Snorkel cracking pressure?

[dmaziuk]

First, the plastic tube needed to be filled with sand, then heated, then formed around the head form of wood.

Heh. What did you do for the forehead? -- these days they all come with a forehead support/rest thingy.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Heh. What did you do for the forehead? -- these days they all come with a forehead support/rest thingy.

The short answer is, "I don't know." I've lost the reference for building these, but it was published by CMAS, probably in the early 1980s.

When I came into the sport of finswimming, FINIS had a front-mount snorkel, which I bought. I have now lost that one (the one in the photo), but have two more.

SeaRat

PS, as I now recall, I think the Eastern European finswimmers, when making their front-mount snorkel, used some thicker sheet aluminum to make a forehead mount for the snorkel. They would form it to their head, allow a couple of centimeters straight out, then form it around the tube, another couple cm straight back toward their head, then form it the rest of the way around their forehead horizontally. They would have two slots cut into it for the strap on each side, and then line it with a foam rubber or closed-cell foam noeprene for comfort. Sometimes it takes awhile for these things to surface in a 74 year old brain.

 

[Bob DBF]

One of the big advantages of using the snorkel is that you constantly monitor the underwater world. Whenever you spit out the snorkel and breath with the mouth out of the water, you break visual contact with what's below.

One big reason I wear a snorkel when on scuba. I do long surface swims out and back in, more times than I can count I found something interesting to change the dive plan. Also another good reason to surface with some air in the tank at the end of a dive.



Bob

 

[David Wilson]

Front-mounted snorkels had their heyday in European snorkelling during the 1950s. Illustration from Barry J. Kimmins' 1956 diving title Underwater Sport on a Small Income (London: Hutchinson):

In the January 1956 issue of the British Sub Aqua Club journal Neptune, the following article appeared:

Here is the "combined mask-tube" in Lillywhites' 1956 catalogue:

and here it is again in the 1956 edition of Skinner's handbook for skin divers:

Here's a close-up of the Typhoon Model "T3" breathing tube:

Since the breathing tube was positioned at the front rather than the side of the swimmer's head, it could not be retained by the mask strap in the same way as conventional breathing tubes were. The "attachment bracket" seen halfway along the barrel not only served to anchor the snorkel to the top screw of a mask fitted with a metal rim but also functioned as a fulcrum enabling the snorkel to tilt backwards when the mouthpiece was released.

The frontal snorkel was actually invented by Dr Raymond Pulvénis (founder of the Watersports company in Nice) in France during the 1940s:

He was a medical doctor who researched syphilis, wrote the first spearfishing book and invented the frontal snorkel he called a "tuba", which remains the standard French word for "snorkel" to this day.

Two further pictures of underwater swimmers using frontal snorkels during the 1950s and 1960s:

The first image shows a Jantzen ad from Neptune. Jantzen is best known for its swimming costumes, but it "carried" other companies' underwater swimming equipment during its long history.

The second image is from an August 1965 Which? consumer report on masks and snorkels. Here is how the "T3" fared in comparison with other breathing tubes of the day:

 

[David Wilson]

Heh. What did you do for the forehead? -- these days they all come with a forehead support/rest thingy.

Some early American side-mounted snorkels, typically fitted with ball-valves, also came knotted with large elastic rubber bands enabling them to be attached directly to the forehead:

Globe Riviera

Swim King

Healthways Tahiti

Healthways Aqua Champ

US Divers Aqua-Lung

US Divers Champion

 

[Nemrod]

I have a roll up snorkel. It stows in a pouch attached to my harness. If I need a snorkel, I can grab it and stick the barrel between my head and mask strap. Actually, most of the time, the pouch goes empty or I remove it. No way I will entertain having a snorkel flapping in the breeze and dangling all over the place and flopping around like some PADI student. I bought the stupid thing to satisfy the Solo Diver Certification course I took wherein it was required equipment. With the DSV closed on my regulator I can swim on my back and that is my preferred method of transit from shore to site.

Free diving is another of those things I am no longer doing but I did not usually use a snorkel, too much drag. A year ago, after an 80 feet free dive I had a partial black out and again last year after a 40 foot dive having speared a fish. I had followed all protocols and I nearly blacked out. I guess I am not twenty anymore . For spearo diving though the snorkel is handy and I would use one for that. When I swim laps I will sometimes breath hold though it is against the pool rules, the one particular lifeguard, I tell her and she keeps a special eye on me. I only do this when there are but a few people swimming so as not to overly distract her attention from others.

N