Let's Re-Brand "Snorkeling"

[RalphinOrmond]

Snorkeling is an exposure to some of the greatest beauty on earth. I've long thought that to have lived and died without having snorkeled in the tropics is to have missed something essential in life. But whenever I talk about it, I stumble over the name, at least in my mind. "Snorkeling" is an ugly word and unworthy of the activity it names. If anyone knows the history of it, how and when the name came to be stuck, like a huge pimple, on the sport, I'd like very much to hear it. My totally uninformed guess is that, a few decades ago, after "SCUBA diving" became part of the vernacular, "Skin diving" was used to describe both freediving and snorkeling and then freedivers became self-conscious as a distinct group and so re-branded themselves. This should have left the name "skin divers" to snorkelers, which would have been great. THAT is a beautiful name. Unfortunately, the weight of its definition involves diving rather than skin, or equipmentlessness, and so now it is being lost altogether. Anyway, at a critical moment in the history of all these names, some one, some group, somehow stuck "snorkeling" onto snorkeling. Does it matter? I think it does. If the name is not cool, the sport will forever be thought uncool. Weird. Oddball. It doesn't add easily onto one's self-definition, one's identity. In contrast, think how happily people describe themselves as skiers, kayakers, hunters, bikers, bicyclists, surfers, and so on. In sum, I think snorkeling needs a new name. If we on this forum could come up with a much, much better name than "snorkeling," (and how hard can that be?) then the effort to gain industry and community acceptance would not be terribly difficult. After all, there is much to be gained by many people if the sport gained wider recognition. My own suggestion, which I readily and gladly admit wont be the magic word, is "swim finning," and the more casual form "finning."

 

[gndpdr]

ralph ..put down the snorkel ..here have some nice clean 02

 

[Cave Diver]

If we on this forum could come up with a much, much better name than "snorkeling," (and how hard can that be?)

I cant wait to see some of the suggestions.

 

[Froid]

Sorry but I have to do this.... Dorkeling

 

[David Wilson]

Ralph:

Ignore the silly comments. I was brought up to believe that if I couldn't contribute anything constructive to a discussion, it was better to say nothing at all.

I have a modest library of vintage (1950s-1970s) diving books - about 200 volumes - and it's fascinating reading the titles and observing the different names applied to the activity of underwater swimming with or without breathing equipment. Here's what Al Thompson says about the term "skin diving" in his book "Snorkel & Skin Diving", which was published in Canada:

What is skin diving?
There are a number of misconceptions about the meaning of the term "skin diving". (...) The term was originally used to distinguish a conventional helmet (or "hard hat") diver, dressed in copper helmet and full canvas suit, from a snorkel diver who used only a mask and flippers to go underwater. Today the term "skin diver" has evolved into a broader definition and describes anyone who swims underwater for any purpose with or without breathing equipment".

I have many books from the 1950s to the 1970s with the words "skin diving" in the title. Many of them contrast "skin diving" with "scuba diving", using the term to describe breath-hold diving only. However, just as many use the term "skin diving" to describe swimming underwater both with and without breathing gear. I am now given to understand that the term "skin diving", which fell into disuse in the 1980s and 1990s, has now been brought back to life as a term describing something midway between snorkelling and freediving, but I wonder how widespread this use of the term "skin diving" actually is. I also have reservations about it because I'm unconvinced that "skin diving" has ever caught on as a term outside the United States of America. In the United Kingdom, the terms "sub-aqua" or "underwater swimming" as well as "diving" were used instead in the 1950s and 1960s. "Skin diving" was never a British term, and even SCUBA diving, which is accepted nowadays in the UK, is still widely recognised as an Americanism by those who value the precise use of language.

As for free diving, I wonder whether those who free-dive realise that the term derives from the French "plongée libre", meaning diving that was free of the ropes and air hoses that tied the helmet diver to his assistants on the surface. The term "plongée libre" applied from the 1950s to underwater swimmers with or without self contained underwater breathing apparatus. Its modern usage to mean underwater swimmers plumbing the depths on a single breath is just that, modern.

You will have noticed that I have argued against skin diving as a suitable replacement for the word "snorkelling" but I haven't suggested an alternative. My first reaction is to say "let's not ditch the term 'snorkelling' until we reach consensus on a suitable replacement". The advantage of the term "snorkelling", unlike "skin diving", is that it's used on both sides of the Atlantic. The Germans use the term "Schnorcheln" or "Schnorcheltauchen" (snorkel diving) and German is the most spoken mother tongue in Europe. I do like a term using the word "swimming", although the term "finswimming" isn't available as it's come to mean a competitive sport where people with bifins and monofins race against each other in swimming pools.

I'll leave it there for the moment.

 

[DennisS]

It doesn't look like snorkeling will ever be a cool sport. It looks like gaining industry and community support will forever remain an unatainable goal.

I like the word snorkeling, the word just sounds like fun.

 

[RalphinOrmond]

Ralph:
the term "finswimming" isn't available as it's come to mean a competitive sport where people with bifins and monofins race against each other in swimming pools.

How about that!

Thanks for the kind words and info, David. Interesting to be reminded that the naming of these things is, apparently, an American/European joint venture and not so easy to change in any case. Still, I should not be surprised if someone came up with a name that could really do the job. Along with a certain amount of dross, the internet has revealed that there is a vast number of clever people out there. The first requirement, it seems to me, is to have a precise idea of what "snorkeling" means. What I am thinking, and wouldn't mind seeing corrected, is that a snorkeler paddles along the surface and also dives but does these in a leisurely manner. So that the same person might be, on different days, a freediver, an underwater photographer, a spear fisher. But on other days, he might be "just snorkeling." Ambling in the water.

 

[fire_diver]

What else do you think it should be called? Surface-floating-tube-sucking?

Afterall, SCUBA is named after a piece of equipment, and Snorkeling is named after..... hmm, maybe the snorkel?

 

[ImParticipating]

It doesn't look like snorkeling will ever be a cool sport.

And there you've hit upon the problem. Snorkeling is not a "sport". That is, it's not a physical activity that can be judged competitively and may push the human body to extremes. The name "snorkeling" is irrelevant - it's the fact that we're having fun and relaxing that isn't impressive.

In contrast, think how happily people describe themselves as skiers, kayakers, hunters, bikers, bicyclists, surfers, and so on.

Leaving out hunters which are debatably "cool" for a different reason... Those are all sports that involve fairly strong exercise and skill requirements and can therefore be judged competitively. Someone is gooder or badder at them. Even fishing is a skilled activity with world-records. Freediving fits into that category, and snorkeling doesn't.

As a general rule sports rely on endorphin-release to make them pleasant. Your average untrained slob would get sore muscles after trying them for the first time. On a warm day if someone says they're going cycling for an hour - people know they'll come back sweaty, regardless of how lazy and crap they are. So friends and family think something worthwhile is happening, especially if you talk it up. There's nothing impressive about having a lovely time while you float motionless in water. Once something's difficult or unpleasant people get impressed, though, and snorkeling's no exception. People do get impressed at me snorkeling for kilometres, or in the middle of winter, or in rough conditions, or alone in the rain during shark season.

If you want snorkeling to be cool then you need to devise a way of judging people's ability at snorkeling, then start holding a worldwide championship and keeping a list of "world records". Can't do it? Then forget about calling snorkeling a sport and trying to make it cool.

Scuba diving has special reasons for being cool. It's kind of elitist - you need gear, training and minimum medical requirements to participate. And it's dangerous, which snorkeling usually isn't. Many people would be scared of scuba diving - being at the bottom of dark, deep water that they think is infested with sharks. In practice many people are scared while snorkeling, but they don't know that until they try.

Snorkeling CAN BE a highly skilled, physically intensive activity, but only you will know if you're "good" at it or pushing yourself hard. When my buddy joins me we snorkel together - same distance and duration. Afterwards I stagger out out mentally and physically exhausted like I've been doing mathematics while running a marathon, and he ambles out of the water like he's been lying on the couch having a massage. Other than me spending more time on the bottom we look the same to anyone watching. If I've had an awesome day where I've kept my weight/buoyancy perfect at all depths, had perfect trim, and been so "invisible" that I've witnessed amazing animal behaviours... that's my own private achievement.

Why does snorkeling have to be cool? Why not just have fun (or push your limits if you prefer) without impressing people?

 

[mgmonk]

David, thanks for the etymology on free diving, and the other information as well. I love looking back at how language develops over time.