- Messages
- 93,452
- Reaction score
- 91,796
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
- 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.
[*] helps you to preserve air whilst shore diving and swimming to your submergence point.
[*] permits mouth-to-snorkel breathing and transport in an emergency, by far the fastest and most efficient way.
[*] can be used in place of a mouth-to-mouth barrier in an emergency.
[*] makes it much easier to swim in heavy chop that would banging against you and over you if you were on your back.
[*] is essential if you ever need to swim under a helicopter that is hovering over the water.
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)