Are Snorkels required

[Divin'Papaw]

lol.. A Jupiter Dive Boat made us wear them around 2011 or 2012 I believe. So I stopped diving Jupiter.

LOL. Wow. Thankfully these days none of the boats I use in Jupiter (Kyalami and Jupiter Dive Center) give a flip about who has a snorkel. The majority on the boats actually do not have snorkels at least not on their masks.

 

[kelemvor]

My suspicion has been confirmed that California seems to have rules other places don't-- they must think they're Quebec, or France.

California is actually famous for that inside the US. They have a lot of laws that citizens submit and then directly vote on. Sounds great up front but it's lead to a lot of bizarre laws. The most famous is called "Proposition 65" which creates a cancer list and mandates that a sticker be put on stuff saying something to the effect of "this thing causes cancer". I'm sure they had good intentions, the problem is how the list is curated. At this point, nearly everything requires the sticker. Nearly everything is not an exaggeration. The list currently contains 1,111 chemicals. Zinc and Acrylamide are examples. That means, according to California, Cofee and Multivitamins are known (not suspected) to cause cancer.

Everyone else in the US knows about it because manufacturers put the label on all of their products rather than making a special California version. I wish other states would create a law banning the label. It can freak out people who don't know such as many elderly.

California needs to stop saying everything causes cancer

I'm pretty sure snorkels cause cancer in California. Probably regulators and boats as well.

 

[MikadoWu]

California is actually famous for that inside the US. They have a lot of laws that citizens submit and then directly vote on. Sounds great up front but it's lead to a lot of bizarre laws. The most famous is called "Proposition 65" which creates a cancer list and mandates that a sticker be put on stuff saying something to the effect of "this thing causes cancer". I'm sure they had good intentions, the problem is how the list is curated. At this point, nearly everything requires the sticker. Coffee is an example. Everyone else knows about it because manufacturers put the label on all of their products rather than making a special California version.
California needs to stop saying everything causes cancer

This is one of the reason I left Cali. It will always be home and IMP the most Beautiful place I have been. Sadly, the stupid politics and cost of living just makes it hard to be there. I have not visited family since 2008. I miss Huntington, San Fran, Calaveras and mostly Yosemite.

If any lives around Calaveras, I will send really money for some of those Local Apple Cider Donuts and Apple Cider north of Murphy's.

 

[Bowers]

You've encountered a butthole, that's all.

With tech training, it's entirely possible you are a better trained diver than that OW instructor. Her training focused on how to teach a non-diver the very most basic diving skills without killing them. Your training is (or SHOULD be) a lot more comprehensive.

Regardless of skill levels, telling another diver on the boat how to dive is inappropriate behavior. Fortunately it's pretty uncommon. I haven't used a snorkel in years. I dive an unusual backplate and wing with a long hose configuration. I can't remember ever having someone give me a hard time about my setup on a boat. Even touristy OW boats like the ones run by Rainbow Reef. I did have a couple RR DM's ask me a bunch about my setup once, but they seemed mainly interested in learning rather than chiding me about it.

Not that it matters, but using those rollup deals does kind of suck. Have you tried it? I switched to just keeping a fullsize snorkel in a pocket. Best of both worlds.

I actually do regularly use a rollup snorkel (deployed while students do surface drills then stowed during dive) and have had no complaints. Might be design specific but i just got a cheap one that popped up on a google search.

 

[TerryC]

Hello All,

.................Side note, after she told him about my O2 tank could only handle a max of 80% O2 and a few more bits, I decided it was best to stay far away from her student.

That instructor had too many Pic Cards and not enough diving.
Your last line is classic by the way.

Reminds of the time when an Instructor told me I wasn't qualified to use Nitrox because I only had my TDI 100% O2 card with me.

 

[Cdncoldwater]

I only use one if it is a requirement of the course and if I might need one I have a roll up one in my pocket.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I would have said she was wrong. Right in front of the student. Then I'd have asked what puppy mill she got her instructor cert from. I'm tired of being polite to people who spew BS.

 

[Rick Brant]

I love having a snorkel handy. I use a roll-up and sometimes use it to snorkel near the dive boat, especially if there is some delay in everyone entering the water. Also, I believe a roll-up could be used as an emergency face mask to give rescue breaths. Put the mouthpiece in the victim's mouth, pinch the nose, and you have an air tube to safely deliver breaths. If you are worried about dead air space, cut most of the length off before using it. Not perfect but better than nothing.

 

[Esprise Me]

I dive in Laguna Beach all the time without a snorkel and have never been hassled. There was a time last year when the lifeguards were really on top of enforcing the "active recreation only" rule, and they still didn't ask if I had a snorkel tucked away somewhere.

I learned early on that I much prefer surface swimming on my back, so even for beach dives, or boat dives where I really screw up on navigating, I don't have much use for a snorkel. Recently I was on a boat that had most of us get off at Point A, with instructions to do a one-way dive to Point B where they would meet us after dropping off the two remaining passengers, an instructor and his student, who needed to be in that blah spot for drills. I did as instructed and surfaced just barely shy of Point B, only to find the boat was farther from me than I was from Point A! Apparently the student had some issue and they went to pick him up. No prob; I can handle a longish swim. At one point the kelp started to get annoyingly thick, so I rolled over and swam facedown on the surface with my reg in my mouth. Again, not a problem; I always have tons of spare gas. And then below me, I saw a mola mola! I dived back down to try to get a picture of it, but even without having to fumble to switch to my reg, it swam away too fast. Oh well. Still not convinced I need a snorkel.

 

[Wibble]

I would have said she was wrong. Right in front of the student. Then I'd have asked what puppy mill she got her instructor cert from. I'm tired of being polite to people who spew BS.

Their problem is they're a Dive God compared with the raw novices they teach, so get caught up in the belief that they actually are A Dive God.

If you dive/play/work with great people, you will be better as you see, mimic and learn great things.
If you dive with novices, they will take all your skills and you'll not improve.

It's the old first grader teacher issue. A very different skill set than teaching graduates.