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?

 

[Bob DBF]

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

Kinda, a lot of folks I know that go snorkeling never get the top of the snorkel wet, and believe that's how it is meant to be done. That's why I try to make a distinction between the two.

Like Cthippo said, I think there is a lot of overlap in the recreational world. And terms change meaning over time, when I grew up, snorkeling, also known then as freediving, implied surface dives and swimming underwater, a while back I went on a snorkeling tour with a friend, and I was the only one that actually went underwater.

The freediving term has changed since the early 60's when it could be applied to swimming underwater, snorkeling, scuba, including rebreathers (which first used the scuba acronym). Freediving meant any diving without using surface supplied air. Skin diving meant any diving without use of diving dress used with surface supplied air.

The usage of these words has changed over my lifetime, while I continue to pursue my pastime as always, and some wonder why I seem odd.

 

[Celt]

Kinda, a lot of folks I know that go snorkeling never get the top of the snorkel wet, and believe that's how it is meant to be done. That's why I try to make a distinction between the two.

Like Cthippo said, I think there is a lot of overlap in the recreational world. And terms change meaning over time, when I grew up, snorkeling, also known then as freediving, implied surface dives and swimming underwater, a while back I went on a snorkeling tour with a friend, and I was the only one that actually underwater.

The freediving term has changed since the early 60's when it could be applied to swimming underwater, snorkeling, scuba, including rebreathers (which first used the scuba acronym). Freediving meant any diving without using surface supplied air. Skin diving meant any diving without use of diving dress used with surface supplied air.

The usage of these words has changed over my lifetime, while I continue to pursue my pastime as always, and some wonder why I seem odd.

Things sure have changed, and fast. Two of my granddaughters arrived at the shore with these this summer, I really didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing and went snorkelling with them. Small size.

Adult Dive Mask Easybreath 900 - Blue

The Adult’s Easybreath dive Mask 900 allows you to equalise your ears and therefore be able to explore a few metres underwater.

www.decathlon.ie

 

[johndiver999]

Those masks are unbelievably bad, try one and see.

 

[Celt]

Those masks are unbelievably bad, try one and see.

Thanks John, I must ask around about them. I have to confess I know nothing about them. I keep the children close and shallow on the surface. I did hear some were dodgy. They won’t be used till next summer now so I’ll definitely check it out.

 

[Trilobite]

As for getting training and diving with a buddy at 15 feet, what the hell for? This is normal swimming I have been doung since I was 5 years old. Not every activity needs formal training or supervision.

I wanted to highlight this point to see if everyone was in agreement. I have had some formal training, but it didn't address whether there is a significant risk of blackout diving to around 15 feet and staying under for a short time, e.g. 30 seconds?

 

[Trilobite]

Thanks John, I must ask around about them. I have to confess I know nothing about them. I keep the children close and shallow on the surface. I did hear some were dodgy. They won’t be used till next summer now so I’ll definitely check it out.

Here is a thorough overview:
Full Face Snorkel Mask Reviews – The Safest Brands and Pros and Cons

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I wanted to highlight this point to see if everyone was in agreement. I have had some formal training, but it didn't address whether there is a significant risk of blackout diving to around 15 feet and staying under for a short time, e.g. 30 seconds?

Snorkeling and diving down for, say 30 seconds, does not present a shallow water blackout (SWB) hazard. What does is trying to extend your time underwater, breath-holding, by hyperventilating. As long as you are not hyperventilating (taking multiple deep breaths), which blows off the CO2 in your system, that CO2 will tell you when you need to come up. I was snorkeling as a kid for an extended time before getting any training in it. I did experience SWB in a pool, but that was in swim team practice trying to break my buddy’s underwater swimming “record.” As long as someone isn’t trying to over-stay underwater, they should be fine.

SeaRat

 

[Waterwulf]

While snorkeling, I spend most of my time on the surface looking down but also spend time underwater looking around too. I think the various terms being used today, are a generational thing! I call what I do Snorkeling but others call the same thing freediving while Freediving (with a cap) is something totally different! Wow! When I was a kid on the Florida coast in the 60's, we called in Skindiving. There were only three kinds back then: Skindivers, SCUBA divers and Helmet Divers like the sponge divers up in Tarpon Springs. Ahh the simpler times.

 

[Bazzathemammoth]

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?

Those masks are unbelievably bad, try one and see.

Simple is good. I just did a family reunion/holiday at Maui and ended up taking heaps of the family snorkeling. My immediate family all had traditional snorkels and found them easy to use (I'm the only diver in our family).

Several members of the extended family had the full face masks provided with their accommodation. No one used one of these masks for more than a few minutes before changing to a traditional mask/snorkel.

One had a "dry" snorkel and found that it wouldn't let him breath quickly as it auto closed the snorkel. This was the same as my wife's experience a few years ago. He ditched that straight away as well.

I reckon a lot of these products are creating solutions for issues that don't exist so they can sell more gear to the ignorant.

I'd give any of those "fancy" products to someone I didn't like, but anyone else would get a plain, standard mask and snorkel. Think of the children!

 

[David Wilson]

I've snorkelled for half a century, using a separate breathing tube since I began in the early 1960s. When I started snorkelling, "free diving" was plongée libre, a term first deployed by Francophones and meaning any kind of diving other than "hard-hat" standard diving with long hoses and surface air pumps. "Free diving" back then could be performed with or without self-contained breathing apparatus. The term "free diver" has indeed since been "borrowed" by breathhold divers for their own exclusive purposes with "snorkel diving" and "snorkelling" being relegated to aquatic activity with a breathing tube on the surface with occasional shallow dives.

There have been attempts over recent decades to shake the dust off the antiquated term "skin diving" and to use it to denote breathhold diving to somewhat deeper depths, leaving "freediving" itself to describe the most challenging and competitive aspects of deep diving on a single breath. Personally, I have no interest in, or experience of, either scuba diving or the more extreme forms of breathhold diving, so I happily designated myself as a snorkeller over the years, particularly as I have spent most of my time in lakes and seas on the surface, looking down.

I see that the subject of modern snorkel-masks has arisen. A while ago, out of curiosity, I bought a modern full-face snorkel-mask, but I have never tried one out in the water and do not have any plans to do so. I have researched the history of snorkel-masks, however, amassing in the process a modest collection of mid-twentieth-century models that can be viewed at My snorkel-mask collection.

Contrary to popular opinion, the first snorkel-masks were expensive items designed for affluent underwater hunters who spent long periods face down on the surface stalking prey and who found that the constant presence of a snorkel mouthpiece in the mouth led at least to mild oral discomfort or more worryingly to gagging or bleeding gums. It is a little known fact that many or even most first-generation snorkel-masks enclosed just the eyes and the nose, not only leaving the mouth uncovered but also permitting nose-breathing, which today's medical professionals tend to call an altogether healthier option than mouth-breathing.

Modern half-face snorkel-masks leaving the mouth uncovered and enabling users to nose-breathe only are currently available as an alternative to full-face snorkel-masks, e.g. the model below sold on Amazon:

I am neither endorsing nor disrecommending the use of such equipment. When I snorkelled in the North Sea during the first two decades of the new millennium I wore a traditional late-1950s style drysuit, a traditional oval rubber-skirted mask, a traditional J-shaped snorkel and a pair of traditional all-rubber full-foot fins. This configuration worked fine when I was a youngster and the same gear also works fine now. As with many of life's accessories, if it ain't broke, why fix it?