Rating: 
Summary: An Undersea Prism of Adventure
Review: " Exciting to read", " gives me a sense of place", " A true feeling of how delicate our Ecological system is", " a real close encounter with sea life", " a prism of intertwined knowledge, intrigue, reflections and attitude"Beginning my experience in 1966 in Scuba Diving, I continued on to become a US NAVY Frogman (like Mike Nelson, my boyhood idol) and later a Dive Instructor, Sea Captain and finally a Diving Safety Officer for a University in the Panhandle of Florida. I have had thorough experience in the Liquid World. The Author has captured the history, the mystery and beauty of the diving experience. Like the first light prizms that were placed into the decks of 1750 era ships to focus rays of light on dark spaces below, he has given an empowering knowledge of the ocean. Tim Ecott has balanced the intriguing stories with the Physics and History of diving and has done so in such an artistic way, that the non-diver can imagine, through these stories and rays of light, the realism of Neutral Bouyancy. " Truly an Enlightened and Intriguing Experience" a must read for all...
Capt. Keith
Rating: 
Summary: Neutral Buoyancy
Review: Book was well written. However,this book is more on the histroy of Scuba Diving from way back. Not what I would expect from it's title. If one wants to know the history of the spunge divers in Tarpen Springs, once again this is a good book. This book was written by a man that is posesed with sponges and the history of Scube. Little to no action. and the bugs on Long Island in the Bahamas are over whelming.
If these are what you want to read about it is a good book. I was looking for some good infomation on diving in todays era. and maybe some action.
NOT IN THIS BOOK
It will sit on my shelf and not be read like others I have read 7 or 8 times.
Please Note, I am a scuba diver that has reached the level of Instructor, I know the sprot.
Rating:
Summary: he sees the magic
Review: i had a real feeling of deja vu with this book. how could someone write everything they felt about diving and get it right on the button so often? it was like he had spoken to thousands of divers and digested everything they think about the sport. i've given this to lots of diving buddies and they all say the same - one great read, and a huge stack of info about history and the crazy guys who started the whole thing. this book is never boring and you just wish it didn't end.
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Summary: author review, timecott@hotmail.com
Review: I hope that Neutral Buoyancy will encourage more people to take an interest in diving and in the underwater environment. The book mixes history, personal memoir, travel and underwater encounters in an attempt to spread the word about how lucky we are to live at a time when diving for pleasure is accessible to almost anyone who wants to try it. It has been a great honour to meet so many of the characters described in Neutral Buoyancy, all true ambassadors for diving. I hope too that the book will encourage people to think more kindly about fish.
Rating:
Summary: Combining knowledge and pleasure
Review: I read any diving book I can find. This has been the best ever. A very personal account of discovering the history and pleasure of diving. Being a divemaster, this book gave me a chance to brush up on diving history, and much of the forgotten technical knowledge learnt in training several years ago. The diving and travel descriptions are beautifully written and make you feel like you are his buddy/ travelling companion. Highly recommended to divers and armchair travellers. If this doesn't make you want to dive, you're barely breathing!
Rating:
Summary: liquid dreams
Review: I really was amazed to find this book. Tim Ecott has summed up the spirit of diving in a way that is very hard to do, especially when trying to explain the fascination of the sport to non-swimmers but at the same time he has covered the incredible history of underwater explorations in great detail. The characters the interviews are all like people in a movie adventure. The descriptions of the dive destinations like the Seychelles and the Bahamas are fantastic and made me want to run away and go diving! If you dive this book says it all and if you dont it will make you sign up tomorrow.
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Summary: Please,no more sponges!
Review: If you can make it through the first half, you will enjoy the second. It was like the book had two authors. I feel I know more than I ever wanted to know about "sponges". Enough, Already with the sponges. The diving history was very enjoyable, but I could have done without his personal experences.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting reading about diving
Review: It's a little hard to imagine that any thinking person who is a diver, or maybe wants to be a diver, would not enjoy and be informed by this book.
I know I learned lot. There is a lot of history of diving, combined with modern diving anecdotes. I would say the history part I found most interesting and informative was the discussion about the bends. Of course all divers today take this knowledge for granted, but if you stop and think about it, the connection between working in a tunnel, for example, and pain in the joints, and sometimes painful death, is not obvious. The author does a good job of telling this medical detective story.
His visit to volcano-ravaged Rabaul is also particularly interesting, and I would have thought the topic of free-diving was of no interest to me, but it turned out his treatment of this subject held my attention completely.
I first got certified to dive in 1967 when PADI and NAUI were both infants. I recently got re-certified, and now dive actively in the Philippines. Diving is a great sport, and this book is a useful and delightful addition to the literature on the subject. I will almost certainly re-read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Wets Your Appetite
Review: My girlfriend gave me two Christmas presents - both designed to wet my interest in diving. Admittedly, I was initially much more taken by the other present - a fish tank screen saver. However, in no time flat, the little fish ceased to dart around my screen and I turned my attention to this book. SO GLAD I DID! Ecott's descriptions of his underwater adventures kept me turning the pages and, better still, propelled me into the nearest dive center. What a revelation. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who likes water ... or even just a shower. (And don't buy those screen savers)
Rating:
Summary: Well written and extensively researched personal odyssey
Review: Neutral Bouyancy, is somewhat different to waht i had expected from reading various reviews and the book jacket, and thankfully it exceeded my expectations. The book is a history of diving interspersed with personal accounts and anecdotes, which balances nicely.
Being an avid diver i have often wondered about some of the early pioneers and evolution of the apparatus which is used, and this books answered a lot of my questions and filled ina lot of gaps.
It was interesting to read about Jaques Costeau, James Bond and other subliminal influences to my own diving ambitions.
Ecoot travels and dives inthe four corners of the earth, to research his book, and his passion shines through on every page.
a must read for british divers.
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