ScubaFreak:
I can't believe how many people don't wear a snorkel. I would never dive without my snorkel. As far as I'm concerned, it's a part of my scuba equipment and goes with me on every dive.
As for the following post...
Sorry Jim, but to me, your post makes me think that you haven't got some extreme basics tied down. Whether you use a snorkel or not, the reasons you listed IMHO are pants (irish term for rubbish).
In my 5 years of diving, I have never dived without a snorkel, and in all those dives, my snorkel has never caused me a problem. My students will always wear snorkels. I've needed snorkels for when i'm :
Exiting a boat in tough conditions...
Waiting on the surface in tough conditions...
Duck diving...
Conserving air while surface swimming to a dive site
Pants - also English word for crap
Ok, so i have to agree the grabbing it, breathing it and such UW are not good signs, but it does:
1) get in the way of a long hose deployment
2) could get entangled in things
3) serves no purpose UW at all, hence if you are going to carry one, put it in a pocket
As for the points for a snorkel:
Exiting a boat in tough conditions... or even
Waiting on the surface in tough conditions... I havent been in anything over 4-6ft seas (in fact boats mostly dont run in much bigger as its a hazard to re-enter the boat when the ladder can crash down on you from 6ft
Even so, i have yet to have waves break on my head as i bob along with the waves. The only times i have had waves break on me is in 15ft rollers when i was changing a headsail of a yacht during a race - then i went UW and came back up quite a few times, but thats not diving
Duck diving... Just hold your breath as you arent diving on compressed air at that point.
Conserving air while surface swimming to a dive site... For surface swimming i just get on my back and kick away, the only time i have heard otherwise is through the kelp - that is the only time i have ever thought, "oh my snorkel might come in useful here" and even then i might well take it off and put it in a pocket when done. But of course i can just swim on my front head out of the water, or raising to get a breath if i have to swim on my front.
The other times i have used my snorkel have only been times when i am snorkeling around a site, not diving. I leave my snorkel at home.
Then i get further down the page i read:
wcl:
Being a new diver, I don't like to waste my tank on the surface, and sometimes the chop makes the snorkel desirable. I have a good snorkel with a flapper valve at the top end (started snorkeling before diving), so it doesn't get flooded with waves.
For wreck diving (just took that class), I remove the snorkel before penetrating (I clip it to the reel tiedown point), though I will ditch it entirely for such dives if the surface is quiet.
Penetration wreck diving with only 16-50 dives???? Swim thrus are one thing, but tying off a line and attaching your snorkle too it does give me both an amusing visual as well as a bit of concern.