Freediving w/ Snorkel

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I love free diving, but find that i have to take the snorkel out of my mouth when I go underwater so that I can hold my breath without water getting in, then clear my snorkel when I surface. Does anyone here have suggestions on how to keep the water out of a snorkel when diving while still keeping it in your mouth? The reason I ask is I saw a divemaster do it with ease when my gf and I were on vacation and he made it look very easy. It's a technique I would love to learn, especially since i've started taking underwater pictures.

Scuba Dave
 
myself... it's a lot more comfortable without the snorkel on the dive and then just replace it for a rest at the surface.
but.. what I think you saw your instructor do was just use his tongue to close off his esophagous by putting it to the roof of his mouth and back of this teeth (some water may still go into your mouth part way, so what) and then, on the way back to the surface, you can put just a puff of air in the snorkel while looking up toward the surface, this air will expand and push the water out of the snorkel as you near the surface. Then, once on the surface as you go prone, kinda quickly snap your head into a looking down position, your snorkel should be clear and ready to breath through. A lot easier to show someone than it is to explain. I also think some folks put their tongue against the snorkel mouth piece.. but that's not me. This is easier to try the first few times from a depth of maybe 10' or so.. but as you get better and more comfortable at it, you can actually do it from just a few feet below the surface.
 
You should get proficient at clearing water out of your snorkel by popping it just so you always feel comfortable at the surface, never accidentally breathing any splashed in or wave introduced water.

The best freedivers in the world today remove there snorkels when they dive, but for different reasons.

Upon surfacing the diver can recovery breathe immediately, and with less residual CO2.

It is also far more relaxing to the jaw muscles and more streamlined to let it fall back on the strap behind you while diving to depth.

It is believed to help keep the airway dry in the event of a black out.

Chad
 
It is the only way to freedive IMHO, there are physiological reasons for leaving it out of your mouth while freediving - specifically if SWB should occur - your changes for getting water in your lungs is reduced quite a bit due to the laryngospasm that occurs when in SWB - prevents inspirating water into the lungs.

And Chad is right - it really is far more relaxing to not have it in your mouth
 
That's good to hear, atleast i'm not picking up any bad habits that have to be corrected later. Next time I won't be so worried about technique and just keep enjoying the underwater world like I was in the 1st place. Good news, i've got my gf addicted to snorkeling and free diving. Now to get her into scuba diving. We had a blast in Catalina! She can't wait to go back, but i've been trying to convince her to go with me to Tahiti instead :)
 
I don't see snorkels as a bad habit at all, unless you are free diving primarily to achieve maximum time submerged, rather than exploring and enjoying the underwater world. I've used a snorkel for so long that I'm unaware of any special technique to keep water out. I do it automatically, without any conscious effort.
I can't imagine not using a snorkel when drifting slowly over a reef for hours at a time, gliding down when I want a closer look, drifting along the bottom, and then, with the slightest kick, slowly floating upward until the snorkel breaks the surface- all of it seamless, splash free, silent. Popping my face in and out of the water for every breath would make this kind of skin diving unpleasant and inefficient, no matter how long the interval between breaths.
 
The divers who advocate taking the snorkel out of your mouth are the ones who do deep, very long breathhold dives. For this kind of diving, there is a definate reason to not use a snorkel.

But for the diving I do, which is fairly shallow (20-25 feet), and in rivers, I use the snorkel all the time. I do not push the limits, and establish a pattern for submerging and coming up. It starts out quite short for the dives, then gets longer as my body adjusts to the cycle of breathhold diving and surface intervals. I don't hyperventilate, and take no more than three deep breaths before diving. When the urge to breathe comes, I surface, stay there for at least a minute, then go down again until that urge to breathe comes. As the cycle goes toward 15 minutes, I find the dive times extend naturally, without hyperventilation.

This cycle of diving and adjustment period is important in the prevention of Shallow Water Blackout (SWB) mentioned above. I encourage you to enjoy snorkeling and breathhold diving, but also to learn the mechanics of SWB, as it can be quite devistating and happens to the best of the breathhold divers. There are several discussions on it here, so look it up, study the mechanisms, and make sure that you don't get caught in that situation.

SeaRat

PS--RCohn had this link, which is a very good reference, on shallow water blackout:

http://www.freedive.net/chapters/SWB3.html

For personal info, see this description of when I almost did not make it back:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=124511&highlight=Ratliff

Finally, Wikepedia has a very good description of the problem, as does the diving medicine page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shallow_water_blackout

http://scuba-doc.com/latenthypoxia.html
 
The largest grouper I shot in a FL freedive tournament a couple years ago was taken in only 5 ft of water. It was the second largest in the tournament.

I had made one previous dive and saw him at the end, under a rock ledge so I backed off and surfaced.

On the next dive I shot the grouper (about 17 lbs) with one fin just above the water.

Gag grouper do not hang around when they hear... blub,blub,blub,blub,blub.... while you submerge!

It takes only a nano-second to put your snorkel back in at the surface, so that you can keep your eyes below.

I don't push my limits, but have found I can dive far more efficiently without a tube hanging out of my mouth.

It all comes down to training. I did it the old way until I learned a better technique from professionals.

I'm so jealous of dolphins!

Chad
 
Chad Carney:
The largest grouper I shot in a FL freedive tournament a couple years ago was taken in only 5 ft of water. It was the second largest in the tournament.

I had made one previous dive and saw him at the end, under a rock ledge so I backed off and surfaced.

On the next dive I shot the grouper (about 17 lbs) with one fin just above the water.

Gag grouper do not hang around when they hear... blub,blub,blub,blub,blub.... while you submerge!

It takes only a nano-second to put your snorkel back in at the surface, so that you can keep your eyes below.

I don't push my limits, but have found I can dive far more efficiently without a tube hanging out of my mouth.

It all comes down to training. I did it the old way until I learned a better technique from professionals.

I'm so jealous of dolphins!

Chad

I see in Hawaii Skin Diver Magazine that most of the free divers pictured taking the really large fish are wearing snorkels, and most also still have them in their mouths.

I'm jealous of dolphins too, but they too breath from the tops of their heads. :wink:

Not trying to pick any fights, just to show that the snorkel can come in handy once in a while. I was taught by the U.S. Navy in their Underwater Swimmers School at Key West, and we were not allowed to use snorkels. But in the U.S. Air Force, we made parascuba jumps with them (mine was held on my leg by my knife sheath). While many times we did not wear them, we did have them available. A snorkel can be vary handy for keeping an eye on marine life, such as big fish and sharks, without having to lift your head.

SeaRat
 
Searat,

We both agree that snorkels are an important piece of equipment for surface swimming, but obviously that's their limitation.

I just looked at HSD 26 and 27 (I borrowed and gave back 28, the current issue, because my subscription had run out) and noticed a striking difference. HSD 26 had about 50/50 snorkels in & out in the photos with trophy fish. (Not ads, those are typically slow to change.) HSD 27 had many more than 50% with snorkels out, including the ads, front cover and back page ad.

About half the trained divers I dive with still leave their snorkels in, it's a force of habit.

I had to consciously change my behavior over and over again for more than half a year until I always remembered to leave it out... setting a new force of habit.

It's very ironic that today I talked to Art Pinder about skin diving equipment in the old days. I asked him specifically about the introduction of new gear, such as fins, snorkels & weight belts, etc. He said that from the late 30's through about 1957 or 1958 they didn't used snorkels. Wetsuits and weightbelts were even longer in coming. I looked back at my 1955 Pinder Issue of Sports Illustrated and verified it, just masks and swimfins.

I have a feeling an early aqualung instructor told everybody how to use snorkels, and somehow it stuck.

Peace
Chad
 
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