SCUBAHUB
Aquanaut by Rick Stanton ( with Karen Dealy )
PUBLISHED BY : Penguin / Random House PRICE : £ 20 ISBN : 978-0-241-42126-0
“ How many of you ?” “ Thirteen .” “ Thirteen ? Brilliant !”
The world was collectively on the edge of its seat when those words were beamed around the globe . British cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen had succeeded in locating the Wild Boars youth football team , who were trapped in the flooded Tham Luang Nang Nong cave in northern Thailand . But just as the book begins with the discovery of the boys , the rescue itself had only just begun .
This was an extraordinary rescue and the story could not be told without gaining
some insight into the man who led the team of divers . Rick Stanton is an avid cave explorer who began diving to further his discoveries . The book alternates between Thailand and Stanton ’ s other triumphs – and occasional tragedies – around the globe , which is quite a relief as I don ’ t think my heart could have withstood an uninterrupted commentary on the nerve jangling events in the Thai cave !
That ’ s not to say that the segments dealing with Stanton ’ s previous exploits are any less extreme . There was the time when his primary light imploded due to the extreme pressure at depth , or the occasion when he dropped his reel at 190 metres in a tunnel and ended up with fifteen hours of unexpected decompression . This would have been easier had his rebreather had enough scrubber duration . It didn ’ t …
Stanton seems an unlikely hero . His wing is a motorcycle inner tube , his rebreather is home-built and he admits he has a lack of social skills . But what shines through , even more obviously than his skill and tenacity , is his humanity . He and his co-rescuers were in Thailand because they simply couldn ’ t stay away . They had assumed from the beginning that some of the boys would probably die , with all that this entailed for their reputations , but went into the cave undeterred .
The rescue was the most astonishing of its kind ever undertaken . Few people could have pulled it off . It was an absolute treat to read not only how it was done , but what it took to hone the skills and temperament to save 13 people from what most people thought was certain death . Nick Lyon
Thirteen Lessons That Saved Thirteen Lives by John Volanthen
PUBLISHED BY : White Lion publishing PRICE : £ 10.90 ISBN : 978 0711 270 589
In 2018 , the world held its breath as the news emerged from Thailand that a young football team and their coach were trapped in network of caves after the waters rose and sealed off their exit .
There have been a couple of books about the rescue , but this is the first I ’ ve read that ’ s been written by one of the team who found them huddled nine sumps in , planned a rescue that stretched the limits of adaptation and successfully extracted the 12 boys and their coach before the monsoon hit and flooded the caves completely .
John could have written the book in a “ what I did on my holidays ” style , but instead it ’ s based around 13 lessons learned and how each one was applied as the days rolled on and the Thai authorities realised that the specialist cave diving rescue team really did know what they were doing . Each chapter tells the Thai story , and others from John ’ s previous cave diving adventures , to flesh out the lessons giving the reader some great take-home learning that you could apply in all sorts of areas , not just diving .
Although you already know the successful outcome of the Thai rescue , the book manages to be a real page turner , revealing new and sometimes quite surprising details about the operation . John runs an IT business and you can see how this translates into a highly analytical way of looking at the rescue , minimising the risks to themselves and the boys , sometimes going into some quite dark and disturbing places when the rescue team contemplate the possible outcomes . You get a real personal insight into the emotional and physical rollercoaster that such a demanding and internationally scrutinised undertaking produces .
I ’ d read this book again , straight away ; it was that good . Alex ‘ Woz ’ Warzynski
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