Freediving With or Without Snorkel

[Orihimef]

I've gone free diving a couple times but I never had any gear, like fins or a snorkel. I haven't gone too deep yet, I think 15 feet is the deepest I've gone. I was wondering if there were any advantages to using a snorkel or not. When I come up for air; breathing right away is important so I always thought having a snorkel would delay that because you have to get the water out first. What do you guys prefer?

 

[Celt]

Spear fishing was my reason for snorkelling, now I bring my camera. Gone soft in my old age. Snorkelling in 30-40 feet and no hyperventilation I like to leave the snorkel in my mouth as it stays where I want it, running along my left ear under the strap. To insure I don’t feel any kind of lightheadedness I breathe normally on the surface till relaxed after every dive and my surface time is always much longer than my dive times. Even if I don’t get the shot (camera now) I never rush to dive to soon after a previous dive. Relax take a normal breath, dive, don’t dive to the limit every time, then surface and take the time to recover completely. All the best and enjoy it’s a hobby.

 

[Celt]

You haven’t said whether you use a suit or not. But in the case of using a suit, weighting is critical, you must be positively buoyant on the surface at all times including with no breath, and carrying enough weight that the weight of your legs out of the water will sink you, the dive is made in a jackknife head first, on the assent the last few feet to the surface should be positive.

 

[Jersey1971]

I don't see any positive to keeping snorkel in mouth. As soon as you surface, you need to take deep breaths, so you're going to spit it out at the surface anyway. While underwater, if you bump something, it's going to dislodge your mask. And if you black out with snorkel in mouth, it's harder for your buddy to keep your mouth closed with a chin lift and if no buddy, more likely you'll inhale water and die.

BTW, in freediving, you clip your snorkel at the back of your head, not at the side like you do in snorkeling.

As for buddy-free diving, what will you do if you get entangled on the bottom? A kid died in Florida a few months ago after getting entangled. You can cut yourself free, but having an unpanicked buddy at the surface who hasn't already been without air for 2 minutes ready do dive down will greatly increase chance of success.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I don't see any positive to keeping snorkel in mouth. As soon as you surface, you need to take deep breaths, so you're going to spit it out at the surface anyway. While underwater, if you bump something, it's going to dislodge your mask. And if you black out with snorkel in mouth, it's harder for your buddy to keep your mouth closed with a chin lift and if no buddy, more likely you'll inhale water and die.

BTW, in freediving, you clip your snorkel at the back of your head, not at the side like you do in snorkeling.

As for buddy-free diving, what will you do if you get entangled on the bottom? A kid died in Florida a few months ago after getting entangled. You can cut yourself free, but having an unpanicked buddy at the surface who hasn't already been without air for 2 minutes ready do dive down will greatly increase chance of success.

Like I said above, I have never experienced the snorkel displacing my mask. And, I have been under helicopters in Air Force Rescue with a snorkel and free diving equipment.

Entangled...that's what a dive knife is for. Where I dive and snorkel, fishing line is a constant hazard. I have had to cut myself out of fishing line a lot of times while scuba diving, but not while snorkeling. However, while in the U.S. Air Force, I cut two dead Korean pilots, who had inadvertently flown their T-33 into a mirror-smooth Yellow Sea (defective altimeter) out of their parachute lines which were deployed and tangled around them in the water. They had been ejected through their canopy, and I recovered their bodies. By the way, I had a very sharp Sportsways dive knife on a leg sheath for this mission. Here is my dive knife collection, and the knife without a sheath is the same type of blade that I used in 1969 to free those Korean pilot's bodies from their parachute lines. I had to cut through the risers too, which are 2 inch nylon risers for the parachute. The Wenoka dive knife is my current knife, which goes on my leg whenever I'm in the water.

IMG_8687 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
I am very, very particular about the knives I've owned. They must be very good quality, stainless steel that will keep an edge. I also like having a line cutter and a serrated edge on my dive knife. The serrated edge is good for cutting very large ropes and "stuff" (kelp, etc.) and the line cutter is for fishing line.

IMG_8688 by John Ratliff, on Flickr

SeaRat

 

[Waterwulf]

So freediving (lower case) is the same as snorkeling?

 

[Cthippo]

So freediving (lower case) is the same as snorkeling?

I think there is a lot of overlap in the recreational world. Mosr people I know who snorkwl also like to dive down and look at things.

 

[Celt]

So freediving (lower case) is the same as snorkeling?

My definition of free diving is any breath hold dive. And the purpose of the dive would determine how it’s done. Fishing, photography, sightseeing, and of course where the sole purpose is to go deep. Extremely deep free diving is a totally different ball game. I’m actually reading Claire Walsh,s book Under Water. (Please forgive the plug)

 

[jadairiii]

Understand, when you ask a question like this on SB you will get answers from divers that are professional deep free divers, spear fisherman that dive to 100' to people that like to flop around in 6 feet of water.

Based on your question and your specific needs, there is no advantage or disadvantage to keeping the snorkel in your mouth when enjoying a nice shallow reef.

If you decide to venture deeper and longer on a breath hold, then take a free diving class and follow what your instructor tells you based on the class you are taking.

My experience? I'm not a deep free diver looking for personal bests, nor do I deep spear fish while free diving. I've limited all of my free diving above 60 feet, and since I've been snorkeling/free diving for, about 50 some years, I'm very comfortable in my limits. for the most part I keep the snorkel in my mouth, like John says, so I can surface and continue looking down. The slightest puff of air (dont empty your lungs) into the snorkel just below the surface will give you a completely empty snorkel on the surface. If you are really pushing your limits, spit it out get your head above water. Hope this helps,

 

[Waterwulf]

I'll just continue to call what i do "Snorkeling". I spend most of the time on the surface breathing thru my snorkel and looking down into the depths. If I see something that I want to take a closer look at, I'll dive down and do that. On surfacing, I just stick my snorkel out of the water and give a little pfffttt to clear the water out of the purge valve on my snorkel.

I've used a purge valve snorkel since about 1980 but I did just get a new one, a so called "Dry Snorkel". Do they work as advertised?

 

[Cthippo]

I'll just continue to call what i do "Snorkeling". I spend most of the time on the surface breathing thru my snorkel and looking down into the depths. If I see something that I want to take a closer look at, I'll dive down and do that. On surfacing, I just stick my snorkel out of the water and give a little pfffttt to clear the water out of the purge valve on my snorkel.

I've used a purge valve snorkel since about 1980 but I did just get a new one, a so called "Dry Snorkel". Do they work as advertised?

I don't know what kind you got, but mine works pretty well. It sometimes closes while I am on the surface, but when I free dive and come up it is basically dry.

Not sure I would buy another one versus a basic bent tube