Do you wear a snorkel?

[vapovick]

You may find this interesting. I was taught to wear one in OW (probably like everyone else), used it for my first dozen dives, learned at SB that I won't get a ticket if I don't use it, and from then on didn't use it.

Earlier this summer I took a SSI Deep Diver class (recreational) from a shop I hadn't dove with before, and the instructor (an old salt who supposedly is very respected, has decades of wreck diving experience in the Northeast including deco diving) gave me no end of grief for not using a snorkel! He also didn't like by BCD (it was a back inflate, not a vest style).

why in the world would he care if your BC was back inflate or jacket??? its a personal pref, if you as me. ???

 

[turtle_guy]

i haven't carried a snorkel in years but one time long ago i got bumped up by another diver and tried to purge the excess air in my snorkel almost rusulted in uncontrolled acsent but i put one in my pocket now

 

[DiverBeth]

I use a snorkel and used to hate it but was glad I had it for surface swims. My son told me to get a snorkel like his one with a flexible bend. I did and found it more to my liking. I guess it's a matter of choice.

 

[rawls]

This is kind of like a cousin to mask on forehead threads.

 

[DiverLS]

Normally I don't use a snorkel - 90% of my dives are in kelp. Impossible to swim on the surface and I don't have the upper body strength for the "kelp crawl."

I do carry a snorkel in my dive bag. In the Bahamas, there are so many anchor lines, it's a real possibility to come up on the wrong line. I do use a snorkel there.

 

[RoyN]

No, even my instructor doesn't wear a snorkel, she doesn't stop students from wearing one.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

I don't wear one except when i"m assisting with an OW class

 

[nereas]

Being a novice diver, I sometimes pay attention to what people around me are doing to try to find cues for things that weren't taught in courses. On my last boat trip, I noticed no one else was suiting up with a snorkel attached to their mask. I thought about it, and our instructions for entering and exiting the water were to keep the reg in from the time we strode off the boat until the time we were back on the platform with our fins removed. So, I figured people weren't taking them as they weren't going to be used at all in the dive.

I thought maybe this was unique to this boat or to boat diving in general, but then I saw some people posting things about snorkels being for newbies.

But I also thought about what would have happened on my boat dive if I had somehow lost the line and had to free ascend, due to one of the 2 million OMG YOU'RE GOING TO DIE disaster scenarios and had to wait for the boat to pick me up, and realized that had I been LOA or otherwise had to wait a long time, being without a snorkel would have been a pain in the *** at best, and a potential problem in really choppy seas.

So, do you still bring one? Only on certain dives? Why or why not?

You have re-opened a very common and hot can of worms.

Even in the NAUI instructor periodicals, this issue gets debated back and forth, ad nauseam, to no end. Which is to say, if ultra-conservative NAUI is debating this, then all the other (read: lesser) agencies have issues about it as well.

For a cave dive in Florida, where you are jumping into the middle of a hole in the forest, you definitely do not need a snorkel. And if you brought a snorkel with you on a dive like this then I would think you are clearly mistaken.

Some people have this thing about wanting to look like a cave diver, everywhere they go, even places where there are no caves within 1,000 miles. Even if they have never been in a cave in their entire lives. Nor even near a cave.

What I think you will ultimately find is that you need to decide for yourself.

Is the most important thing for you to look like a cave diver? If it is, then go ahead and lose your snorkel.

If on the other hand you prefer to be more rational (as opposed to superficial which is an emotional issue), then you should properly evaluate where there is any chance of a surface swim as a part of your dive plan or subsequent contingency plan.

Then you should proceed accordingly. That is my recommendation.

Also, I think you should find a different dive boat. A better one! (as Capt Jack Sparrow would say, in Pirates 1.

 

[Cacia]

Some people have this thing about wanting to look like a cave diver, everywhere they go, even places where there are no caves within 1,000 miles.

hahahaa

good one

my reason is that I honestly am never positive that I will be picked up in a timely manner by the bozos I dive with. And we have big seas here in Hawaii.
Big Bozos + Big Water= snorkel on both boat and shore dives.

But, I am superficial enough to want a black or camo one.

 

[daniel f aleman]

Cave diver wanna-bee-look-a-likes, sheesh.

I am a cave diver, 1000+ safe cave dives since 1982 - And I have never taken a snorkel into a cave. But, I do use a snorkel in open water. And, I have to use one as a working Divemaster, I may need it when I save your life...