A few snorkeling questions from a newbie!

[David Wilson]

He's also presumedly not 6 years old and WILL rapidly move ahead and actually do some death defying free dives to 30 feet. Or I guess we could just kill this thread now that you've told him all he needs to know at this point. He can start another thread after he comes home from bobbing around in his 7 mil wetsuit.

You have no idea how old he is any more than I do, Hank49, and Pardreamer's profile, which I have visited, has little or nothing to work on. If I were a beginning snorkeller who wasn't a strong swimmer, I might be tempted by the prospect of "death defying free dives to 30 feet" or I might run off, never to be heard of again because the prospect terrified me. We've had one post from the original poster and the word "snorkelling", not "freediving", has been used throughout it. For many snorkellers, freediving is completely different. Let's not make assumptions but wait for the OP to return and elaborate.

 

[Hank49]

Whatever David. I'm talking to him like I would if I met him at a party. If I were in his shoes, I would want to learn any and everything I could from experienced people.

 

[H2O 70]

I'm with Hank this one. The OP did ask if it would be hard to go down if his wetsuit made him like a cork.

There is a very fine line between freediving and snorkeling. I can't tell you how many snorkels I've seen swim down 20ft to get a better look at something. Whether they know it or not, they are really venturing into freediving.

Asking about getting down, he is drifting into freediving.

 

[David Wilson]

Whatever David. I'm talking to him like I would if I met him at a party. If I were in his shoes, I would want to learn any and everything I could from experienced people.

That's fine, Hank, and I agree that it's good to know about the options which are available at the stage where a first step leads us. The guidance of an experienced person can indeed be beyond price. The problem is that life is full of such options and we can't follow them all, however much we would like to. I've taught French and German during most of my forty-year career as a secondary school teacher. I would have loved to have taught all my students about the advanced aspects of these languages, but in the end I had to settle for the few who remained on the course for more than three years. The interests of the others ultimately lay in another direction and they couldn't fit my subjects into their challenging, time-consuming curriculum, no matter how much they wanted to. For some people, depth of experience is what matters. For others, breadth of experience is the point of life. We can't always have both.

 

[Hank49]

David, you seem like a really nice guy. I mean that. But you totally lost me on that last post.
What I did get though was your comparison of snorkeling to learning a language. In my case it takes years to learn a language (10 years of Ilonggo and 6 years of living with a Honduran lady and trying to learn Spanish, and I still can't fluently speak either one). One can learn to free dive in a day. Anyway, happy diving...or snorkeling. (don't want to get ahead of ourselves)

 

[David Wilson]

I'm with Hank this one. The OP did ask if it would be hard to go down if his wetsuit made him like a cork.

Sorry, H2O 70, I hate to be pedantic, but the OP actually said:

Does this wetsuit help with bouyancy?

Far from mentioning going down, he appears to regard a wetsuit as an aid to staying afloat on the surface of the water.

Now I'm not here to score points, and I hope I've made my peace with Hank and explained where I'm coming from. We're going to have to agree to disagree, however, about where snorkelling stops and freediving begins. You say freediving begins once the snorkeller does a duckdive, and that's fine. However, as I've already said, snorkelling can also be about swimhiking over long distances in lakes, rivers and seas, using a snorkel, fins and mask to observe what is happening beneath the surface of the water as we swim. Would I be right in assuming that such an activity isn't freediving because there's no diving involved?

 

[David Wilson]

Hank, I'm sorry you missed the point of my last message to you. My point was that your expertise lies in freediving, mine in languages. You can teach a substantial amount of freediving knowledge within one day, I can also cover a lot of oral language within one day when I have many hours at my disposal. What I can't guarantee is that every learner will feel confident enough to go out afterwards and have an in-depth conversation with a native speaker. You may say that anyone can freedive in a day, but first they have to want to and believe that they can. Motivation and perseverance are key to language learning. I expect they are key to freediving too.

 

[H2O 70]

Sorry, H2O 70, I hate to be pedantic, but the OP actually said:

Does this wetsuit help with bouyancy?

Far from mentioning going down, he appears to regard a wetsuit as an aid to staying afloat on the surface of the water.

Now I'm not here to score points, and I hope I've made my peace with Hank and explained where I'm coming from. We're going to have to agree to disagree, however, about where snorkelling stops and freediving begins. You say freediving begins once the snorkeller does a duckdive, and that's fine. However, as I've already said, snorkelling can also be about swimhiking over long distances in lakes, rivers and seas, using a snorkel, fins and mask to observe what is happening beneath the surface of the water as we swim. Would I be right in assuming that such an activity isn't freediving because there's no diving involved?

Sorry...yes you are correct...I had misread someone else post as the OP.

 

[tight rope walker]

I do not want it to be said that I am trying to change the mood here, but it's interesting to point out that, in the usn diving manual, volume 1, the navy considers free diving to mean free from surface supplied air or support. So in their definition, a scuba diver who is not tethered to the surface would be considered a free diver.

I am guilty of using free diver instead of snorkeler as I interpret it as being free of scuba gear.

I hope I haven't changed the mood of what's going on here.

And I hope our new potential snorkeler has learned a lot here, as I believe a lot of divers sincerely tried to help.

 

[pardreamer]

Hi All,

Thank you for taking your time and giving me the important tips. I am very excited. I have been kayaking around San Diego and have seen people snorkeling/free diving and scuba diving. Right now I am not sure if I am more interested in freediving or snorkeling or may be a combination of both. I plan to take 2 1-hour lessons. I found an instructor from the link below:
sandiegoswimlessons.com/snorkeling.html
I think I will talk to him to find out what type of wetsuit I need. Right now I am a little bit confused whether the 3mm, 5mm, or the 7mm will be more appropriate for San Diego. I will try the instructor's snorkeling gear for now and see which I like.

I think after the two 1-hour lessons I will take this tour/course in La Jolla Cove:
scubasandiego.com/snorkle.htm

I will inform you on my progress. I will receive an ipod nano with a waterproof case (good up to 12 ft down) and hope to record some videos once I get comfortable in the water. Hope to post it here in June.

Thanks again!

Par