Cold water snorkeling

[simonspear]

Thanks guys

I'd always use a drysuit for diving in those water temperatures, but I was hoping to use the new wetsuit for slightly warmer stuff like the Red Sea in winter. Glad to know that it will have a use in the future

Cheers, Simon

 

[freediver]

What the heck, why don't you dive with swimsuit only and see if you can induce your mammalian reflex?

 

[simonspear]

Hmmmm yeah that sounds like it would be fun..... !!

 

[ZAquaman]

I agree that the Elios custom suit would be your best choice for an exposure suit. You'll want a suit that is warm of course but you'll also need as much flexibility in the suit as possible. This will minimize the fatigue factor. Get the custom fit Elios 5mm suit it should suit your needs. Get a thicker suit if you're sensitive to cold or have a very low body fat %. Remember a thicker suit will sacrifice flexibility. These suits are great for scuba as well. Just a bit tougher to put on and take off than you're average scuba suit.

As for the drysuit, it would be the warmest option but there would be way more drag with this suit. Also you will want to be weighted properly so you can dive down to get different shot angles. This is tough with a drysuit.

You'll be riding in the boat between dives. A lot of in the water out of the water type diving. You'll find that if you take along a good windbreaker/rain coat and wear it over you wetsuit you will stay toasty warm. This is a great tip I've learned while freediving in Alaska.

As for the fins, get a good full foot fin. I like the Mares fin but I wouldn't want to use an open heel fin for extended swim. They just don't work well at all when compared to the efficiency of a full foot fin. I have a pair of Picasso Black Team fins and some Cressi Gara 3000 fins. They're both adequate fins (long freediver style). You may want something more manouverable so stay away from the mono and don't be afraid to try the shorter Mares Avaniti Quatro or whatever.


My two cents from Alaska Sounds like you're off to a great adventure!

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Simon,

I'm going to second ZAquaman's recommendation on a full-foot fin. I took my Mares fin in Monday to the pool, and really enjoyed it's power. I had not used it as the heel has split on one side, but I am able to use it with fin-keepers (that rubber strap thing that slips over your foot, goes around your heel, and under the fin too). Actually, I would recommend that you use them on your trip too, as a safety device to keep a full-foot fin on.

One other thing, investigate all the fins. You can now do this at this site:

http://www.ndsu.edu/instruct/grier/fins.html

Dr. James Grier, as part of the ScubaLab, has developed a protocol for evaluating different swim fins. The results may surprise you. You might also want to write him to ask his opinion too, as he has evaluated many different fins.

Finally, I'm a bit prejudiced on this, but there is also the home-made route. I have developed what I call the "scoop fin," which I think is pretty good too. It has less splash that either the longer fins freedivers use, or the newer blades that have been developed, and I believe it to be a bit better than a split fin too (my informal tests have shown this to be true). You can see this at the Vintage Scuba Supply website:

http://vintagescuba.proboards2.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1133330933

Please note that this thread is five pages long, so to get to the next page, look for the "Page..." pulldown menu at the top and bottom of thread pages.

Good luck,

John

 

[holdingmybreath]

It was from Jim Grier that I borrowed the underwater speedometer to test my freediving fins...as he lives close by here... his report is short on the freediving fins.. unless he's done some updating.. and all his tests were done with scuba equipment. What supprised me the most was that you can not judge speed by the water flowing over your body unless you're a lot better than I... some fins that felt slow, were actually quite fast, and some that felt fast.. were actually slower than others that seemed they were the slower. Granted.. the fins that caused my mask to slip around my neck I knew were fast.. I never did a true "efficiency test" as to how far and how fast I could travel on one breath...

 

[John C. Ratliff]

If you want an "efficiency test" get in a 50 meter pool, and using a diving start off the blocks, swim underwater for time to the pool's end. This is an actual event in finswimming, the 50m apnea swim, and the world record is something just under 15 seconds with a monofin

http://www.leaderfins.com/

John

 

[simonspear]

Hi all

I'm definately going with the Elios suit - I've been talking to a supplier in the UK and the prices are good even after the usual UK price hike (about 50% more than US prices, but hey we're used to it!).

As for the fins I'm still trying to make a decision, but I really appreciate all the advice so far. My main problem seems to be that I have not come to a decision on what fins would actually be best for using at the surface. Everything I've read either relates to diving or freediving but hardly anything at all about the actual speed while snokeling where the fin will almost certainly be coming out of the water. I'll check out the full foot options and see what I think, so thanks again for the help

Cheers, Simon

 

[holdingmybreath]

Simonspear.. you won't be sorry with the elios.. that's for sure.

John, I mean efficiency as to distance traveled vs. oxygen used... In my tests, I figured that speed would translate to efficiency but not the efficiency that I was looking for in freediving where speed is not the factor... but rather what fin will take you the farthest on the least amount of oxygen... Jim was able to sort of calculate this in his tests by how much air he used out of a tank on a series of runs.. but all the factors associated with freediving, i.e. kick style, breath up, rest, hydronation, etc., etc.. wouldn't allow me to reach any kind of of conclusion...except my conclusion had to be just what fin gets me to the bottom and back and does it the best for me...meaning, when I get back to the surface, which fin allows me to go to depth and still arrive comfortably at the top? For me it's the mono first, the sporasub pures second, and the cressi hf2000 a close third... after that, with the fins I have, the sporasub cruises (mares avanti quattro pro's) and several other long fins are very close, and the rest, mostly shorter fins of all sorts, fall far behind. This does however coincide very closely with my underwater speed tests. Now... can we talk what I found out about split fins?... although they all were worse than any other fin I tried.. there was one set I borrowed from Jim Grier that surprised me.. not that they were so fast... but that they were so much faster than any other split fin I tried that day.. I just can't remember what they were.... shoot.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

If you want an "efficiency test" get in a 50 meter pool, and using a diving start off the blocks, swim underwater for time to the pool's end. This is an actual event in finswimming, the 50m apnea swim, and the world record is something just under 15 seconds with a monofin

http://www.leaderfins.com/

John

You have described a speed test. An efficiency test would be to determine which fin(s) would take you the farthest on a single breath of air.

Efficiency and speed are not the same thing. Freedivers and snorkelers want the most efficient fin, I think. And leader fins are excellent.