Hmmm... After all these years and this topic still swims. Check out this ANTIQUE THREAD and poll. Over 50% seldom or never. Pretty much same reasons today.
---Bob
---Bob
Do you dive with or without your snorkel attached and why?
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EricJ
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My Sherwood Avid has a special pouch for a folding snorkel.
On the very rare cases when I felt I needed my snorkel, I found it very convenient to take out and attach.
On the very rare cases when I felt I needed my snorkel, I found it very convenient to take out and attach.
Charlie99
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A question for both you Kevink, and also the others that have posted that they add a snorkel to their gear in sloppy weather ----- have you ever actually tried using a snorkel on the surface in whitecaps or breaking waves?kevink:
I've been diving out of Marathon on a day with 1 and only 1 boat went, and we had to agree that he got his charter fee whether or not we got in the water. 20 gusting to 25kts and 6-8' seas. We planned and executed our dive so that we had a lot of air left for using our regs on the surface, but out of curiosity I tried a couple different methods of breathing on the surface.
Personally, I found no snorkel and timing my breathing while looking downwind worked better than a snorkel. Holding a hand as a splash/spray guard over my mouth helped a lot. The only time a snorkel worked better was if I wanted to continuously look upwind into heavy spray.
Fooling around in breaking surf while body surfing in Maui has also made me question the value of snorkels in sloppy weather.
The only time I take a snorkel on a dive is when I need to do facedown swimming through awash coral heads or through pilings and piers. Very rare.
Charlie
BigboyDan
Guest
Charlie99:
Snorkels are invaluble when hauling a distressed diver on the surface.
(Ooops, sorry, I forgot, most SB posters are solos, even when buddied. Rescue? Who needs those skills?)
BigboyDan:
Who needs Rescue skills? I do.....or I wanted to have them rather...so I took the course.
I found that rolling on my back like a raft and towing the diver without a snorkel to be most efficient. When I'm busting my tail to haul an injured diver out of the water the last thing I want to do is breathe through a small pipe. In fact I was taught that if I was on a boat in between dives don't waste time gearing up, a wetsuit and fins is fine to effect a rescue.
And how can you say most SB posters are solos...even when buddied? How do you know anything really about divers posting on the net?
BigboyDan:
What???
Lets see the if I understand this correctly. You have a panicked diver or do you have tired diver with leg cramps? Or are you talking about someone who is need of CPR in the water?
Panicked diver: The only time I'm taking my reg out of my mouth is after I've made them positively buoyant and they are on the surface. Then I swim about 10' away and start talking them down. Otherwise there is no way I'm going to stop breathing off my reg.
Tired Diver: My preference is to tow them by their valve while both of us are on the surface floating face up. This way I can communicate with them and make sure they are doing o.k.. If I have to resort to doing the push where their fins are on my shoulders I'll use back gas. I don't like this method in rough water since I can offer them a bit of extra floation and wave breaking protection if they need it.
CPR: The diver is face up on the surface. One hand is supporting his head, the other hand is closing off his nose and then I'm doing mouth to mouth. Don't know where a snorkel applies here. If I've got another person for surface support then they are doing the towing. I sure as hell don't want them face down breathing a snorkel and not paying attention to the situation.
BigboyDan:
I don't know where you came up with that deduction Sherlock.
So Dan when are you coming out to dive with UP, Gratefuldiver and myself? Were you just teasing us?
teknitroxdiver
Contributor
That's a bold 195th post.BigboyDan:
I'm not sure what you define 'distressed' as.
If you've got a panicking diver, the rule is keep your reg in your mouth so you can submerge under the diver if their panicking starts to put you in danger.
If you're on the boat and they come to the surface freaking out, throw a line and stay out of their way if possible.
If you're towing/pushing a diver, you're usually on your back so you can monitor them
Most SBers are solo divers? :***: If you'll actually do some research to back up that assertation, you'll find that solo/non-solo discussions are quite heated around here.
Charlie99:
I have done a fair amount of work in choppy water. I'll take my snorkel over your timed hand any day. May not be the dryest thing in the world, but it beats the hell out of constantly paying attention to each and every wave. How long do you expect to keep that up? One minute? Five minutes? More? I do not want to expend 100% of my surface attention on my airway.
BigboyDan
Guest
Man, a lot of people talking the talk... it's a FREAKIN' SNORKEL!
Dudes. I've done this, twice, for real. Once I had a diver, Bret, who ditched his rig (weight integrated) because he was "too tired to go on" (second dive), he was not my buddy, I was his DM. Up he went from about 40 feet, luckily he was wearing a Henderson Gold Farmer and jacket, so he floated easily when I got to him at the surface. No stop at 15 feet, of course, but we were only in water for 15 minutes and deepest at 60' for a just a few minutes. Four-foot waves, but they were going fast towards shore, ten second swells. (The other divers were still below, and were profiled to make it back to shore in 30 minutes). My buddy, the other DM, had to stay below (he saw me rise), everybody was spread out. I could not take Bret back under the water, and we had 600' feet back to the shore. Shiiiiizuwiz! I gave him my 2nd and we started to suck that single AL80 down to the bottom of the red from 2000psi. Took twelve minutes. We made 300 feet. I let him float for twenty-five seconds using all but the last of our air while I ditched my rig/tank and weightbelt. ARGH! He's bobbing, not treading. I turn him on his back, he lets me, and I haul him in. For the other 300' those waves hit us right in our faces. It's... very... hard ... to... do..., timing... swells. He had his snorkel in his mouth, pointed straight up, and I had mine in my mouth. Both masks on. I timed my breathing to suck air, but he was having difficulty with it. That next 300' took about eight minutes...but I don't KNOW if I could have dragged him all the way without my training WITH the mask and snorkel, as I described in an earlier post in this thread. I was exhausted at 150' from shore. We walked in from around 30' or so.
Anyway.
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"Solo/non-solo", I'm joking, sorry.
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(I'll be in Seattle, attending a NOAA conference in mid-April. Gotta' buy a new drysuit... right?)
Dudes. I've done this, twice, for real. Once I had a diver, Bret, who ditched his rig (weight integrated) because he was "too tired to go on" (second dive), he was not my buddy, I was his DM. Up he went from about 40 feet, luckily he was wearing a Henderson Gold Farmer and jacket, so he floated easily when I got to him at the surface. No stop at 15 feet, of course, but we were only in water for 15 minutes and deepest at 60' for a just a few minutes. Four-foot waves, but they were going fast towards shore, ten second swells. (The other divers were still below, and were profiled to make it back to shore in 30 minutes). My buddy, the other DM, had to stay below (he saw me rise), everybody was spread out. I could not take Bret back under the water, and we had 600' feet back to the shore. Shiiiiizuwiz! I gave him my 2nd and we started to suck that single AL80 down to the bottom of the red from 2000psi. Took twelve minutes. We made 300 feet. I let him float for twenty-five seconds using all but the last of our air while I ditched my rig/tank and weightbelt. ARGH! He's bobbing, not treading. I turn him on his back, he lets me, and I haul him in. For the other 300' those waves hit us right in our faces. It's... very... hard ... to... do..., timing... swells. He had his snorkel in his mouth, pointed straight up, and I had mine in my mouth. Both masks on. I timed my breathing to suck air, but he was having difficulty with it. That next 300' took about eight minutes...but I don't KNOW if I could have dragged him all the way without my training WITH the mask and snorkel, as I described in an earlier post in this thread. I was exhausted at 150' from shore. We walked in from around 30' or so.
Anyway.
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"Solo/non-solo", I'm joking, sorry.
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(I'll be in Seattle, attending a NOAA conference in mid-April. Gotta' buy a new drysuit... right?)
MASS-Diver
Contributor
BigboyDan:
What an odd post. Among the many things that make don't make sense, why did you ditch your rig (a bc and empty al 80)? And are you saying this other ditched all his gear under water? I don't follow. The reason for having a snorkle is incase you lost all your gear and have to swim on the surface. Most people would just inflate their wing and swim on their back.
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