Should I wear a snorkel or not

[lostsheep]

I have tried and I can do it if I really have to. It's just totally pointless and unnecessary (unless somehow you screw up the gas planning and end up back on the surface with empty tanks). And if you have extra gear, like a camera housing with strobe arms or a stage tank, then surface swimming in really heavy kelp makes entanglement tough to avoid regardless of technique.

Yes, a little bit. It's certainly a lot easier to kelp crawl in minimalist freediving gear.

Kelp is an issue once it becomes thick enough. Seriously, go look at Whaler's Cove right now. The surface kelp is as thick as I've ever seen it (which is good news for the ecosystem). Only a real masochist would try to kelp crawl on the surface any significant distance through that mess. Everyone who has been diving there the last few days just goes under the kelp.

You said “can’t”, I say it’s a non issue.

You really oughta disclose that you’re coming at this from a GUE tech diving perspective. There’s a big difference between diving to Montana using doubles, scooters, and multiple deco bottles compared to diving a single rental al80 out to middle reef at Lobos.

I will repeat, I don’t dive a snorkel either but the universe will not collapse into a singularity just cause someone uses a snorkel to kelp crawl out beyond doggie so they can maximize bottom time at middle reef.

We should be encouraging and / or mentoring these divers not telling them they’re doing it wrong. (Referencing the masochist , screw up, unnecessary language )

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I don't know what "hog looped" means but I have a DIR equipment configuration.

Ok that explains it, thank you.

 

[Celt]

I’d love to know what configuration people are using who say they can swim on their back on the surface. My steel 12 ltr is just positive at 50 bar and suits swimming on my belly with a snorkel.

 

[Celt]

Nope. That's just not how it works in real diving, and I've certainly covered more than 50 ft in rough surface conditions on multiple occasions. I can't imagine where you've come up with such mistaken notions. If divers are getting exhausted swimming on their backs, then they're doing something wrong like bending at the waist too much or failing to inflate the wing or using garbage fins. Or they're just unfit. Using a snorkel isn't going to address that problem: rather the opposite.
Anyway, I'll leave it there. If you want to make diving unnecessarily difficult go ahead.

Inflate the wing and swim on your back on the surface. You think thats more effective than swimming flat on your belly with a snorkel. Are you for real. You must be used to talking to complete novices. It’s actually hilarious when I think of it.

 

[BoltSnap]

it's more efficient to swim on your back (as long as you're not going through kelp). I've tried both ways and I can go faster with less effort on my back instead of using a snorkel.

This is truly wrong. You just don't know how to use a snorkel properly and hence you are making up every possible execuse not to use.

 

[dmaziuk]

Is that in answer to my post you quoted or just something you wanted to say. Because it definitely didn’t answer the question about the most effective way to surface swim with scuba gear.

I'm sure the most effective way to surface-swim in scuba gear is very relevant to where and how you dive, your gear configuration, and the rest of that. I was only trying to point out that where and how I dive and swim, it isn't. Which in no way, shape, or form, diminishes your argument. It just suggests that its applicability has limitations.

 

[Nick_Radov]

You said “can’t”, I say it’s a non issue.

You really oughta disclose that you’re coming at this from a GUE tech diving perspective. There’s a big difference between diving to Montana using doubles, scooters, and multiple deco bottles compared to diving a single rental al80 out to middle reef at Lobos.

My perspective is not so limited. I also do single tank recreational dives at Point Lobos and in other kelp forest dive sites.
Most of the local dive shops also rent larger steel tanks for only a few dollars more. Those are usually a better option than an Al80 for most divers (depending on weighing and physical size issues).

I will repeat, I don’t dive a snorkel either but the universe will not collapse into a singularity just cause someone uses a snorkel to kelp crawl out beyond doggie so they can maximize bottom time at middle reef.

The kelp in Whaler's Cove is so thick right now that even the single tank divers aren't attempting to crawl over it. If you haven't seen it in person recently then you might not appreciate the issue. Normally divers can kind of pick their way through open areas while swimming on their backs, and occasionally push their way over a few lose strands. But now the kelp is matted together in clumps that are much harder to crawl over. It's much easier to just descend a few feet and breathe off a regulator while swimming under the thickest areas of kelp. Takes minimal gas. When divers run low on gas at a shallow site like Middle Reef it's generally because they struggle with poor buoyancy control or inefficient finning which drives up their respiration rate, not because they used to 200 psi or whatever swimming under the kelp to reach the site.

We should be encouraging and / or mentoring these divers not telling them they’re doing it wrong. (Referencing the masochist , screw up, unnecessary language )

Yes, we should encourage new divers to do things the fun and easy way instead of creating unnecessary problems for themselves. Sometimes that means telling them that they're doing it wrong, or were taught incorrectly. I have always appreciated it when more skilled divers had the courtesy to tell me when I was doing something wrong.

 

[Waterwulf]

The bottom line is that everybody should use what they're comfortable with. I took my first Scuba course in the late sixties and I was trained to use a snorkel. I've carried one ever since. It's no big deal. Slip it in a pocket or in your knife straps and then just slip it under your mask strap if you need it.

I'm an old guy. I've seen some things go so incredibly bad, that afterwards you just have to wonder how you survived that. I had a dive partner who was severely over weighted, out of air and only staying afloat because I kept a hold on him. Had he not had a snorkel, I honestly think he may have drowned.

The time my girlfriend and I surfaced in a squall was ok at first because we still had some canned air left. We inflated our horse collar BC's, held hands and laid back, relaxing and enjoying the lighting show while listening for the boat. Then the air ran out. The swells were twenty foot or so and the breakers were rolling over us. Staying on our backs would have drowned us so we mostly deflated our BC's and sort of hovered at the surface in an upright position breathing on our snorkels. There was no such thing as a dry snorkel back then so we did a lot of purging but we were able to breath. I am pretty sure that without my snorkel, I would have drowned that day.

But hey! I'm old fashioned. I still use a horse collar BC! I'll carry a snorkel with me but you don't have to. Just don't ask to borrow mine!

 

[Celt]

I'm sure the most effective way to surface-swim in scuba gear is very relevant to where and how you dive, your gear configuration, and the rest of that. I was only trying to point out that where and how I dive and swim, it isn't. Which in no way, shape, or form, diminishes your argument. It just suggests that its applicability has limitations.

There’s no downside to learning to use and carrying a snorkel. The opposition to the use of a snorkel is coming from misguided stubbornness. Telling new divers not to use a snorkel is possible the worst piece of advice I’ve read on Scubaboard. The new folding snorkel is so easy to carry and a godsend in a pinch.

 

[stepfen]

37 pages (and still going) arguing about freaking snorkels... You are unbelievable!!