Do you carry a snorkel on every dive?

[Thalassamania]

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I feel the snorkel on the mask strap is a mess : it's an entanglement hazard, it's not comfortable, it prevents from being streamlined, out of the water it makes the storage of the mask more complicated and finally it increases the risk of wearing/breaking the mask strap. I hate carrying a snorkel on the mask strap.

A few realities for a moment: I've been diving for over fifty years and never once has my snorkel been entangled in anything, as far as streamlining is concerned, we tested this in a tow tank, the difference between a diver with a snorkel and the same diver without was undetectable.

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Once I saw a diver trying to climb the ladder back to the boat with his snorkel in his mouth, sea was choppy and he fell back and almost drowned - he was rescued by someone - sometimes it's much better to trust your reg more than your snorkel.

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This is the snorkel's fault or is the fact that the diver lacked the requisite skills to be out there? I can not begin to tell you how many stupid, incompetent things I have seen divers who were wearing tanks with regulators do, was it the fault of the tank or regulator? Similarly I've seen divers without snorkels do really stupid stuff, do you think they might have done better had they been wearing a snorkel?

 

[Tanked]

Whats a snorkel?

Dammit Allen! I was goning to say that

I keep a rollup snorkel in a pocket. I've never used it. I have a real snorkel for when I want to go snorkeling.

Ditto. It's been rolled up so long, I probably won't be able to unroll it.

 

[TSandM]

You know, I'm honestly curious . . . first off, if your concern for the gas in your tank is so great, why not either work on your gas consumption as a specific goal, or get bigger tanks? Second, it's been my experience that a snorkel is a very useful device if you are floating with your face down and parallel to the bottom. But especially if you have it secured to your mask, if you are floating upright, the darned thing is not vertical and doesn't raise your point of gas acquisition much . . . and it's very susceptible to chop. People are always saying they want their snorkels in disturbed surface water. How do you orient the thing to keep it from repeatedly entraining water?

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I was "lost at sea" for a few hours in 30 kt winds and whitecaps and 8-10 ft waves last winter I think it was. (We really wanted to dive that day). After completing my deco, I wanted to save air so that if a ship tried to run me down, I could dive under it. Saw a freighter pass by inshore of me pretty close that day. Waves were breaking over my head and there was no way I could keep an eye on the sharks without a snorkel. You keep you BC full or nearly full, you keep yout face down and the snorkel points up. If it is not raising your "air acquistion point" a lot, then you are "doing it wrong"?

The waves still crash over your head (and snorkel) , but with a slow deliberate breathing pattern, you just inhale slowly when you can and exhale and clear the snorkel when you have to. If I didn't have a snorkel that day, i would have been in pretty rough shape after two hours of getting hammered. I was actually floating out there thinking about all the people on SB who say they don't need a snorkel. I hardly ever dive without one.

Also, this may pertain directly to your question; I hate all the mechanical snorkel holders, they allow the snorkel to move too much and are not comfortable. I cut a figure 8 out of heavy truck inner tube and make a DIY snokel holder that holds the snorkel very securely. It takes a concerted effort to spin the snorkel and it never slides down. It keeps the snorkel sticking up.

 

[captain]

I usually carry on on offshore boat dives to the oil rigs. If for some reason I got swept away from the rig and it becomes a survival swim I'll ditch the scuba to lessen drag and go with mask snorkel and fins. Divers have been swept off the oil rigs 30 miles offshore here in Louisiana. Although a 30 mile swim wouldn't be what I would attempt a 4 or 5 mile swim to another rig is.

 

[QatarDiver]

I use a snorkel if I'm shore diving, my air consumption is fine, I just prefer to breathe air for free when on the surface. For boat dives I leave it in the gear bag. I guess like everyone else I started off with it on my mask for every dive, gradually worked out that it really isnt that useful!

 

[Keith & Sharon]

Snorkels are for wimpy divers. I'm a Macho diver and don't need one while diving deep air.

oops, wait. wrong thread.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I thought of another issue as well. When I used to shore dive in Maiine, I was always cold by the end of the dive. Maybe it was my imagination, but I always felt like I warmed up quicker on the surface swim to shore if I was breathing relatively warm, humid air from the snorkel, rather than the refrigerated and dry air from my tank, that further cooled my lungs due to evaporative cooling.

 

[Sas]

I've never had a need for a snorkel when diving. I do shore dives too, with long surface swims, and air is never my limiting factor so if I feel like swimming on my stomach I'll just put my reg in my mouth. But I prefer to swim on my back and chat with my buddy.

I actually don't like normal snorkelling too but I have brought my snorkel along on dives where I can snorkel during the surface interval.

 

[TSandM]

You keep you BC full or nearly full, you keep yout face down and the snorkel points up

The waves still crash over your head (and snorkel) , but with a slow deliberate breathing pattern, you just inhale slowly when you can and exhale and clear the snorkel when you have to.

I guess my experience has been that it's way more disconcerting to inhale from a snorkel and suddenly get water, than to have my head up where I can see the waves coming, and simply time my breathing so that I don't try to inhale when the chop is breaking over my head.

I am not trying to be difficult here -- honestly, I've had a lot more trouble breathing through a snorkel in choppy water, than resting upright and timing my breath. Plus, if you get the least bit anxious, the increased dead space in a snorkel makes it easy to get CO2 buildup.

If I were doing a relaxed surface swim somewhere where the water was clear and there was something to see, I could easily see doing it on my face with a snorkel. Unfortunately, those conditions simply don't pertain most of the places where I dive. But the argument that the snorkel is good for long waits in difficult surface conditions just doesn't jibe with my personal experience of snorkels.