Do you Need a Snorkel

[MXGratefulDiver]

• lets you look at the bottom whilst swimming out the dive site.

• 
  
  Which is useful only if you're diving someplace where you can actually see the bottom whilst swimming out to the dive site.
  
  

  [*] lets you steer around shallow obstructions.

  Which is useful only if you're diving someplace where such obstructions exist and are visible from the surface.
  
  

  [*] helps you to preserve air whilst shore diving and swimming to your submergence point.

  If conditions are so rough that I cannot breathe normally while surface swimming on my back to my submergence point, better options are to either use a larger tank and breathe off my regulator, or decide it's too rough to dive and find something else to do.
  
  

  [*] permits mouth-to-snorkel breathing and transport in an emergency, by far the fastest and most efficient way.

  ... only if it's a J-snorkel and you've been trained how to do it.
  
  

  [*] can be used in place of a mouth-to-mouth barrier in an emergency.

  ... only if it's a J-snorkel and you've been trained how to do it.
  
  

  [*] makes it much easier to swim in heavy chop that would banging against you and over you if you were on your back.

  I've never found heavy chop to be an impediment to breathing while swimming on my back.
  
  

  [*] is essential if you ever need to swim under a helicopter that is hovering over the water.

I think in the extremely unlikely event of this happening, keeping your reg in your mouth would be a much better option.

I only find snorkels useful when ...

- I am freediving

or

- I am teaching a class

In the latter case, it's only useful because the standards of my agency mandate that I have one. I have never found the "safety" argument to be anything but specious ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Hatul]

I've gone back to using a snorkel after an experience swimming out during a shore dive. The swells were large enough it was hard to breathe without something in the mouth and while swimming on back and I used up over 400 psi air swimming out and the reg does not work well above water.

Now I use an Impulse 3, a large bore snorkel for heavy exertion, and while I only need it for shore diving it's a good exercise to get used to it diving all the time.

And it's incorrect to say the snorkel does not work if swells are higher than 6 inches. Here typically the swells are 2-3 feet and the snorkel works just fine for back swimming, because the snorkel only has to compensate for a slight sinking below the water line when the waves pass.

Nevertheless to each his own, but most of my shore diving buddies here do use a snorkel. In the end you have to do what works for you.

Adam

 

[TSandM]

Peter and I got blown off the anchor line in the Channel Islands a couple of weeks ago. Surface conditions weren't pretty -- short period 3 to 4 foot swells and wind-driven chop. We were surface swimming back toward the boat, on our backs, and Peter looked at me and said, "And how, exactly, would a snorkel make this easier?"

If the surface is ugly, the few inches a snorkel increases my reach are unlikely to be that useful -- so the snorkel's going to get water in it whenever a wave or chop goes over the top of it. And worse, I won't know when that is. And I'll already be somewhat compromised by exerting myself with increased dead space. It's been my experience that I'm more comfortable facing into the swell and planning for my head to be immersed than I am breathing from a snorkel and getting choked at unpredictable intervals. But that's me.

 

[rongoodman]

I'll agree with Thal that a snorkel is handy when working on the surface under a helicopter--been there, done that. I'm don't see what that has to do with diving though. Even though I still pack it for trips, I don't need a snorkel.

 

[Hoomi]

Just to register my position, because others have already stated loads of points on both sides of the question:

I'm still a bit of an air-hog (though I'm getting better), so I'm also still keeping my snorkel on the mask strap. When shore diving, I'll use the snorkel while swimming out to where it's deep enough for a decent descent, or if I'm waiting for my dive buddy to do something while we're floating on the surface. Our tanks only hold a finite supply of air, but the snorkel at the surface can deliver an unlimited supply for as long as I'm floating there.

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

Without some elaboration, that is a nonsensical statement. Would you care to elaborate?

Sure, unless a surface swim is planned you do not need a snorkel and even then you can easily swim on your back. All this bull **** about rough seas, what nonsense, again you can easily lie on your back and breath and swim just fine. I've been out in 6-8ft seas and did fine without a snorkel and no reg in my mouth talking to my buddy and swimming to the boat. Besides you shouldn't be coming up with empty tanks anyways, if you are you're not planning your gas correctly or you had an emergency and your tanks are just about empty. Probably the former though.

Sure a surface swim might be easier with a snorkel in the rare event you need to do an unplanned swim, but in my opinion the costs far outweight the benefits of wearing one on all your dives.

 

[AfterDark]

I bought a dacor flex big bore snorkel back in the late seventies. I always use it, its been on 3 different masks on the left side, and it's never in the way. I use it whenever I'm on the surface which may include a 15-20min surface swim to the site. I wouldn't call a dive because I didn't have a snorkel but I'd feel under equipped without one.

 

[fnfalman]

Unless I'm a Coast Guard SAR type or commando type, chances of me having to swim under a hovering chopper is slim to none and slim had just left town.

 

[Thalassamania]

... but in my opinion the costs far outweight the benefits of wearing one on all your dives.

I guess that my real question, what costs? If one properly affixes the snorkel, knows how to use it and actually uses it on occasion, the cost of having your snorkel with you at all times is so infinitesimally small that even the most modest gain in advantage is all to the good, and thus preferable.

 

[Splitlip]

I guess that my real question, what costs? If one properly affixes the snorkel, knows how to use it and actually uses it on occasion, the cost of having your snorkel with you at all times is so infinitesimally small that even the most modest gain in advantage is all to the good, and thus preferable.

Thal:

I got blown of course earlier. My problem with even the big bore Farallon types was that when the mouth piece was turned away to make room for the 2nd stage we ended up with sail in the current. As well as a tube that no longer wraps nicely behind the head which can conflict with a granny or tag line and can create all those other issues I described earlier. The snorkel is not properly affixed when SCUBA is in use.

In any event, that is when I put the Healthways behind my knife strap. Eventually gave it up altogether.