Hi, so I got certified a couple of months ago, and I'm slowly starting to buy my own gear, starting with mask/fin/snorkel. I recently went and bought an Oceanic Ultra Dry snorkel because I get a little anxious when it's pretty wavy on the surface, hoping that it'll make me a little more assured while waiting to go down or during the swim from shore. I haven't had a chance to test it in open seas yet, but I gave it a go in the pool and was a little disappointed by how difficult it was to purge after I purposely letting some water in. I noticed that when I did try to purge it, the water was more likely to try and shoot back up the tube rather than through the purge valve.
Is this common with snorkels with purge valves, or is it maybe the model? I've previously only used rental gear from dive shops and purging on those snorkels haven't been the greatest either, but I usually put that down to rental gear always being a little beat up. Could someone perhaps recommend a better option that would work well in wavy conditions too. The Oceanic doesn't seem like it'll give much protection to splash either which is a little annoying.
I think your post brings up an excellent point.....Most Dive Instructors today don't really know how to snorkel or freedive, and they have no functional skills to pass on to their students in this. This does not mean they can't "demonstrate" what they "think" is snorkeling.....It just means that if a Freedive instructor was watching this demonstration, they would likely become apoplectic that this was passing for "instruction"...
So with the normal scuba instruction, you end up with a rudimentary idea of how to snorkel ( like your scuba instructor), but in practice, without really knowing what you are doing, it just does not work out well for you.
First point I would make, is if you had gotten your "instruction" in snorkeling from a Freedive Instructor, the skills and your ability in the water after 2 days of this would be unrecognizable when compared to what you got from the scuba instructor....you would not look like the same diver/snorkeler, in any way.
They would NOT have you using the lame DRY snorkel, which was developed, more than likely, so scuba instructors would not have to TEACH a person how to use a snorkel....sort of a time saving issue, where an important skill would be omitted. In actual fact, it is VERY EASY to breath through a wide bore, j shaped freedive snorkel ( without a purge), and to breathe easily even in 6 to 8 foot seas...Or 2 to 4's as you would be more likely to reach.
It is a coordination you discover, and once you have it, it is easier than riding a bike...it is as easy as "breathing"
Also, in the beginning, you may put your hand up to your snorkel when you are face down in the water, and let your hand tell you if the top of your snorkel is pointing straight up or near this, or, if it is lying almost flat in the water, which will mean you are going to be sucking in lots of water, lots of the time....Once you get used to feeling the snorkel orientation, and knowing how to adjust it on your head, this is like breathing...a non-issue.
There ARE scuba instructors good at this....The problem is, for every ONE that you can find at a dive shop or a boat, that IS good at snorkeling and freediving, there is likely to be 1000 that are pitiful at it, and they will NOT admit this...what they will do, is DOWNPLAY the significance of snorkeling. This is bad, you should NOT accept this, and you SHOULD find a good freedive instructor. Ultimately, just a few days with them will also get you much better propulsive technique--you will kick much better for your scuba diving...and you will gain a far better buoyancy and trim Skill set--it will be amazingly clear to you about how you should be horizontal with low drag, and not too heavy or too light--something many divers don't get even at the point of being Rescue or DM level....
I see you are from Australia....there must be plenty of Freedive shops you can find access to....If you don't know where to start, visit Dive R Freediving ( best freediving fins I know of) --they are in Australia and should KNOW all the major Freedive Shops and instructors...
Ray Powell <raypowelldiver@hotmail.com> is the creator of these fins, and I think they use this facebook page, meaning this is a great place to get plugged in to a community that understands snorkeling...
https://www.facebook.com/pages/20Fathoms/115618205180131?sk=timeline