Freediving With or Without Snorkel

[Orihimef]

I've gone free diving a couple times but I never had any gear, like fins or a snorkel. I haven't gone too deep yet, I think 15 feet is the deepest I've gone. I was wondering if there were any advantages to using a snorkel or not. When I come up for air; breathing right away is important so I always thought having a snorkel would delay that because you have to get the water out first. What do you guys prefer?

 

[Angelo Farina]

When I was trained to free diving, my instructor gave me several good reasons for spitting out the snorkel while diving:
1) if passing out, the mouth is closed, so it is more difficult for water entering the lungs.
2) when emerging you do not have to purge the snorkel, which takes some effort, resulting in possible passing out.
3) keeping the snorkel in mouth can flood the mask if the tip of the snorkel touches a rock, acting as a lever.
4) for deep diving it is better not using the snorkel at all, as it creates drag.

 

[Jersey1971]

I also learned points 1-3 that Angelo mentioned above. Quite dangerous to dive with snorkel in mouth. I wouldn't know how to breathe up without a snorkel. That's not taught in the intro course and is probably not necessary until going quite deep.

I would highly recommend taking a course, as there's a lot that's not intuitive in free diving, like how to properly weight yourself and how to breathe up without dangerously hyperventilating. Get either of these wrong and you may die. I also hope you're diving with a trained buddy. As you'll learn in a course, as you ascend from depth, the O2 pressure drops, and you're prone to blackout. You need a buddy who knows proper rescue skills or you will die.

 

[Orihimef]

I also learned points 1-3 that Angelo mentioned above. Quite dangerous to dive with snorkel in mouth. I wouldn't know how to breathe up without a snorkel. That's not taught in the intro course and is probably not necessary until going quite deep.

I would highly recommend taking a course, as there's a lot that's not intuitive in free diving, like how to properly weight yourself and how to breathe up without dangerously hyperventilating. Get either of these wrong and you may die. I also hope you're diving with a trained buddy. As you'll learn in a course, as you ascend from depth, the O2 pressure drops, and you're prone to blackout. You need a buddy who knows proper rescue skills or you will die.

Yes I don't dive alone. I haven't taken a course but he has a bit. I was told to ascend slowly when coming up for air, it makes the O2 pressure easier to deal with. We also have a signal for when I'm running out of breath. I really enjoy the water and being underwater, I find it soothing.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Yes I don't dive alone. I haven't taken a course but he has a bit. I was told to ascend slowly when coming up for air, it makes the O2 pressure easier to deal with. We also have a signal for when I'm running out of breath. I really enjoy the water and being underwater, I find it soothing.

The sensation of "running out of breath" is given by CO2 accumulating in your body, which does NOT cause you passing out.
You pass out when the oxygen concentration becomes too low, and this gives NO warning signal.
Usually one passes out during the last meters of ascent, close to the surface. Here it is absolutely stupid to slow down, you must speed up as fast as possible through these last very dangerous meters.
Free diving is almost 10 times more dangerous than scuba diving, so I second the suggestion to follow a proper course with a good free diving instructor.
Please note that a scuba diving instructor (as I am) is generally not a good free diving instructor (which, in fact, I am NOT).
Becoming a free diving instructor requires much more skillness and experience than becoming a scuba instructor...

 

[rongoodman]

Yes I don't dive alone. I haven't taken a course but he has a bit. I was told to ascend slowly when coming up for air, it makes the O2 pressure easier to deal with. We also have a signal for when I'm running out of breath. I really enjoy the water and being underwater, I find it soothing.

Please get some actual training before you hurt yourself, or worse.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Okay, I'm going to weigh in here. The snorkel allows the diver to surface and keep his/her eyes underwater. In the 1960s I was doing freediving in cold water with limited visibility as a spearfisherman. We dove off paddle boards at times. The snorkel was used to keep eyes down, and if we dove deep we spit it out while surfacing if we really needed a breath. If not, we simply started exhaling as we surfaced while looking upwards, which displaced the water in the snorkel and it was clear when we got to the surface. It's called the displacement method of clearing the snorkel, rather than the "blast" method. Both work, but I like the displacement method better. Freedivers have used snorkels without problems since the early times of diving.

I have never had the snorkel cause my mask to flood. If that happens, I think there is something wrong with the snorkel.

You will want to use a low volume mask with nose pockets so that equalizing is easy. The low volume means you don't have to add much air to the mask as the pressure increases with depth.

We would buddy up, but the buddy would watch from the surface and be available if something happened.

As to instruction, you need an instructor familiar with shallow water blackout (SWB), its prevention and its causes. SWB can be prevented by not hyperventilating and taking no more than about two or three deeper breaths before diving. I do not advocate the freedive instructors who advocate for training to do deep dives, packing breaths, etc. It is much better to become a scuba diver, and breath underwater, than to try to break records (personal or other) or extend breath holding times using various techniques (see my explanation for rhythm diving below).

I have long advocated using a "rhythm diving" method too, where you dive underwater without hyperventilating until first feeling the "must breath" signal, then surface. Breath normally for about two minutes, then dive again. Over time (15-20 minutes) you'll be extending your time underwater by relaxation and your body's adaptation to the breath-holding.

SeaRat

 

[Cthippo]

I always use a snorkel when freediving and use that big exhale to clear it when I come back up. I find it to be more restful to be face down on the surface breathing through the snorkel between dives than to be upright.

As for getting training and diving with a buddy at 15 feet, what the hell for? This is normal swimming I have been doung since I was 5 years old. Not every activity needs formal training or supervision.

 

[Waterwulf]

I'm confused...I think. Is Freediving where people go as deep as they can? Then it's different from snorkeling, right? When I snorkel, I paddle around on the surface breathing thru my snorkel with occasional trips deeper down. That's not freediving, right?

 

[Bob DBF]

There is Freediving, and then there is freediving. The first is focused on records and the other on spending some time underwater enjoying whatever brings you there. If you are there for a record, for God's sake, get some training. If there for fun, do not hyperventilate, and surface when you feel that you are running out of breath. Once you are relaxed, you will be surprised how much time you can spend underwater.

It is better to have a buddy, imperative if you are diving for records, even your own. I've been solo freediving for decades, but I avoid doing things that are truly stupid.

I use the displacement method to clear the snorkel, described by SeaRat above, and the best reason for using a snorkel is that you don't have to expend energy keeping your head above water while on the surface.