Scuba Physiological

I was sitting in a vehicle driving from Ubud to Kuta with Simon and his wife Sophie discussing current projects and future work, Simon was due in the recording studio to convert one of his publications into an audio book when one of his earlier works became a topic of discussion.

I have hard copies of a number of his books and asked why Scuba Physiological was not available in hard copy; for me, the answer was intriguing. Initially, the book was written by scientists and based on their research into decompression theory. As scientists, they had written their publication based on their scientific principles and publishing requirements.

For anyone who has been required to read through a scientific publication, usually due to study knows these publications can be very arduous. Although technically correct, working through the calculations, formatting style and descriptions might not officially be classified as torture by the Geneva Convention, it is closer than one thinks.

As was explained to me by Simon, he was discussing dive publishing with co-authors Professor Costantino Balestra and Dr. Peter Germonpre who was a little miffed as to why the book was a poor seller.

He requested Simon take a look at it for him and Simon came up with a number of poignant observations In essence, whilst the research was sound and the findings no doubt valid but the book was just unreadable for anyone who isn't a scientist.

As Simon was asked to critique the book as to determine why it was not selling, he not only came up with a bunch of issues, he also offered a solution. As a technical diving instructor, he found the work important as peer reviewed decompression theory is imperative for technical diving, he felt this research should be brought to a wider audience.

There were issues though, this book already had a publisher and there are naturally copyright issues. Simon's solution was simple, he would simply take the existing publication, reorganise and restructure along with rewriting in a manner that the layperson would understand so now we have a research based book that is readable.