Bored, self quarantined, how many still use snorkels

[12th Man]

Have you tried shaving a cactus yet?

Cactus are like fire ants, you just can't win! My wife make prickly pear cactus jelly every year and she gets so many of the tiny cactus hairs in her fingers. She uses a lot of bad words sometimes!

 

[Ripley]

Have you tried shaving a cactus yet?

Better a cactus than trying to transform a cat into a hairless Sphynx

J/K!

 

[Rich Keller]

OK, I'm bored out my mind. Can't binge watch much more TV. Question, other than snorkeling, how many still use a snorkel when diving? For me, it's probably been ten years or more since I've attached my snorkel to my mask strap while diving. Just haven't seen a need for it. Actual if I'm honest I don't even know where it is.

Anyone still use there's when diving?

I use mine when I go to the grocery store. I want to breath the air above all the other people.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Mine stays out of the way and I never notice it's there until I want it.
.

Here's a picture of me in the early/mid-eighties. I can barely see my snorkel in the picture. It just goes under my chin and behind my ear and it always stays out of the way.

Jim Scuba 1985

• JamesBon92007
• Sep 4, 2016
• 5

Me in 1985. I still have the same mask, snorkel, booties, and regulator! It was taken with an...

 

[Steve_C]

Here's a picture of me in the early/mid-eighties.

Ah, the dangling console of the 80s. Wild times.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

@Eric Sedletzky they'll never go away. PADI says it's mandatory, and they got the RSTC to say they're mandatory. They aren't going anywhere...

Well that’s PADI, and for OW.
People are adult enough to come to their own conclusions later I’m sure.
There seem to be all sorts of arbitrary rules in diving, doesn’t mean people have to adhere to them.

 

[BRT]

I don't, but figure I ought to at least carry a fold up one if there's a chance of a long surface swim.

Without wishing to hijack the thread - what's a good folding model?

We have tried the roll up ones and they are too soft for actual use in bad conditions, like the conditions we anticipate needing them. An Oceanic Pocket Snorkel https://www.amazon.com/Oceanic-POCKET-Snorkel-Free-your/dp/B000KD3F04
works well but they are sure proud of them!

 

[UTscuba]

We have tried the roll up ones and they are too soft for actual use in bad conditions, like the conditions we anticipate needing them. An Oceanic Pocket Snorkel https://www.amazon.com/Oceanic-POCKET-Snorkel-Free-your/dp/B000KD3F04
works well but they are sure proud of them!

thanks, that's helpful.

I think the only time I'd ever use one would be in a heavy swell when I'd drifted too far for the boat to be able to see my SMB. I can swim on my back all day long, but trying to swim backwards and maintain direction is another matter, and it's much easier to swim face down and follow a compass bearing.

So something dependable but stowable was what I was looking for.

 

[tbone1004]

Well that’s PADI, and for OW.
People are adult enough to come to their own conclusions later I’m sure.
There seem to be all sorts of arbitrary rules in diving, doesn’t mean people have to adhere to them.

unfortunately the majority of PADI's "rules" have been adopted by the RSTC which means that all of the member agencies have to abide by them

 

[JamesBon92007]

Aside from the snorkel survey, to help ease my boredom I just finished making a wrist compass using an old, cheap, wind-up dive watch, modified a $1.25 watch band compass so that it will actually probably be waterproof and made it so the bezel won't fall off when turned to where the dots line up, plus I'm trying to find my old, flooded G-Shock watch to see if the movement from my $2 Chinese Casio Clone movement will fit into it. Unfortunately, all of my equipment is in recently-maintained condition so I have nothing to rebuild or repair. I'm thinking about making a capillary depth gauge for the face of my SPG. Going to the Catalina Dive Park on the ferry doesn't seem like a good idea so maybe I'll try to remember where some of my old shore-dive spots are where I don't have to climb up and down very high cliffs (I'm getting to old for that). I have a new cold-water wet suit that I haven't even used yet so maybe it's time. But, of course, since I started flying to warm, tropical dive destinations several years ago I somehow find the cold water less appealing. I just bought a new, almost free DGX mask that I'm kinda anxious to try out so maybe I'll put on my wetsuit and go diving in my swimming pool.