The Rapture of the Deep: And Other Dive Stories You Probably Shouldn't Know

Book Description
Journey with scuba instructor Michael Zinsley as he dives his way through 16 countries, rubbing shoulders with the locals and mixing underwater adventure with after-hours escapades. The Rapture of the Deep is fast paced and rich in content, consisting of humorous anecdotes, insightful histories, underwater descriptions, and terrifying close calls. The diving stories relate events seen once in a thousand dives. Native cultures are revealed with an awareness that only someone who has lived in those lands can describe. The book's lighter side is the combination of underwater adventure mixed with after-hours escapades (imagine Cousteau extending his documentaries to include closing time in the local bars). The descriptions of coral reef life are written in a way that non-diving readers will be as intrigued as the experts. Featuring stories from: Antigua, Australia, Bermuda, Bonaire, California, Fiji, Guam, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Palau, Philippines, Ponape, Saint Lucia, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tonga, Truk, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, and Yap. Includes over 20 color photos and maps.


From the Author
When the economic recession hit California in 1991, I lost my "real" job and headed off to the South Pacific to become a scuba instructor. Seven years later, I was still doing it, after venturing through the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. I first put pen to paper on this project when I was managing a dive shop on the tiny island of Gili Air, located off the coast of Lombok, Indonesia. Most of the book was written there and in Thailand over the next year. Since then, I've managed to wrestle the monster into what you see here - an adventure travelogue based on scuba diving. Readers have described it as a "fast-paced page-turner." Hopefully you will enjoy it this much also.


About the Author
Michael Zinsley studied civil engineering and geology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and then studied secondary education in graduate school at the California State University, Los Angeles. A seasoned traveler, he has been scuba diving in twenty-four different countries and has visited over eighty different countries and territories. He is also an accomplished mountaineer with notable ascents on six continents. Michael currently lives in Alameda, California. His writing has appeared in Skin Diver magazine and technical rock-climbing journals.


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Here's the bet: If you can get someone, anyone, to just read the introduction, they will finish the whole book! — USAF Stealth Fighter Pilot


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