How many of you really like to dive with a snorkel on your mask!!!

[Hawkwood]

... I guess its becoming apparent to me, that this topic is more evenly divided than I originally thought.

As are most when it comes to any discussion regarding equipment and configuration.

What works for you, your personal preferences, and many other things dictate what is best for the individual. Who cares what other's think about your equipment choices. The worse offenders are those who think that just because they don't do, or use something, then anybody else who does is "suspect".

One of the nice things about this discussion has been folks explaining why, or why not, it works for them.

 

[Z Gear]

As are most when it comes to any discussion regarding equipment and configuration.

What works for you, your personal preferences, and many other things dictate what is best for the individual. Who cares what other's think about your equipment choices. The worse offenders are those who think that just because they don't do, or use something, then anybody else who does is "suspect".

One of the nice things about this discussion has been folks explaining why, or why not, it works for them.

Sounds reasonable .

 

[Kharon]

Reasonable is good. One of the really profound things I took away from the SDI Solo training is the quote "One of the things many instructors like to do when presented with a diver with experience is ask them why they like their equipment the way they have it. There is only one right answer to this question - because this is what I know and am comfortable with." Wrong answers - because my buddy told me to do it that way, because I saw it on a forum, etc.

---------- Post added October 25th, 2014 at 06:06 PM ----------

You could always wear a snorkel and if you wanted to piss everybody off, you could have a dry snorkel with a purge. That should do it.

Don't hate me - I do - and I LOVE IT!!!!!

---------- Post added October 25th, 2014 at 06:11 PM ----------

Snorkels are for snorkeling -- not for diving IMHO.

Yep - but I mostly do some of both every time I get wet. As someone posted - I snorkeled for a ton of years before I could afford to certify. The snorkel is as natural to me as anything. I don't notice it - but when I want it, it's there for me.

 

[gopbroek]

I agree with the 'what makes you comfortable' school because, IMO, that is really the safest mode there is as opposed to a panicking ‘what if’ mode. I haven’t dove with a snorkel attached since dive #6, I use a back inflate so I have taken to carrying a rolled up ‘cargo’ snorkel (have never used it) in case I am floating at sea for an extended period. I keep it rolled up in a pocket on a general ‘what if’ principle, but I rarely think about it.

 

[Hintermann]

I hate the presence of a snorkel on the side of my mask but admit that it is very useful at the end of a dive if the sea surface choppy and I have to wait for a while to be picked-up. These conditions are very common in the Maldives for example and because of the currents, buddy pairs are often scattered over a fairly wide area after a boat dive. With the divemasters insistence on using DSMBs ("Safety Sausage" :amazed: to the Americans) this is not a problem but the dhoni takes longer to pick-up divers and this is where a snorkel is useful if one is low on air. Also handy if surface swimming is involved at any stage of the dive - why waste precious tank gas?

 

[Zeagle Eagle]

I lost my snorkel in 1974 and I haven't been able to find it. If someone finds it please email it to me. Thanks. I really miss it.

 

[agilis]

On a typical tropical vacation I may spend an hour or two scuba diving, and not every day. Scuba burns up too much of the day with waiting, being unable to do much before the scheduled departure, boat time, and cleaning equipment. I tend to scuba dive about every other day, using the non-scuba days for exploring the rainforest, bird and animal watching, looking for artifacts, interesting places and people, reptiles, etc.

On the other hand I snorkel almost every day, an hour or so as the sun comes up and again at sunset. A snorkel is practically part of me.

After a scuba boat trip, while people are futzing around and wasting the day chattering about meaningless crap like 'did you see the turtle?' or how much air they used, or their amazing computers, or their cameras, I like to go back in the water with just my snorkel and do things like check out the micro life on the mooring rope. Sometimes you see amazing things, like a 3/4 inch Scrawled Filefish or a family of tiny cleaner shrimp.

Equipment junkies are among the most boring people on earth.

I do use a different, lighter snorkel with scuba, but I never dive without one.

 

[vincent54]

I always use a snorkel. Snorkel out to the site, drop down and snorkel back if I have to. On occasion it bothers me, but not much. It is a pain in rough water pulling a flag while snorkeling, but the reward is a full tank at the dive buoy. 8 dollars vs 85 for a boat to do the same thing. Even boat dives. I'll use a snorkel while waiting for the buddies to get in, I just need to remember to switch back to the regulator when I start my descent. Snorkels are awesome.

 

[Degenerate]

After accidentally descending with my snorkel in my mouth instead of the reg once I don't use one, got a mouthful of water instead of air haha...
Luckily this was during my OW course and while messing around in a pool (~3m deep) but still made me panic pretty badly, had to swim up as I completely blanked out and forgot I could have just swapped it to my reg under the water, also forgot I could inflate my BCD to help me get back up.
Nowadays I'll triple check that I have the reg in my mouth before even thinking about descending.
To me having a snorkel is just another thing that you can mess up with so I don't use one, but that's just me.
None of my divebuddies use one and neither did our instructors during our AOW, their reasoning being that it gets in the way and you're unlikely to ever use it.

Tapatalked

 

[Diver0001]

Most divers I know carry a foldable snorkel in case of emergency in a pocket... But wouldn't be caught dead wearing one unless teaching a class...

As an instructor I must point out to my students that the PADI system (what I teach) dictates the use of a snorkel at all times and so do EU and Dutch national norms.

The main complication this creates is not whether or not a snorkel is necessary (clearly it is not). In the Netherlands I'm pretty sure if you do have an accident and your kit does not include a snorkel that your insurance company (due to PADI, EU and Dutch rules) will probably point at you not having a snorkel as a reason to refuse to pay, even if the accident happened under water, before entering the water, from getting bent after the dive was over or an accident that did not involve a complication related to air supply.

I think this is a potential concern because legal professionals don't understand squat about diving and insurance companies' main business model is to screw people out of their money if at all possible.

So this is what I tell them because this is the whole underlying issue.

(and before you call me out for being cynical.... don't. I have worked in insurance and I can assure you that it's that bad... in fact worse... it's worse than any normal trusting human being with a conscience can imagine).

Then I tell them that I am personally willing to take that risk because as a diver I have to balance the potential benefits of having a snorkel, which are evident in certain conditions, with the fact that the rest of the time they are useless danglies that you don't want hanging off your mask. I discuss which conditions make a snorkel a sensible precaution and in which conditions I would leave it in the car....

Then let them decide.

R..