How many of u use a snorkel ?

[Northeastwrecks]

DiverBuoy once bubbled...
The law in some areas requires it and there is a fine for violations. In some dive environments it is a good tool. And finally being an Instructor I have to set an example.

However, some folks absolutely refuse to see the value in a snorkel and they wouldn't be caught dead with one on the side of their head. If you personally feel this way but live in an area where a snorkel is enforced, then you might benefit from one of the fold-up styles that pack tightly in a BC pocket.

For real? Talk about Big Brother. Anything else they'd like to require, like all-black gear and a BP/Wing. That kind of law would make sense.

Where is that?

I wear a snorkel when assisting with classes because it is required.

Its not that I refuse to see the value in a snorkel, its that there simply is no value to see in my type of diving.

I avoid long surface swims by doing 90% of my diving off of a boat. If I did have to surface swim, I'd do it on my back anyway.

My biggest complaint is that the snorkel interferes with the deployment of the long hose because you must make sure that the hose clears the snorkel when deploying. In addition, the snorkel is an entanglement item and is just plain annoying when it moves around.

I have no problem if someone else wants to use one, but they sure aren't for me.

 

[MASS-Diver]

Now that I dive with a 7' hose, the snorkle had to go.

 

[Amber]

I dive with it I guess because I'm used to having one. Before scuba, I snorkled all the time. I'm seriously beginning to think about getting a fold up one to keep in a pocket. It'll be there if I ever need it. As of yet though....I haven't needed it.

 

[ABQdiver]

DiverBuoy once bubbled...
..so the only time I notice it and actually wish I didn't have it on is riding a DPV at full throttle - when the little bugger whips violently back and forth against the side of my head.

Would this be a situation for a bungee? :bonk: LOL

sorry I couldn't resist...

 

[DiverBuoy]

ABQdiver once bubbled...
Would this be a situation for a bungee?

Either that or a therapy session.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

I feel that a snorkel is pretty essential for diving, whether the diver is snorkeling or scuba diving. The only time I did not use a snorkel was going through the US Navy School for Underwater Swimmers in 1967. There, they did not allow snorkels. They wanted to be sure we could survive in the water without one. Also, for "sneaky Pete" stuff, a snorkel is loud, and can be readily seen even at night when it's black if you are night-adapted for vision. But for all my other diving, I always carry a snorkel. I may carry it on my knife if there is a problem (such as we did when parascuba jumping), but I want it available.

Someone above mentioned a perceived CO2 problem. My feeling is that this really is not much of a problem. I have chopped off the last couple of inches on some snorkels to shorten them, and therefore reduce this "dead air space," but it is not really comparable with the 3 liters most people have of vital capacity for their lungs. If this were a real problem, whales would have the same problem. If you look at the volume, it is pi times the radium squared times the height of the column. If the snorkel is 1 inch diameter, r is 0.5 inches. This formula gives a volume of about 14 cubic inches.

The vital capacity of a diver's lungs are about 3 liters. The tidal volume (amount normally breathed) is only about 20% of that though, which is 0.6 liters. In cubic inches, that is 183 and 36, respectively. Therefore, if someone is breathing through a snorkel normally (tidal volume, or 36 cubic inches), then the addition of 14 cubic inches of dead air space is significant. But, if a person is breathing deeply to use the total vital capacity, then the addition of 14 cubic inches to a total of 183 cubic inches is not too significant. That 14 cubic inches has CO2 at a level of, say 6% of the volume.

I'm not going to work out the math right now (I need to put it together myself, and get the formulas right if I do. But even the above analysis shows that you cannot breath "normally" on a snorkel. It requires deep breathing, which free divers learn as the learn the sport. Sport scuba divers may not though, and so it does take practice.

One other thing--there is a tremendous variation in different snorkels. The two that I really like probably aren't available now (I got them in the 1980's). They are the Scubapro Shotgun and the US Divers Impulse. I tested all the available snorkels before getting the Impulse before we took a vacation to Hawaii then. These snorkels have two characteristics I like:

--low breathing resistance.
--they are pretty "dry" snorkels; water down that tube doesn't get to your throat, but is "handled" by the snorkel.

I tried some cheap imitations recently, and they have very high breathing resistance.

SeaRat

 

[DiverBuoy]

John C. Ratliff, you and I have discussed evolutionary differences between scuba past and present before.

Important aspects of a snorkel include:

• low breathing resistance
• no ribs or perforations internally
• a large aperture tube
• low volume shorter rather than longer
• trap valve so a purge breath doesn't have to travel the length of the snorkel to clear
• some method of redirecting water which enters through the top of the snorkel

On this criteria the majority of modern snorkels would pass, whereas most snorkels made even 15 years ago might stumble.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Diverbuoy lists some very good points above. Concerning where to use the snorkel, I've used mine on almost every dive I make. I normally snorkel on the surface to where I want to submerge, and snorkel back to either the boat or exit point. It conserves air, and lets me see ahead of myself. Without a snorkel, the other option is swimming on your back, but that's not really a good one as it is so easy to loose direction and swim away from where you want to go without references.

There is one other thing, and that is that in chop or large waves the new snorkels will prove to be lifesavers in an emergency. If a diver, or a fisherman in a survival suit, is to survive on the surface in really bad weather, then breathing with the new snorkels is a very good way to go. It has been shown that some of the deaths after a ship sinks have been caused, not by hypothermia (because many now use survival suits), but by drowning. The new snorkels, that have the characteristics Diverbuoy pointed out above, along with a dive mask, would virtually eliminate the potential for drowning in this situation (being sure to point the top of the snorkel up, of course, which is not readily apparent when in a survival suit).

SeaRat

 

[Spectre]

I had a snorkel, I lost it with my mask one day. I got a fold up snorkel, and kept it in my BC pocket. It never came out. I got rid of my BC, and threw the snorkel in my bag.

I've pulled it out twice since then. Both times 'cause I was... you guessed it. Snorkeling.

I might actually go buy a new one, since the fold up one is a little floppy when trying to use it, but that's for... yep, right again... snorkelling. I've found I'm more comfortable on my back then with a snorkel. I've also found that I have a tendancy to try to breathe underwater when I have something in my mouth [go figure]. Without a snorkel, I don't forget that there isn't air attached to the other end when I'm under a wave

 

[Paco]

I don't use one. For surface swims, I do so on my back.

FYI. My vote just made the total 16 to 16.