Why are there no snorkeling sites/forums?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Yes, I listed the BSAC Snorkelling Forum in my "snorkelling forums" ScubaBoard thread at
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/snorkeling-freediving/288287-snorkelling-forums.html
and very good it is too, although I'd like to see a few more threads there about snorkelling in the UK rather than just in tropical venues.:D

As for DeeperBlue, my impression of that forum is that it's entirely focused on freediving: Plenty of discussion about competitive apnea, expensive long-bladed fins and monofins, depth, distance and breath-hold records and the like, nothing about simple recreational snorkelling. The original poster on this "Why are there no snorkeling sites/forums?" was lamenting the dearth of snorkelling forums and sites, not freediving ones.
 
As a guy who snorkels as much as possible and can't yet afford to dive, I just want to say I really appreciate this discussion, and I hope to see more of it. I grew up in the Michigan waters, and I always brought my mask, snorkel, and fins with me whenever I was going near the water. So snorkeling is a big part of my life. I hope to see more snorkeling discussions here in the future!

I'm going to the Keys on my honeymoon in 3 weeks, and I'm driving down from Michigan (24hrs or so) just so I can take 2 kayaks down, and have access to as much reef as possible! I'm getting a new UW camera (THIS ONE) so I can finally document what I see and I'm planning on posting up some trip reports when I get home!

BTW, If anyone has some good tips on snorkeling the Florida Keys, Please let me know! We'll be at Hawks Cay, just north of Marathon.

Thanks!!
 
I have to agree with David and others about the love of snorkeling. I must also say that (to me) there is a pretty clear cut distinction between snorkeling and freediving. It is like comparing driving your car in a spirited fashion on a curvy road to trying to become a rally car driver. I really enjoy snorkeling, and I probably did more snorkeling on my trip to the Caymans last month than I did diving (and I dove 8 times).

So in the vein of really making this a place to hang out...

What does everyone use to snorkel?

Personally, I love vintage skin diving gear. I typically use Cressi rondine full foot fins, a U.S. Divers atlantis mask and snorkel, some flipper slippers (which I made myself), a gigantic U.S. Divers master knife (strapped to my leg of course), and an old lead weight belt from the 1962 U.S. Divers catalog. I have a Promate analog wrist depth gauge that I use to track my depth, and a good old fashioned Citizen diving watch to track my time. The farthest I have swam offshore is about a mile to a reef in the Caymans, and I had an absolute blast.

What about everyone else?
 
I use Apollo Bio Pro fins, Tilos frameless mask, a dry snorkel, and depending on water temps (I'm from Michigan)....I use:

Cold - 5mm Bare progressive stretch w/ 5mm hood, 5mm gloves, and 5mm boots.

Cool - 5mm Mares shorty with built in hood and 3mm boots

Warm - Old 2mm shorty and 3mm boots

Warmer - just long sleeve rashguard, bathingsuit, and 3mm boots


I snorkeled in Michigan in everything from small rivers that are waist deep or less, to large rivers, ponds, lakes, and Lake Michigan. There are a lot of clear lakes and rivers in Michigan, and in summer some can get up to 80*F, but usually low to mid 70's is normal during summertime.
 
David will back me up on this, but the hydroglove drysuit is a great, cost effective way to skin or SCUBA dive if you practice with it.

Here's something to look at:

Hydroglove ~ All Rubber Dry Suits

It beats a modern drysuit in a lot of ways, and is wonderful to skin dive.
 
Thanks for joining in, Slonda828, and for sharing your experience of the joys of snorkelling. I'm glad too that you understand so well what distinguishes snorkelling from freediving, a distinction which some scuba divers find unfathomable. Your rally-driver metaphor is extremely apt.

Earlier this morning I made another snorkelling trip to the North Sea, about eight miles away from where I live. Slightly coolish summer weather, slightly choppy sea, with just a few dog walkers for company on the beach and the occasional plane in the sky preparing to land at the local airport. There's not much to see underwater, no fish, just bits of seaweed and sometimes a small jellyfish or two on the beach, so I always watch where I put my feet. I spent a very pleasant hour there and have since returned, refreshed, relaxed and exercised.

Like you, I love using vintage, or classic, equipment when I snorkel. I collect not only pre-1975 masks and fins but also basic snorkelling gear still manufactured the old-fashioned way in more than a dozen countries around the world. I don't just display them at home, I use them when I go snorkelling. The gear helps me connect with the early 1960s when I began snorkelling in the UK and later on in continental Europe. When western diving equipment manufacturers decided to move into the oil-based synthetics business in the mid-70s, I decided to stay put as I frankly couldn't see the point of silicone masks when I didn't suffer from allergies, or composite fins languishing inside 1980s dive shop bargain bins, their hard plastic blades slowly delaminating from their sagging thermoplastic elastomer foot pockets. I wondered why people just couldn't leave well alone! Fortunately, there are still plenty of suppliers of old-fashioned gear around the world and what's even better is that such gear costs so much less than their modern counterparts.

Here's a list of the equipment I use when snorkelling:

Mask: always rubber-skirted, oval models, as I don't like the look or feel of low-volume silicone masks. I have several masks and I swam this morning with a Ukrainian-made Akvanavt. I also enjoy using a blue-skirted Ixtapa mask, manufactured in Mexico. Both masks are still made today. The Ixtapa is pictured below:
wp9e82d9ed.jpg

Fins: always all-rubber full-foot fins. When I started snorkelling in the 1960s, full-foot fins were always much more expensive than open-heel ones and were the fins of choice for serious European divers. I swam this morning with Escualo fins made in Mexico, which come with high arches that accommodate my large feet comfortably. I also enjoy swimming with soft and flexible Russian-made Del'fin fins, which have closed toes as well as closed heels, and stiffer-bladed Gull Mew fins made in Japan. Once again, all these fins are still in production today:
wpdb60e007.gif00583.jpg800220.jpg

Snorkel: always a simple J-shaped tube with a rubber mouthpiece. This morning I used a blue Britmarine snorkel, made in England but no longer in production. I also have a black snorkel, made in Greece.

Suit: The North Sea can be cold and I enjoy snorkelling eight or nine months of the year. Even in the warmest months, I still find I need some thermal protection, otherwise I shiver and the process of entering the water is slow and painful. I rotate three old-fashioned drysuits to keep warm and dry during my hour's snorkelling. This morning I wore a green Hydroglove suit, to which Slonda828 has already alluded. It's lightweight, simplicity itself, easy to swim in after a little practice with sealing and venting the garment. It admits only a few droplets of water during use and it's relatively inexpensive compared with modern drysuits, which I find over-featured and over-engineered as well. I'm very well aware of the suit's limitations and I avoid many of these anyway because I don't scuba-dive. The other two suits I use regularly are another Hydroglove - a more recent black version with stronger soles - and a vintage yellow Skooba-"totes" suit from the late 1950s in fully diveable condition, and like the Hydrogloves, a waist entry drysuit comprising footed pants and a hooded shirt.
dvr-c1.jpg

I complete the suit with a pair of black drygloves, bought on eBay, which form a watertight seal against the drysuit's wrist seals.

I'm very happy with this combination of gear, which matches my personal style of relaxed snorkelling as well as helping me to recapture the period when I began my lifelong pastime. However, I'm not going to recommend that everybody now follows my example when choosing snorkelling equipment for themselves. Basic gear selection is a problem-solving process, not a set of instant solutions, which is why I never recommend brands, let alone individual mask or fin models, because what works for me is most unlikely to work for everybody else. Whenever I mention on some forum or other my choice of a Hydroglove to keep myself warm and dry, there's always somebody young and cocksure around, ready with the unsolicited advice that a freediving wetsuit would be a better and safer choice. A good choice for you perhaps, I think, but I'm well past the stage in my life when I feel that I have to justify everything I do or believe I have the monopoly of wisdom! We're all different, and the world's a better place for our diversity.
 
Just a couple of pics from a dawn snorkel this last Sat on Bonaire, while waiting out my no dive time:

IMG_0041_2_.JPG


IMG_7-09snorkel-0027.JPG


Diving is my favorite, but snorkeling is a close second, and is perfect way to stay wet when I can't be diving.
 
This is a Scuba forum, yes, but it is implied as they told me during my classroom time to get certified, scuba and snorkeling go hand in hand. Whenever I go on a dive, I always have a snorkel, mainly for when I am at the surface unless I am skin diving. So if you want to talk about snorkeling, why shouldn't you? Just start a new post about snorkeling and people will answer and talk about it with you.
 

Back
Top Bottom