Do you dive with a snorkel!??

[Searcaigh]

This should have been a poll!

I have a snorkel ...... in a box somewhere in my storage room.

After several hundred dives I stopped wearing one as it interfered with my photography, and wearing my mask strap inside my hood was not compatible with wearing it.

If there is a severe surface chop and I am boat diving I will take a bearing on the boat and drop down to 3M and swim to the boat if it is a long way off, much easier than snorkeling and I always surface with enough gas. Like others though I generally turn over on my back and leisurely swim back with my camera housing balancing on my stomach.

 

[beanojones]

Snorkels are dangerous for the kind of people who might rely on them to use, because those people don't practice breathing with them. In clam water any move to increase buoyancy solves the problem. In rough water, the same is true, and using a snorkel won';t actually help the diver since it will flood randomly. With a mask on and head above the water the diver can see waht is coming. With their face in the water, they will randomly suck saltwater since they cannot see the waves.

Not to mention the fact that face in the water means not looking where you are going.

Snorkels pull and tug on masks and cause mask leakage problems. Mask problems cause more panicked breath hold ascents than anything else, so it is clear they are the opposite of safe underwater.

And no one who actually 'needs' a snorkel will have the presence of mind to pull a stowed snorkel out out and figure out how to attach it to their mask without removing their mask, so they are risking mask loss. WHich is insanely dangerous.

Snorkels don't belong in diving, and they especially do not belong in the open water course, since they convince people to try stupid things like swim for it in an emergency. They are a real hazard.

 

[agilis]

Beanojones comments only make sense if the divers in question were not experienced snorkelers. I, like many divers, spent years snorkeling before ever diving with mixed gas. Being an experienced snorkler was (and still should be) a prerequisite for scuba.

How can it me otherwise? Not having experience with snorkeling, significant experience beyond pool practice, means that a diver went straight from being a swimmer (sometimes not a very good swimmer) to scuba diving. This explains some of the otherwise inexplicable comments I've read here, like those make by beano, who is describing the problems of an inexperienced snorkler with little or no experience.

I know it's bad for business, but the idea of accepting anyone for scuba training who is not a competent swimmer and snorkeler is disturbing. At best it is a classic example of the dumbing down of American culture in an attempt to make everything 'easy' in order to generate sales and profits. At worst it borders on criminal negligence.

I begin to better understand these boatloads of OWs who are very obviously at least a little afraid of the water, who cling to the divemaster as if she or he were a safety device, a security blanket in what is to them a hostile environment.

I still spend much more time snorkeling than scuba diving. To not experience the utter freedom and limitless joy of exploring with just a mask, snorkel, lycra skin and fins is to miss one of the greatest pleasures the sea has to offer. It also makes you a much better diver. It's like driving with a manual transmissionand a clutch. You may not need to, but if you haven't had the experience you don't really know how to drive, you don't really understand what driving is all about.

 

[Rich Keller]

I always dive with a snorkel and knife. When I was trained these were considered the top two pieces of safety equipment that you never went in the water without.

 

[beanojones]

How can it me otherwise? Not having experience with snorkeling, significant experience beyond pool practice, means that a diver went straight from being a swimmer (sometimes not a very good swimmer) to scuba diving. This explains some of the otherwise inexplicable comments I've read here, like those make by beano, who is describing the problems of an inexperienced snorkler with little or no experience.
.

And people who think swimming or snorkeling have anything to do with diving are the people who need rescueing all the damn time, becausse they wear themselves out with pointless struggle. The ocean is strong and we are small and weak.

Swimming is the worst thing to do in a diving emergency. Snorkeling is the second worst. Get positive and make eye contact with the boat or shore if you cannot make it back.

The ocean is strong and we are small, and letting someone think that because they can swim or snorkel, it can ever help them is about the worst thing any instructor can do to a student. Teach them how to get positive, and aware, and call for help, not bury their face in the water where they are invisible, and they cannot see anything.

---------- Post added ----------

I always dive with a snorkel and knife. When I was trained these were considered the top two pieces of safety equipment that you never went in the water without.

And the only two times I was actually pinned by monofilament was when it hung up on my knife and wrapped my leg behind me. Shielded rescue cutter? Sure. Sugical shears? Sure. Knife? Well if you want problems, carry a knife. A nice pointed tip one, 6" in length strapped to your legs so it can foul on monofilament, and then when you pull it out which you probably cannot since it is what is hung on the monofilament, it can rip a hole in your BCD, or exposure suit.

 

[Rogersea]

Snorkels are dangerous for the kind of people who might rely on them to use, because those people don't practice breathing with them. In clam water any move to increase buoyancy solves the problem. In rough water, the same is true, and using a snorkel won';t actually help the diver since it will flood randomly. With a mask on and head above the water the diver can see waht is coming. With their face in the water, they will randomly suck saltwater since they cannot see the waves.

Not to mention the fact that face in the water means not looking where you are going.

Snorkels pull and tug on masks and cause mask leakage problems. Mask problems cause more panicked breath hold ascents than anything else, so it is clear they are the opposite of safe underwater.

And no one who actually 'needs' a snorkel will have the presence of mind to pull a stowed snorkel out out and figure out how to attach it to their mask without removing their mask, so they are risking mask loss. WHich is insanely dangerous.

Snorkels don't belong in diving, and they especially do not belong in the open water course, since they convince people to try stupid things like swim for it in an emergency. They are a real hazard.

Your post exemplifies the status you have set for yourself.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[agilis]

And people who think swimming or snorkeling have anything to do with diving are the people who need rescueing all the damn time, becausse they wear themselves out with pointless struggle. The ocean is strong and we are small and weak.

Swimming is the worst thing to do in a diving emergency. Snorkeling is the second worst. Get positive and make eye contact with the boat or shore if you cannot make it back.

The ocean is strong and we are small, and letting someone think that because they can swim or snorkel, it can ever help them is about the worst thing any instructor can do to a student. Teach them how to get positive, and aware, and call for help, not bury their face in the water where they are invisible, and they cannot see anything.

This would be hilarious were it not appalling. It almost sounds like the apprpriate response to a dangerous situation is a kind of passive acceptance of the circumstance while trying to attract the attention of some saviour. It's almost religious in its reliance on salvation. Every diver needs to develop the perspective of a solo diver, becuse in the final analysis they are.

People who can't swim will never be comfortable in the water. People who are not comfortable in the water should not be scuba diving. Being able to swim has saved countless lives, and snorkeling makes long distance swimming possible in many difficult circumstances. To claim otherwise is ridiculous.

Much Of what was written sounds like some kind of half-baked textbook dogma. It was not informed by real world circumstances. It reflects a very tiny perspective that has inflated itself into a false generality.

 

[Edward3c]

Your post exemplifies the status you have set for yourself.

Cheers,
Roger

That was my thought as well.

Regards

 

[DaleC]

The comments are so off the wall they can only be some sort of troll. To think that this is an instructor who will teach someone to become a diver

I think almost anyone can "dive" but to be a well rounded "diver" general watermanship skills and confidence in the water appear to me to be a bonus. Skindiving/snorkeling/freediving certainly is an excellent pathway to this. When you spend hours neutrally weighted, just above or below the surface you lose the fear of doing so. No fear, no panic. You also gain some understanding of how long and how far you can do it. Add SCUBA gear and that time lessens (without buoyancy) but you still know what your body is telling you.

 

[Edward3c]

...

And how "tech" is a snorkel? Simple gear required for OW PADI certification in the beginner's class. Nothing macho or tech about it, unless the folding ones are now tech gear.

Sorry, if I was to cryptic, but tech to me its twins, long hose, etc.

Strangely enough twins were going out of fashion when I learned to dive.

Getting back to snorkels. I've no issue if my buddy doesn't want to carry one, few do - its not stipulated in BSAC training that one has to be carried when SCUBA diving (as apposed to Snorkel diving).

Regards