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But even then it is a choice to put yourself in that position.There we part company, but then you've likely never been in a situation where you've had to justify every diving equipment choice to a board of experts, often down to make and model. Doing that for thirty years, or so, changes one's perspective.
But you are correct ... I am not part of a research community that holds themselves to rigorous standards of academic excellence. Neither, I'll bet, is the person who asked the question. Context is everything ... and recreational divers (this IS Basic Scuba Discussions forum ... remember?) do not have to rigorously defend their diving choices.
Damn sakes, man ... we do this for FUN ... not because it's part of a research project.
Describe to me ... using your own standards of "rigorous justification" exactly what that situation would be? I'm hardly an inexperienced diver, Thal. I've exposed myself to a lot of difficult diving conditions ... probably more than the majority of people who scuba dive. And I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around the sort of conditions that would require a typical recreational diver to NEED a snorkel.And it is likely that you'll go another long period of time before you need one. But when you do hit that situation, you will be sorry that you don't have one.
Sure, I can envision lots of situations where someone might PREFER a snorkel ... but that's a personal choice, based on training and experience ... not a situation where not having one will lead to injury or death.
Because I can think of a lot of other things to carry that I find much more useful ... spool and bag, spare mask, wetnotes, spare light(s), etc ... depending on the dive. I subscribe to the philosophy that if you don't need something, don't take it.Hopefully that will not be in a really tight spot, but even if it is in a fairly trivial one, my point is that the cost of carrying one is so, very, very, low ... why not do so.
Ah ... that's a far cry from what you said earlier, which was ...Actually it is not, most of the people that I have worked with who resisted using a snorkel did not, in fact, know how to mount it properly or use it properly. Applying such generalities to all and sundry is never a perfect fit, but it does work in most cases.
I have yet to hear any defense of not diving with a snorkel (except in O/H) that doesn't appear to me to translate into anything but, "I'm really not comfortable with it."
I think you haven't heard what you don't want to hear. Because I've seen several valid reasons used over the course of the many discussions we've had on this topic over the years ... and it ALWAYS boils down to the same thing ... choice. And just because someone doesn't choose to use a particular piece of equipment does not, in any way, imply that it's due to a lack of skill.
Diving without a snorkel doesn't fit the Scipps model ... I understand that. I think you should consider that not everybody needs what a research diver needs ... and while that's a perfectly good way to learn to dive, it's no more universally applicable than DIR (which, by the way, mandates no snorkel).
... Bob (Grateful Diver)