Do you dive with or without your snorkel attached and why?

[H2Andy]

Among the many things that make don't make sense, why did you ditch your rig (a bc and empty al 80)?

the standard training I did (PADI Rescue) calls for the rescuer to remove all
his/her equipment so as to arrive at the shore ready to assist the victim onto land.

the thinking (i think) is that if you are encumbered by your BC and tank, you
won't be able to assist the victim out of the water as easily.

in this case, i think i would have waited until i was a lot closer to shore before
ditching my BC and tank (if at all). it's just a lot easier to swim on your back with that floaty tank under you.

i think this is a case of procedure followed for its own sake and not in order to
deal with the current situation and its complexities.

And are you saying this other ditched all his gear under water? I don't follow.

no, i think the guy just ditched weights. he was still wearing his jacket BC at the
surface, thanks to which he could still float.

 

[BigboyDan]

Well, you had to be there. And I didn't tell it perfectly. When you're out of tank air and at the surface, you're a swimmer. We're trained to drop the rig. I had a full 7mm on and floated like a bouy. And, YES, I dropped his rig at the surface when I dropped mine; he did drop his weights below at 40'. (Sorry.) He said later that he couldn't breathe, tight chest, and that he was going up because of it; at the surface his chest "clamped up". I wasn't so worried (?!) about hauling him in, but it was almost too much distance in those waves. (I thought the whole time that he was having a heart attack, or something serious, from the look on his face.) It only took one dive to find our dropped rigs the next day, my buddy was/is a good navigator.

 

[Stirling]

I think KevinK is right. Charlie99, you said: "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."

That works fine, up to a point. But you noticed that the snorkel worked better if you wanted to look upwind into heavy spray. When the wind is blowing *really* hard, you can drown even if you keep your head above water. If you don't have a snorkel, you *have* to turn your head away from the wind, and cup a hand over your mouth to avoid swallowing water. If you have a snorkel, you can face into the wind and breathe through the snorkel in the lee of your head. Timing waves and troughs works for a while (you can try to breathe in the troughs), but it can wear you out pretty quickly. And it's even harder to do if you are forced to turn your face away from the wind.

A snorkel conserves energy breathing on the surface, and has some advantages over an open mouth. When everything is copacetic and conserving energy doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. When it does matter, a snorkel is a good thing to have.

 

[String]

Snorkel has no effect at all on towing a diver or providing AV to a diver. There are plenty of efficient techniques for towing someone both with and without kit.

As for breathing on the surface, use reg, use mouth. Snorkel is the worst of both worlds, its open to being flooded, wet breathing, interfering with things like AV and so on. Yet again there is nothing in the 7 pages here that gives a snorkel any use at all as safety equipment.

 

[Charlie99]

Charlie99, you said: "<snip> The only time a snorkel worked better was if I wanted to continuously look upwind into heavy spray."

If you have a snorkel, you can face into the wind and breathe through the snorkel in the lee of your head. Timing waves and troughs works for a while (you can try to breathe in the troughs), but it can wear you out pretty quickly. And it's even harder to do if you are forced to turn your face away from the wind.

Are people on the board with REAL experience of what works best on the surface in bad weather (other than the obvious one of using your tank)?

I mentioned the one advantage a snorkel had for me in marginal weather. Overall, it was a pain. Even though it was an Imulse 2 "dry snorkel".

Using the hand over your mouth is also for mechanical protection. When looking upwind into high speed spray it doesn't take long for unprotected areas to get pretty beat up (I'm asssuming a mask. On this crazy day we put masks on well before getting to the dive site because the spray).

Yesterday I dove with a guy that back in Feb '03 went for a 5 hour drift with 7 other divers in 30-40 knot winds ("Maui Diamond II incident"). He didn't wear a snorkel yesterday. Next time I'm out with him, I'll ask about his experience on the utility of snorkels in sloppy weather.

 

[Web Monkey]

I carry a dry snorkel, and found that it works great when heavy waves are slopping over your head, and you're hanging out in the water wondering why the boat didn't follow you on a drift dive.

My buddy had a regular snorkel (plain bent tube), and was having a difficult time, since it needed almost constant clearing.

The only down side is that I hate having it hang on my mask, and I can't seem to find a good place to stow it.

Terry

Are people on the board with REAL experience of what works best on the surface in bad weather (other than the obvious one of using your tank)?

 

[String]

Are people on the board with REAL experience of what works best on the surface in bad weather (other than the obvious one of using your tank)?

Yes.

Its not uncommon here to have 2-3m or higher seas and as diving never involves returning to the anchor line the result is you quite often spend an amount of time waiting in the water for the boat to arrive, depending on other divers or possible problems that could be quite a long time.
Breathing for the tank works but isnt normally needed, properly weighted, inflated BC and/or drysuit has kept everyone more than buoyancy enough to breath unaided. If its longer duration, floating on your back seems to work fairly well too. We had one person (padi trained abroad) who tried a snorkel a few times. He axed the idea as not working and not needed and now like everyone else doesnt even bother carrying one as far as the boat.

 

[OE2X]

(I'll be in Seattle, attending a NOAA conference in mid-April. Gotta' buy a new drysuit... right?)

Unless you like diving in 50 F. water in shorts.

Let us know when your coming. We'll show you the sites.

 

[Azza]

Are people on the board with REAL experience of what works best on the surface in bad weather (other than the obvious one of using your tank)?.

Yep. We always have a wait of between 30 seconds and 5 minutes before we get picked up by our boat, and frequently have lots of swell and chop on the surface.
I ONLY use a snorkel with students, because the standards say i have to, and not at any other time.
I breathe my reg, and for some reason if i was unable to, (not that i can think of a reason,IMHO the OOA reason is setting yourself up for failure from the start) i would turn my head side on to the chop and waves. This used to work fine when i was surfing.
I seriously cannot think of a single REAL reason to wear a snorkel.

Just my 02c

 

[kevink]

Are people on the board with REAL experience of what works best on the surface in bad weather (other than the obvious one of using your tank)?

Charlie, my damn feelings are hurt now. I am not part of the Snorkel Advocacy group, but I don't think they need to be banned from diving altogether. I have never been on a 'float' for 5+ hours like you dive buddy. Even if I was I don't know if that would scare me enough to carry a snorkel in nice weather every damn dive.

Maybe this post should be moved over to the PSD forum to have those people comment on the utility of a snorkel is sloppy crap.

You ever wonder by Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers drop 30' from a bird with one of these stupid things attached to them. These people are men among men, look at the training they go through - -

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/USCG_Rescue_Swimmer_History.html

I also don't need to disparage or question your experience to make my point. People have opinions, I tend to disagree with yours.