How many of u use a snorkel ?

[detroit diver]

I haven't used one since OW (didn't use it much there either!). I was forced to carry one during a dive in the Keys last year. They wouldn't let me off the boat without it! I didn't even have one, so I borrowed one from the DM and stuffed it up my shorty wetsuit pant leg. I won't pass on the comments I got from that.....

My buddy was diving with someone and they were practicing OOA drills. The other guy had an AIR2 or something like that. When my buddy gave the OOA signal, the other guys put the snorkel in his mouth instead of the AIR2 contraption. It got corrected before he sucked in the quarry....

 

[lanun]

i have a snorkel. i use it for snorkeling.

i no longer use it for diving because
a) i do surface swim on my back
b) if the surface is choppy, i bite my 2nd stage without breathing from it

i bailed from using snorkel when diving because
a) it became a distraction underwater
i) something is knocking me on the head
ii) ooops this is not my inflator hose
iii) i ducked but my dive buddy's fin still caught me in the snorkel and yanked my mask half off
- these are actual events

b) the additional drag (which entised me to get the nifty caver/DIR-like streamlined set-up).

have read about the easy to attach/detach snorkel and the foldable snorkel but not both - would consider usig a snorkel for longer surface swims but them most dives now are from boats. and i kinda like the lazy 'on-my-back' surface swim.

hope this helps.

 

[Big-t-2538]

Snorkels are for snorkelin....

Tanks are for divin...

I have a snorkel...I use it for snorkelin....it doesn't dive

 

[o2scuba]

I use my snorkel for most recreational and all training dives. Like someone else said, it's required equipment in training. Also to set a good example for students and especially new divers.

Ive used the fold-up type, just to test it out. I think that these are a good option for those who want to have one just in case. Especially for wreck and cavern divers as a regular snorkel is a point of potential entanglement. They are relatively inexpensive, but not really designed for regular use.

I enjoy the ease of my dry-snorkel, but I use that just for skin diving. The dry snorkels tend to flop around more as they have more wieght at the top. For Diving I use a basic or smi-dry snorkel as they are not as heavy.

They can be very uncomfortable at times (like in a strong current or on a dpv), especially with the rubber type retainers. I find that a plastic clip type snorkel keeper allows me to slide the snorkel down during dives to reduce the "top drag".


Teaching in Aruba, I collected several dozen different types as I would find them scattered around in the sand at the bottom of the descent line, and around the wrecks. I always wondered if people lost em or just got so sick of them that they rip them off and desert them LOL.

I have found a great use for those old "j" snorkels. Sit on a chair with snorkel in your mouth. Then have your buddy pour rum punch down the top as the crowd chants 1..2..3....... I,ve seen people make it to 35 or 40, although I usually didn't see them after that til the next morning.

Naturally you would not try this within 12 hours of diving or for a few hours after

 

[raxafarian]

I used mine just this morning.

Chucked it at a mouse I saw in my garage.

(it was laying on a shelf covered with dust... just happened to be handy)

 

[detroit diver]

o2scuba,

Just curious. What "good example" are you setting for your students by wearing a snorkel? I understand the "requirements" as an instructor/DM, but beyond that, I don't get it.

 

[o2scuba]

Set up...

Not going to go there on this thread. This is just a survey .

I think the purpose is for people to state if and why they use them.


Don't think my opinions are on trial here. I would be happy to share MY reasons in a PM if you wish. But I don't have time this second to get into the philosophy of nessessity.


Besides, you never know when you might see a mouse LOL

 

[Phil TK]

detroit diver once bubbled...
o2scuba,

Just curious. What "good example" are you setting for your students by wearing a snorkel? I understand the "requirements" as an instructor/DM, but beyond that, I don't get it.

This has always mystified me too and I've yet to see any instructor use a snorkel in preference to his reg or finning on his back when swimming back to the boat after surfacing away from it.
I also don't see the point in wearing one 'as a good example' when you are conducting a course that doesn't really cover how to use one properly anyway -maybe that's being a 'bad example'.
However, I do keep one in my bag -if there is a lost diver and I'm dived out for that day -I can at least take part in a search on the surface.

Phil TK

 

[detroit diver]

o2scuba once bubbled...
Set up...

Not going to go there on this thread. This is just a survey .

I think the purpose is for people to state if and why they use them.


Don't think my opinions are on trial here. I would be happy to share MY reasons in a PM if you wish. But I don't have time this second to get into the philosophy of nessessity.


Besides, you never know when you might see a mouse LOL

Actually, it wasn't a setup. I'm really curious what example is being set. You're not on trial and the post wasn't meant to have been taken that way.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would want to wear one of those things, and I wondered where you were coming from. If you want to PM me, that's okay. Or you can just ignore it if you want.

It wasn't meant as a personal attack.

 

[Texass]

I'm a good 5-6 hour drive from the coast so most of my dives are in local lakes & quarries. I keep my snorkle packed in the fin pocket of my equipment bag, but don't take it out. I do use it whenever I get a chance to dive in the ocean.

Just curious Phil TK, what is the "proper method" of using a snorkle? and why doesn't PADI offer a specialty course (or do they)?

BTW my OW was with PADI so I'm sure I got cheated, but I remember doing a skin dive with a snorkle and a CESA from about 20' with a snorkle - the goal being to demonstrate purging the snorkle on the way up.