Should I wear a snorkel or not

[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.

 

[atiumb]

Where I dive there is usually a good current and I can't stand the feel of the snorkel pulling on my face / mask with the drag it causes in the current so do not bring one. Always down and up the anchor line so no surface swim 99% of the time.

 

[The Chairman]

Before the widespread adoption of the BCD, they were needed. Not so much now that you can easily float with your head above the water. I don't wear one anymore.

 

[dmaziuk]

Yeah, it's usually us older guys who prefer snorkels and big knives. Maybe that should tell you something? LOL!

Older guys have smaller p*n*ses?

 

[formernuke]

Before the widespread adoption of the BCD, they were needed. Not so much now that you can easily float with your head above the water. I don't wear one anymore.

I wonder if that is where the requirement to carry one came from and once modern BCD's came out instead if changing it the agencies just added a skill.

 

[Waterwulf]

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

It doesn't matter to me in the slightest if you believe it or not but I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was not a life altering or even particularly dangerous incident due to our training. I only recounted that experience to justify why I like and will always carry a snorkel. Whether you believe it or not will not affect the facts as I related them.

However, there is one thing that I am curious about. Why would you accuse me of BS? You weren't there, you know nothing about me, my girlfriend, our dive boat, our gear, our "dive club", our qualifications, etc. etc. etc. Furthermore, your obvious lack of knowledge of sea conditions or boat sizes in general leads me to question your qualifications to even make a comment about my incident, much less a blanket statement like "Fifteen foot swells would kill all humans and turn all boats into smashed submarines". Sheesh! You need to get out more! Like to the beach where you can watch the sea birds way out there riding up and down on the huge swells. How come they're not getting smashed? You do know the difference between swells, rollers and waves, right?

So why would you do that? What qualifies you to make that BS call? Or is it because you've led such a sheltered life and denial is so much safer, doncha know? Come on give! What qualifies you to make that call Mr. Expert Former Nuke?