Anyone dive without a snorkel on?

[creamofwheat]

I don't dive with a snorkel. It usually just gets in my way, and throughout the dives I do with it on (for courses only!), I constantly pick it up, thinking it is my inflater hose. Heh. I do mostly shore diving, and I don't even use it for surface swims. I just swim on my back and that's that. Even in current and waves, I just swim on my back to my descent point, put regulator in and descend with buddy. No need for a snorkel. Plus, snorkels are entanglement hazards when wreck diving.

That being said, I think they have their place. Some people love them for surface swims. But they are the best for snorkelling.

 

[Vie]

I keep a snorkel in my gear bag or close at hand on a boat but I don't scuba dive with one.

 

[hvulin]

snorkel is for snorkeling.... I always scuba without one....

 

[Walter]

I could not imagine paying the huge price for these weird snorkel things with little balls and valves and funny tubes and gizmos just to keep a little water out--what gives with that anyway and then having to dive with one strangling my face--no thanks--I will pass on that madness. N

Well, I enjoy skin diving and I keep a snorkel for when I'm skin diving, but it's a simple J. Snorkels with bells and whistles are not only unnecessary, but dangerous.

In fact, isn't this entire thread comprised of opinions?

You are 100% correct. There is very little on this entire board that isn't opinion. Someone asking you to label what is obviously your opinion is silly.

I disagree with your opinion about snorkels, but since I shared that opinion when I also had 100 dives, I can't very well fault you for it and I'll certainly defend your right to express it.

 

[Hooked-Again]

My snorkel bugs the crap out of me when I'm diving. Darn thing just always seems to be getting in my way. Does anybody here just leave it on the boat?

I use a fold up one that i keep in my pocket. It came in handy off Roatan in April. We had rough seas at Mary's Place and there was a bit of a wait to get on the boat. Was sure glad I had it, saved me from a salt water cocktail.

 

[hvulin]

I use a fold up one that i keep in my pocket. It came in handy off Roatan in April. We had rough seas at Mary's Place and there was a bit of a wait to get on the boat. Was sure glad I had it, saved me from a salt water cocktail.

where was your regulator during this time?????

 

[jpsexton]

I'm in the pocket snorkle camp. I never dive with it but it's in my BC pocket just in case I need it.

 

[MB104]

If you don't want it, don't wear it. The scuba police won't track you down. Snorkel's can be a pain in the rear. I wear mine only if I have to, like with students, or rough seas. Otherwise, its folded up and in my pocket.

 

[frankc420]

Once I was off the coast of Costa Rica and was doing a backside surface swim, while hauling a distressed diver! Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a great white fins dipping under the water. I wasn't sure as to where he went because I didn't have my trusty snorkel!!! I can't stick my face in the water without my snorkel! Dag nabbit I said!

A few moments later, I realized I had no left arm (the arm I was hauling the other diver with). I was sure that if I had my snorkel I would be safe, but, no snorkel! At this point I decided to swim as fast as I could toward a marker bouy that was floating about 100 yards off. At about 50 yards from the bouy, the sharks foot fetish kicked in and he took my right fin (missed my foot by inches!!!).

I made it to the bouy and used my trusty storm whistle! The boat found me, and I'm here today to tell you this story! Although, the other diver was swallowed whole by the shark!
----
Point: If I woulda had my snorkel, he woulda lived and I would have my left arm!!!

Actual Point: Snorkels are useless? lol - I'm a turd.

I'm a new diver, so my opinion is void. But none-the-less, I like my story!

 

[Rick Murchison]

The snorkel is another piece of equipment in this equipment intensive sport. Sometimes the dive plan calls for one, sometimes it doesn't. I wear a snorkel whenever I want to; whenever I don't want to wear one, I don't. Sometimes I carry one when I don't wear it, sometimes I don't even carry one. As an example of when I might want to wear one, when we were first looking for the Mairi Bahn, we knew the general area, and we had some info on some stuff to look for on the shallow reef above the wreck. It was a good long surface swim and as we didn't know how easy to see or find our clues we wanted to be prepared for a perhaps lengthy search from the surface while conserving gas. Best equipment for the job? A snorkel!
It worked, too.
Another time I wear and use one is when I'm the "surface safety man," whether with a group of students on their first ocean dive or as part of a more complex team. No need using up gas when you don't have to.
I usually either wear or carry one in the ocean. I never carry one in a cave.

Rick