, rediscovering an ancient power that exists latent in us all if we give up the technology. It show more says something that we find these types of activities and books so alluring. show less

Fascinating! There were parts of the book where I found myself holding my breath. James Nestor is amazing, when he finally goes through the door to the deep I was so happy for him. I'm way too fond of breathing to understand how a person could do this. But just imagine feeling echolocation clicks from sperm whales! The science is readable, the people are outlined beautifully, the love of water is palpable. Terrific book.

My daughter and I, who are both scuba divers, bought me this book. I guess she has a very high regard for my skills!

However, she made a stellar choice as this is a remarkable, most readable, very illuminating book. The author distinguishes between those who freedive - that's diving with only the breath in your lungs - and those who "freedive" to amazing depths to establish new records. These records really are remarkable - recently a Canadian made it to 145m on one breath. However, impressive this is that's all thery do and while few have dived many are injured by the practice. The author used freediving to interact with sea life - who are amazingly receptive to humans who are not creating noise and bubbles as with scuba equipment. He's show more joined many researchers into diving with sperm whales for instance. He's also quite dismissive about researchers who never get into the water!

His insights and observations about whales is amazing especially as to their language - he reckons the clicks are digital transmissions!

This is an amazingly interesting book even if you're not into diving!

Thanks Claire. show less

A thorough yet concise account of human activity at differing depths underwater, and the technologies/interactions that make it possible. Nestor has a gift with making even those with no experience or knowledge of the world's oceans fall entranced with what's out there - from the relatively simple to the mostly unknown. A fabulous yet short work, this will be a rewarding read for virtually anyone, and will instill a sense of wonder at the complex yet symbiotic relationship that humans have had with waters worldwide.

Fun to read, interesting, exciting - but weighed down by all kinds of iffy science and shoddy science writing.

A major case is his acceptance and promotion of something called the “Master Switch of Life” which he defines as a complex set of physiological reflexes that “are triggered the second we put our faces in water.” There are diving reflexes, etc in humans but I don’t feel that Nestor is qualified to report on this topic with the assurance that he seems to feel, evidently based on his conversations with divers. (There was a Scientific American article in 1963 on the subject entitled “The Master Switch of Life” but I don’t get the feeling that scientists currently use this terminology.)

He also reports a lot of show more intriguing but totally speculative theories about dolphin and whale communications. show less

Extraordinary book. There is so much we don't know about the ocean. I found this simply fascinating. I kept stopping and having to share with Heath such interesting stories. Very readable. Touches on everything from tide pools to the origins of life. I don't think I'll be freediving anytime soon, but I am grateful to the author for sharing his experiences in such an enjoyable way.