50 replies to this topic

[annasea]

I recently read that the piece of gear most divers seem to regret purchasing the most is a snorkel. The impression I was left with was very few divers ever actually use snorkels... except during training.

So what about you? Do you:

a) always wear a snorkel
b) never wear a snorkel
c) carry a folding snorkel instead in case of an emergency

TIA!

[TraceMalin]

I recently read that the piece of gear most divers seem to regret purchasing the most is a snorkel. The impression I was left with was very few divers ever actually use snorkels... except during training.

So what about you? Do you:

a) always wear a snorkel
b) never wear a snorkel
c) carry a folding snorkel instead in case of an emergency

TIA!

I never use a snorkel with scuba (violating scuba training) & always while freediving (violating freediving training). Why? Because using a snorkel with scuba gear is ridiculous when swimming on one's back is more efficient. Breathing through a snorkel can increase CO2 loading when swimming with the drag of scuba gear. Some freediving organizations teach freedivers to remove the snorkel from their mouths while freediving for several reasons, one of which is to not have any CO2 in the tube when you draw in that first breath after a freedive. That's okay in competition, but when you are trying to stay in a nice groove when stalking fish or interacting with marine life, breaching the surface to breathe is annoying rather than calmy drifting up, allowing the snorkel to clear through expansion and slipping to the surface gracefully in a resting position. If a dive operator requires snorkels, I'll either add a knife to my calf and slip the snorkel in between surgical tubing used to strap the sheath to my leg, or I'll stick a modified (trimmed short) snorkel into my pocket. I haven't purchased a folding snorkel. The best snorkels are simple, short, wide bore tubes without purge valves, "dry" features or any frills. They are less expensive too.

Trace

[BeachBunny]

I have a snorkel, somewhere, I think. When I can find it I do take it on vacation so I can snorkel around the hotel. I agree with Trace's assessment of the CO2 buildup issue, and it gets tangled in my hair! But don't ask me, I am still new at this.

[TekDiveGirl]

Horses for courses --

Simple answer --

Snorkels are for snorkeling --

[annasea]

Snorkels are for snorkeling --

Well, yes, that's the impression I get. Added to that is it seems most divers prefer to swim on their backs anyway as Trace mentioned.

So then my next question (however *stupid* it may seem to some) is why is there such an emphasis on snorkels in some OW courses?

Also, has anyone ever been in a situation where a snorkel proved to be absolutely essential?

[drbill]

I almost never wear one. They just get in the way when I'm filming and I don't use one at the surface anyway. Only exceptions are when they're required by law (Laguna Beach) or I have a long surface swim in a chop.

I find so darned many snorkels diving in the park. Wish I'd find a few more dive lights, weights, etc., instead since I could use those.

[Dive_buddy]

I do and I don't carry a snorkel. My dive float is an innertube with bright colored wrap around it, handles on the wrap. I used 1/8" bungie cord to strap the snorkel to the float. When I'm at the surface, I can use the snorkel. When I'm at depth it is nowhere to be found (or in the way).

[konascubagirl]

My OW was PADI, so they required the damn snorkel. PADI insists that the snorkel is handy if you must swim a long way back to the boat in large swells, and you are out of air. Sorry...BUZZ...wrong answer. I had to make a bad exit through surf, and there was NO WAY I was gonna use the snorkel....kept the reg in my mouth as I was being tossed about. If I was low on air? Not likely, but if I did have an equipment failure, that's what a buddy and pony bottle are for. If I want to save my tank going out to a particular site, I swim on my back like pretty much everybody else does.
I wear a snorkel only when I am SNORKELING!

[TraceMalin]

Snorkels are for snorkeling --

Well, yes, that's the impression I get. Added to that is it seems most divers prefer to swim on their back anyway as Trace mentioned.

So then my next question (however *stupid* it may seem to some) is why is there such an emphasis on snorkels in some OW courses?

Also, has anyone ever been in a situation where a snorkel proved to be absolutely essential?

The rationale of the training agencies is that someone learning to dive should be able to snorkel too. It would also seem that since whales & dolphins have blow holes that allow them to breathe and swim a surface swimming scuba diver also would benefit from using a snorkel. If you teach divers to snorkel swim with scuba, they get to practice snorkeling during scuba training. This saves time and the instructors don't have to worry about teaching a separate snorkeling course. It merely becomes one day of training and one open water dive (if that). Now, you add the dive centers who want to sell a snorkel to each diver to make money and get rid of their inventory on the high price snorkels not usually purchased by a family shopping for snorkeling equipment for their cruise to Bermuda and voila! Finally, you've got the lawyers grasping at anything to win a case, so not having a snorkel becomes the reason to feed a jury that Diver A died in addition to any other "contributing factors" and in fear of losing money insurance companies back the snorkel crap as just another check on the list to reduce the ammunition a lawyer can throw at a defendant they have to back financially and a brilliant way of getting off the hook in having to pay out money if a dive pro or boat operator somehow violates a "must have a snorkel" clause.

One French diving fatality is on record in which a bee was sucked through a snorkel and stung the diver in the throat creating swelling which caused suffocation.

Snorkels might be essential for a scuba version of "Brokeback Mountain?" Brokeback Reef -- A raw, powerful story of two young women, a dolphin trainer and a marine biologist, who meet in the summer of 1963 fish watching in the harsh, high currents of contemporary Darban Al Wadi and form an unorthodox yet life-long bond--by turns an ecstatic, bitter and conflicted love; one whose complications, joys, tragedies AND A SNORKEL! provide a testament to the endurance and power of such love only surpassed in film by one man's love affair with a volleyball named Wilson. (My thanks to IMDb for a plot summary upon which to base this mockery).


Trace

[annasea]

If a dive operator requires snorkels...

Only exceptions are when they're required by law...

...a dive pro or boat operator somehow violates a "must have a snorkel" clause.

Question #4: If divers rarely to never use snorkels, why are they *required by law*?

I'm asking this because no one has yet to answer Question #3: Has anyone ever been in a situation where a snorkel proved to be absolutely essential?

[gcbryan]

If a dive operator requires snorkels...

Only exceptions are when they're required by law...

...a dive pro or boat operator somehow violates a "must have a snorkel" clause.

Question #4: If divers rarely to never use snorkels, why are they *required by law*?

I'm asking this because no one has yet to answer Question #3: Has anyone ever been in a situation where a snorkel proved to be absolutely essential?

Although I can't answer for every diver in the world the real answer to #3 is no, it's never essential which is why almost no experienced divers use them. You can go through every possible scenario where one person may choose to use one and show how they could do just as well or better without one.

They aren't required by law in most places but it's the same logic for other requirements and that is non-divers making decisions aided by their attorneys. They feel that they are making things safer but that's not the case. It's like mandatory dive floats/flags for a whole state even in a shallow protected cove where there are no boats and even if they are being used by new divers who are likely to get tangled up in the line.

If you are diving you should have a reserve of air so you can always just put your regulator in your mouth even on the surface if you choose to and if the waves are too high for you. Swimming on your back eliminates the need for a snorkel 99% of the time. Using a regulator on the surface takes care of the other 1 %. Using a snorkel for diving presents it's own possible problems. Line, kelp, etc can get caught between the mask strap and the snorkel while you are underwater and can knock your mask off.

Edited by gcbryan, 06 January 2006 - 03:04 AM.

[TraceMalin]

If a dive operator requires snorkels...

Only exceptions are when they're required by law...

...a dive pro or boat operator somehow violates a "must have a snorkel" clause.

Question #4: If divers rarely to never use snorkels, why are they *required by law*?

I'm asking this because no one has yet to answer Question #3: Has anyone ever been in a situation where a snorkel proved to be absolutely essential?

I once heard a story about a diver chipping a hole through the ice for a snorkel after losing his/her way back to the exit hole. Rescuers saw the orange tip and rescued the diver. I think that is an urban legend like the infamous fire diver story. If anyone can substantiate the truth or fiction of this story, I'd like to hear it. If that was the case, then at the time that snorkel may have been essential. But, given the fact that chipping through ice with a knife would be a real job and probably take longer than a tank would last and that if the ice were thin enough to allow one to stick a tube through it then one should be able to break through and at least get a head out for rescue once the hole for a snorkel was cut.

The best use for a snorkel I've found when teaching scuba is blasting people with water.

Trace

[normblitch]

In Caves (where there ARE no snorkels), the most common trinket is dropped double-enders...

JR claims to have NEVER bought ANY!!

nhb

I find so darned many snorkels diving in the park. Wish I'd find a few more dive lights, weights, etc., instead since I could use those.

[Latitude Adjustment]

I have a Sherwood Avid folding snorkel in my pocket just in case because I've seen situations when a diver needed one.
In the Flower Gardens we had a cross current so only one side line was available to the 30 returning divers all coming up with the required 500psi, divers were running out of air in the waiting line and yes they could float on their backs but then you coudn't see when it was clear to swim to the ladder.
In a report I posted earlier about a diver lost at sea, the diver used up all of his air and was using the snorkel so he could see and fight off the silkies bumping his legs.
How about surfacing after a dive like I did in the Galapagos to find a humpback with calf being escorted by a pod of dolphins and buzzed by sealions, those of us packing snorkels got to spend some time with them, those without got to watch the video.

Edited by Latitude Adjustment, 06 January 2006 - 07:38 AM.

[finley]

I hate snorkels,,,never used it...got rid of it...not really due to experience.....just personal prefernce I guess