Clarification of Snorkel requirement

[kidspot]

Please no Snorkel vs. no Snorkel arguments... but what are the different agency requirements regarding the wearing/posession of a snorkel during class? I ask because I've been in classes with NAUI, PADI, GUE & IANTD and never been required to wear a snorkel... Actually I've only had one instructor through all of them who wore a snorkel (Nitrox specialty) and he only asked me if I had one with me but didn't require it to be worn.

So what's the official requirement of the different agencies?

Aloha, Tim

 

[Michael Schlink]

PADI requires both the student and instructor to wear snorkels, much to my chagrin! If you have taken a PADI course where either you or the instructor wasn't wearing a snorkel, the instructor was violating standards. Although I doubt seriously anybody gives a hoot.

 

[ae3753]

Required Equipment
During open water scuba training for the Open Water Diver and Scuba Diver courses, student diver equipment requirements are fins, mask, snorkel, compressed air cylinder with valve, BCD with low pressure inflator, backpack (if not integrated into the
BCD), regulator, alternate air source, submersible pressure gauge, where weights are appropriate, a quick release weight system and appropriate exposure protection for the environment. Each diver must have a depth gauge.

As far as I can tell, there is no requirement to wear, just to possess. But this is up to instructor interpretation - most will say you have to wear a snorkel. Of course, if there is a TB stating otherwise, I'd be interested too.

-Don

 

[miesemer]

From PADI's General Standards and Proceedures:

EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS
1. During all open water training dives, each student diver, certified assistant
and instructor must have:
a. fins, mask and snorkel (Although recommended, Ice Diver, Wreck Diver
and Cavern Diver Specialty course students are not required to have
snorkels.)...

So what's your interpretation of "have"?

EDIT - Sorry for the repeat of Don's post. It wasn't there when I started typing.

 

[lakewinni]

From PADI's General Standards and Proceedures:

EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS
1. During all open water training dives, each student diver, certified assistant
and instructor must have:
a. fins, mask and snorkel (Although recommended, Ice Diver, Wreck Diver
and Cavern Diver Specialty course students are not required to have
snorkels.)...

So what's your interpretation of "have"?

EDIT - Sorry for the repeat of Don's post. It wasn't there when I started typing.

Are they serious? Is that for when your sitting in your ice hole you can float there and breath? And as for cavern diving I could see how that could be downright dangerous. What if a light gets tangled in the snorkel? It seems to me it should be banned in those situations and optional at best in OW.

 

[Diversion]

This is direct from WRSTC:

minimum instructional diving system. The equipment required to be worn by students while performing the skills listed in 4.9. This equipment includes, as a minimum: fins, mask, snorkel, cylinder and valve, buoyancy control device with low-pressure inflator, regulator, alternate air source (active scuba/air delivery system), submersible pressure gauge, weight ballast system, and exposure suit (e.g., wetsuit, drysuit, etc. if appropriate). Additional desirable (but not required) equipment includes a timing device, depth gauge, and compass/direction monitor.

US Members are: PADI, PDIC, SSI, SDI, YMCA and IDEA.

Not Just a PADI Thing - I always thought it was...

 

[jeckyll]

I argued about this during my AOW. Especially given that I'm using along hose. A snorkel makes no sense when diving with a long hose IMO. What a stupid rule. Apparently, it would have been OK for me to detatch it once underwater and stow it in a pocket.

I was told that PADI requires it. So I wore it the first day. I must have gotten misplaced during the 2nd day & the night dive, because I don't seem to remember putting it on. Yet I did manage to dive safely, who'd have thunk it?!?

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Snorkels are pretty useful tools to have. They allow you to rest, face down on the surface. In the US Navy School for Underwater Swimmers, snorkels were not allowed (1967). They felt you needed to know how to cope without them. In the USAF, we sometimes carried snorkels in our dive-knife sheath (under the straps), so they would be available after parascuba jumps. I now always dive with a snorkel, by choice and not because someone told me to do it. I have a number of different types, and my two favorite ones are the ScubaPro Shotgun (from many years ago) and the USD Impulse. The other one I really like is a long-ago extinct Dacor flex snorkel (I have two of them, and like them with Scuba). You really don't appreciate snorkels until you have had a stomach cramp, or been on the surface in 15-20 foot waves waiting for a Coast Guard pickup for several hours (happened in the 1970s, and I wish the snorkel was still with me at the time).

SeaRat

 

[String]

BSAC requires neither.

Which is nice as i think theyre a 100% pointless and at times dangerous idea for diving

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

SSI requires snorkles to be worn during any class including instructor training.

On vacation I don't bring one and the one I use is nearly worthless as it's very flexible so as to not bug the heck out of you.