i've started free diving down the cliff's of P.v since i was about 11 or 12 with my dad and brother and still dive with my bro today i loved this book the discriptions of the felings fears pains excitment etc.. are right on i don't read alot but this book drew me into a new love for reading I've passed the book on to close friends and every one dug it too can't wait to read your next one

I'm a water enthusiast and addicted to scuba and apnoe diving. The first time I saw speargun-fisher in Thailand back in 1995 I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw them 60feet down and not struggeling but stalking and waiting for the right moment to ...
I was captured right away by the deep feelings of the author and the philosophie he describes which is truly part of speargunfishing. It is not a sport but more like a way of life.
I was wondering thought why I didn't read anything about the huge variety of equipment. But when I finished the book after 4 days I realized, to get lost in such details would have missed the point. But maybe Mr. Eyles should have gone more into the physics and the danger that comes with apnoe and speargunfishing as well. Expecially since he repeatedly discribes how he hyperventilated to stay down. This gave me 3 days in coma and I merely survived, even though I knew theoretically about the danger of passing out. So I think you can't strecht this point far enough and to my consideration there should be no book about this activity which doesn't highlight this inherent lifethreatening risk. It still enjoy the ocean and surely I dived with the same pleasant feeling into this book.

I am an avid diver and my underwater hunting has been limited to using the Hawaiian sling spear in S. California and the waters off Okinawa. This wonderful book has opened a world of possiblities to me. In the '70s the author anchored his boat in the Channel Islands to see if it was possible to sustain himself by spearfishing alone. There was a belief that the nurishment gained by eating fish could not make up for the energy lost in the effort of spearfishing. The author takes us into the kelp beds of the Channel Islands and then flashbacks to the early historty of spearfishing. Carlos tells of the exploits of the first spearfishermen and how they developed their gear. This book will make you long for the early days of exploring Baja in the 1960's and you'll wish you were there. This book will help you realize, I think, what's really important in life. keep this book because you'll want to reread it.

I read a quote once that said "When you sell a man a book, you don't sell him 12 ounces of paper, ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life." I should stop typing right now, and just say 'buy this book and prove that quote true.' I keep coming back to this book, mesmerized by the images it conjures up in my mind, and finding in it the unspoken reasons for my rediscovered love of the ocean. For those who love the sublime reality of the life and death world under the waves, who long to find their place as hunter and adventurer in the deep blue, this book will profoundly move you and leave you with the taste of a whole new life. Read it, and see what I mean.

A good book for nearly anyone. There is plenty of excitement and it is full of sea knowledge. My only complaint is that there are dreary sections filled with the author's life philosophy that I found quite boring, and ended up skipping over.

Books should have a central theme, and the philosophy blurred whatever the theme was supposed to be. A good editor would have removed most of it.

I absolutely loved this book, and am looking forward to reading it again. Carlos' narrations combined with his twist on words paints a picture even the most land locked reader can imagine. As a marine enthusiast and student, it is wonderful to read works from hunters who also appreciate the undersea world and respect its power and importance.

The Blue Edge is Carlos Eyles latest book. It is a pseudo-diary of the authors sixty-five day journey aboard the Nirvana with his friends Jack and Pam. He journeys through the Sea of Cortez to the San Benedicto islands. The journey is on one level a journey from the once bountiful Sea of Cortez to near pristine San Benedicto islands. On another level it is a journey through man's impact on the ocean in the infinitesimal slice of geographic time that man has populated the planet. On an introspective level it is a journey through one man's search for balance and his link to the ocean, and to himself.

The word "mystical" has been used to describe the writing of the book. "Mystical" implies something apart from the human experience. The Blue Edge is experiential. It is about experiences that we all face. It is apropos that the boat is named Nirvana, which is the Buddhist term for "enlightenment." Some of the things that the Buddha realized on the road to enlightenment were, that the world is suffering, all things are impermanent, and that there is no Self. The Blue Edge takes us through part of that journey. It shows us the pain, and the joy, as one man struggles with finding his place in the world. As he tries to balance his love for the ocean, his love for his family, and his love for himself.

Carlos leads the reader through the fragile, and thus transitory, illusion of the permanence of job, family, possessions, and our natural resources. He describes how man's greed, and ego, has affected the balance of the once pristine waters of the Sea of Cortez, and how it also is taking its toll on the San Benedicto islands.

For the spearfishmen this is the journey that some of us go through in our diving careers. Our pictures of full stringers of fish on our desks and walls. Our attempts to give permanence to a moment in time. Our attempts to catch the "most" fish. As our diving careers progress we find we take fewer and fewer shots looking for the "right" fish. The contrast Carlos paints with Jack, who is struggling to find his place in his relationship with Pam and with the ocean, and the spearfishermen aboard the Ambar III that are dumping the carcasses of the filleted fish into the water, to Brian Yoshikawa not taking any shots waiting for the 200 pound tuna.

The Blue Edge may be difficult reading for people who have no ties to the ocean, since the sixty-five day journey is aboard a boat. It, however, is must reading for anyone who spends any time with the ocean. The book encapsulates our life journey in those sixty-five days. It gives us glimpses of Nirvana (enlightenment) through Carlos's eyes. It is this poignant glimpse which is what wraps us up page after page, because we feel from the very beginning of the book that Nirvana is not to be attained for Carlos at this time. The struggles through the grinding teeth of sharks, and lawnmowers, is something the ocean takes us through. The longing to play in the ocean, the longing for wealth, the longing for pleasure, the longing for the kill. The experiences Carlos goes through in The Blue Edge shows us that "Nirvana", on one level, or more simply the struggle to find balance with the ocean, on a lower level, is unattainable as long as we long to possess it.