Should I wear a snorkel or not

[formernuke]

Also, I wanted to thank you for the chuckles. I always get a laugh when people make blanket statements based on their own experiences. Based on your user name, I would have thought a former Navy person wouldn't have made those mistakes. Maybe you were Air Force.

First, fifteen foot swells offshore aren't really that big of a deal because of the distance between them. The cycles run longer because of the depth of the ocean. Really, it's like riding a gentle roller coaster. You should try it sometime. Like I stated, the wind made it bad because it broke the tops of them off and blew it horizontally. That and the rain.

And, since you don't seem to know about the difference between swells offshore and waves onshore, I'll give you the Internet definition of "Squall" too.
"A squall is a sudden, sharp, and violent increase in wind speed that is commonly associated with torrential rain showers, snow, or thunderstorms.
Squalls are accompanied by drastic and substantial changes in cloud patterns, cold fronts, and severe weather events."

Second, there are boats and there are boats. Isn't there a statement in the Navy manual someplace that says:
"In general, a boat is a watercraft (for want of a better word) that is small enough to be carried on board a larger one, and that larger one is a ship. This is sometimes expressed this way: “A ship can carry a boat, but a boat can never carry a ship.”

Our dive boat was a converted trawler. That's fairly good sized boat but obviously you didn't read the post. I said the boat left the area and then came back for us. You know...that part about hearing them blowing the horn, etc. We knew they had run from the storm and would be back for us.

And, just so we're clear because I've found that people who make blanket statements also jump to conclusions:
I stated in my post that it was 1975. No, we didn't know that storms would be in our area but the weather people back then were barely able to predict the sunrise. However, it was summer on the North Florida Gulf Coast. Storms happen. Regularly. They're called Squalls.

That particular dive location was a nice reef that we had found and marked on our chart. We located it again it by using radar bearings on condo buildings miles away on shore. We knew that they would find us again because of the marked location and also because they had "dumped the buoy".

The buoy was a large 24 inch orange buoy that was attached to the anchor line. That way, no time would be lost if you had to dump the anchor for an emergency. In this case, we were sure they saw the storm coming and dumped it so they could be sure to find the exact area again. It even had handles on it so a diver has something to hang onto it if need be.

We never saw it though and in fact, they found us again before the buoy. My girlfriends and mine only real complaint afterwards, was that we were cold. We were only wearing shorty wet suit tops. We didn't even have to dump any gear, not even weight belts.

And in case you're wondering, we absolutely knew they had dumped the buoy as soon as we surfaced. They were nowhere around and the masts on a trawler are pretty tall so we knew they had taken off to beat the storm. It would have been standard procedure to dump the buoy and come back later because that's the way we trained.

Nothing that I have recounted is extraordinary. It's not even a "story of survival at sea" because we were never really in any danger except of getting run over by some other boat or stung by jelly fish. It was actually kind of fun afterwards.

In closing, I'll say that it doesn't matter to me if you call BS or anything else. As far as I'm concerned, you lost any standing when you claimed that fifteen swells are not survivable for person or boat. That's just silly! I used to surf my little twenty footer in thru the Pass on bigger swells than that! Here's a hint. They're called "Rollers" for a reason.

Thank you for the laugh, I love some good BS and fairy tales.

 

[Dan Diego]

I've been diving for fifty five years and…

Sadly, all 6k comments boil down to that right there…

 

[berndo]

It's usually only older guys that bring a snorkel. The same guys that have a large dull knife strapped to their lower leg.

If you have a longer surface swim with stuff to see below you, you might wanna bring one. Other than that, they're pretty much useless.

 

[b1gcountry]

Snorkel threads on scubaboard...

Yep, they haven't changed

 

[EFX]

First, fifteen foot swells offshore aren't really that big of a deal because of the distance between them. The cycles run longer because of the depth of the ocean. Really, it's like riding a gentle roller coaster.

I read in a book about the dangers of storms at sea. The research said that non-breaking waves (swells) can never capsize a boat no matter how large. However, waves that break will always capsize a boat if the wave height is as high or higher than the boat is long.

Also mentioned were three things that influence wave height: wind speed, wind duration, and fetch. That last term needs explaining. Fetch is the area of water that the wind blows over. Fetch limits the height of waves. For example, lake Michigan is a fairly large body of water, but waves can never be greater than about 12 ft. no matter how strong the wind is or how long it blows.

 

[EFX]

I read in a book about the dangers of storms at sea.

The book I read is called "The Power of the Sea" by Bruce Parker a former chief scientist of the National Ocean Service. You can get it from Amazon. Another interesting fact regarding waves the book mentioned is their power. Wave power goes up by the fourth power of the height. For example, doubling the wave height will increase its power sixteen times (2 to the fourth power). Wrecked ships have been found with their steel I-beams twisted presumably by the power of waves. Rogue waves have been detected in the open ocean that are 200+ ft tall. Think about that. If a single level ranch house is 20 ft tall from the ground to the peak of the roof, you would need a stack of 10 houses to equal the height of these waves. Imagine the power of a wave 200 ft tall breaking down on top of your ship. A 3 ft breaking on the beach can easily knock a full grown man over.

 

[L13]

Like I stated, the wind made it bad because it broke the tops of them off and blew it horizontally. That and the rain.

Turn your back to the wind, and breath the air in front of you. no need for a snorkel.

Most those sailors you referred to elsewhere who survived worse conditions probably didn't have snorkels and, as you said, survived.

Now, a snorkel may well have made the situation less unpleasant, but was it really the difference between life and death?

 

[Waterwulf]

Yeah, it's usually us older guys who prefer snorkels and big knives. Maybe that should tell you something? LOL! I actually have read most of these pages on snorkels and it's all just back and forth of the same stuff over and over again. By far, most peoples comments were informative as to the reasoning behind the individuals choice of whether to use a snorkel or not. I agree with most of them because it's a choice based on your training, experience and equipment requirements. Mine is either on my mask or in my knife straps because that works for me.

What I found entertaining, were the Experts. "Oh you have to do it this way or that way because I said so and I know everything", etc. etc. etc.

One of them responded to my post and stated that we didn't need our snorkels at all and would have been fine without them. Well my Gosh! After we ran out of air and had to breath surface air, we just went immediately to our snorkels. We had yelled back and forth when we first surfaced and ingested a lot of spray. On our snorkels, we purged a lot and did quite a bit of coughing but if we had known that we could breath better without them, why, we would have just tossed our snorkels in the ocean! And, that Expert knew that without even being there or knowing anything about it. An amazing ability!

Then, just a few posts later, another Expert chimes in and states that there is no way anybody or any boat could have survived what I described. Wow! Another Expert that knows stuff without even being there or knowing anything about it. Aamazing! Fifteen foot ocean swells are deadly to all humans and boats. Hmmm.

Well now I'm really confused. I think maybe I'll "strongly doubt" that first Experts credentials and call BS on the second Experts ocean espertise!

 

[formernuke]

Yeah, it's usually us older guys who prefer snorkels and big knives. Maybe that should tell you something? LOL! I actually have read most of these pages on snorkels and it's all just back and forth of the same stuff over and over again. By far, most peoples comments were informative as to the reasoning behind the individuals choice of whether to use a snorkel or not. I agree with most of them because it's a choice based on your training, experience and equipment requirements. Mine is either on my mask or in my knife straps because that works for me.

What I found entertaining, were the Experts. "Oh you have to do it this way or that way because I said so and I know everything", etc. etc. etc.

One of them responded to my post and stated that we didn't need our snorkels at all and would have been fine without them. Well my Gosh! After we ran out of air and had to breath surface air, we just went immediately to our snorkels. We had yelled back and forth when we first surfaced and ingested a lot of spray. On our snorkels, we purged a lot and did quite a bit of coughing but if we had known that we could breath better without them, why, we would have just tossed our snorkels in the ocean! And, that Expert knew that without even being there or knowing anything about it. An amazing ability!

Then, just a few posts later, another Expert chimes in and states that there is no way anybody or any boat could have survived what I described. Wow! Another Expert that knows stuff without even being there or knowing anything about it. Aamazing! Fifteen foot ocean swells are deadly to all humans and boats. Hmmm.

Well now I'm really confused. I think maybe I'll "strongly doubt" that first Experts credentials and call BS on the second Experts ocean espertise!

That's OK, the second has more than you and can tell BS when he seas it.

 

[Adventurous Frog]

I typically don't dive with a snorkel since I typically dive either descend from the shore or surface swim on my back. However, I always keep mine in my dive bag, since it can come in handy in certain situations like choppy water or if I just want to go snorkeling. Ultimately, this is one of those "to each their own" sort of situations, with I personally seeing them as not strictly necessary but something that's great to keep on hand.