OK...how many of you have done this?

[Walter]

There's no reason to keep the snorkel in your mouth while you are underwater. After your last breath, drop the mouthpiece. Nothing in your mouth - no urge to breathe. As you begin your ascent, replace the mouthpiece and put a puff of air in the snorkel.

 

[Amanda]

Happened way too many times for me tooooo.......

*blush*

 

[Redshift]

Never happened to me, probably because I snorkel since I can remember and besides diving I usually snorkel a lot, mainly when I'm on vacation.

 

[slowdiver]

My biggest surprise is when I am on the surface during a dive, look down through my mask to check out conditions, and can't figure out why I can't get air without a reg in my mouth.

 

[Diver0001]

Dr. Jay once bubbled...
Just went snorkeling today in the local no-diving allowed springs....with my cool dry snorkel and cool jet fins !

Sank down to about 12-15 ft....looked at some rocks and little fishies...and started thinking...sure is nice and calm down here....no little kids screaming and kicking me from above...inflatable tubes bashing into my head....and then....like a reflex....

SLLUUURRPPP....COUGH COUGH....GURGLE GURGLE....

Quick...ascend to the surface you idiot! You don't have a tank strapped to your back and you tried to take a breath....FROM YOUR SNORKEL!!!

Well, like a kid putting his fingers in an electric socket, it only happend once.

Is there some sort of club I should join or what ?

The son of one of my wife's colleagues drowned in an incident just like that.

R..

 

[Jester]

I like the idea of taking the snorkel out of your mouth when free-diving. That could be just the thing to avoid the mouth/lungs full of water thing. Thanks for the tip.

 

[scubaredneck]

I can honestly say that this has never happened to me. However, I would have paid money to see the sudden bolt to the surface.

 

[Dr. Jay]

Well...like I said, I only did it once. The bolt to the surface was quick, but not frantic. After the first slight gulp of water, I stopped and surfaced. I was actually laughing once I hit the surface, and the other guy I was snorkeling with (a non-diver) just didn't understand my stupidity. Actually, snorkeling is what got me into diving in the first place! Just lots of cooler stuff to see deeper. This was the first time I had brought the plastic stick out since I started diving.

Anyway, can't take your mouth off the mouthpiece with a dry snorkel. Here is the snorkel I was snorkeling with. If you take your mouth off the moutpiece, it fills with water (kind of defeats the purpose ). Once I got used to it, I did fine. I'm so used to purging a snorkel when I surfaced, this thing just threw me for a loop. The best dang snorkel I ever had!

DetroitDiver - you know, I wondered that same thing . I guess it was tipped backward enough just for the cap to slide up and let water in. I got lazy cuz I normally don't use it, and kind of just ever-so-gracefully clipped it loosely to the mask strap. I eventually fixed it .