Steelyeyes
Contributor
I'll preface this by saying I'm not looking to change what divers do. Just share my experiences. To this date, the one piece of bad diving advice I got from ScubaBoard was ditching the snorkel. I should have considered my diving and not the consensus of divers from around the world.
I imagine even in an area like South Florida you could get away without the snorkel for a long surface float with decent conditions because the swells over there are generally spread far apart. However in the Gulf of Mexico that is usually not the case. In fact we commonly refer to it as the "Gulf Chop". Wave intervals are typically very short. By the time you hit the trough another wave is right on top of you. Add any wind or a typical near by "out of the blue" Florida summer storm and those waves are now white capping over you and often are just sloppy. 3 foot waves turn into a washing machine.
Being on a boat high and maybe dry is one thing. But being in the water, with your mask on and your BC floating your head and maybe the tops of your shoulders above the surface leaves your mouth nearly at the constantly changing water line. The snorkel does what it does, extends your airway up and above your head and the water for the most part.
I think a better question to ask yourself is this. If you were going to be dropped in the middle of the ocean with a BC for an undetermined amount of time and had the choice of being given a snorkel or not, what would you choose?
When I surface I fully inflate my BCD, lay on my back with my legs bent so I can scull with my fins if I need to. My mouth is about the highest point on the out of water portion of my body. If things got a bit dicey I'd have no trouble pulling a few pounds of lead out and sending it on it's way to Davy Jones' Locker. In any event my head is up, my eyes are above the water where any help is going to come from, and I don't have something clamped in my mouth. Just a personal take on it. I'm sure others have a completely different idea.