Let's Re-Brand "Snorkeling"

[Doc Harry]

I think all of these reponses beg the larger question: why the inferiority complex?

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I think all of these reponses beg the larger question: why the inferiority complex?

I don't know about anybody else, but I certainly don't have a problem using a snorkel or calling it a snorkel. It's a damn usefull tool for some dives. Just look at my avatar and you'll notice the straight J tube along side my head. I use a snorkel on beach dives where there's kelp to crawl over. I like to push the kelp under my belly as I move along face down. Ever had a big wad of kelp wrap around your tank valve, no fun. It better to go over it on your belly. Some people put the reg in their mouth to do this but I like to save my air for the dive.

 

[David Wilson]

I think all of these reponses beg the larger question: why the inferiority complex?

No, just a handful of the responses to this thread beg that question, the ones submitted by a very small minority of scuba divers who apparently having never snorkelled, nurse their own inferiority complexes and boost their own low self-esteem by coming on to a non-scuba forum and mocking the choice of others to pursue different water activities. Although I don't scuba dive, I'm passionate about snorkelling and I'm happy to pursue my favourite activity without ridiculing other water users, whether they are scuba divers, freedivers, surfers, open water swimmers, swimhikers, whatever. We have so much in common, not least a love of the aquatic environment and an interest in keeping it healthy and clean so that everybody can relax and exercise. As a medical practitioner, I assume that you would subscribe to that worthy goal.

Let's get back to promoting snorkelling, or whatever we choose to call it - so long as it's a positive, or at least neutral, term, on this little forum. Personally, I've grown tired of just defending it.

 

[Doc Harry]

No, just a handful of the responses to this thread beg that question, the ones submitted by a very small minority of scuba divers who apparently having never snorkelled, nurse their own inferiority complexes and boost their own low self-esteem by coming on to a non-scuba forum and mocking the choice of others to pursue different water activities. Although I don't scuba dive, I'm passionate about snorkelling and I'm happy to pursue my favourite activity without ridiculing other water users, whether they are scuba divers, freedivers, surfers, open water swimmers, swimhikers, whatever. We have so much in common, not least a love of the aquatic environment and an interest in keeping it healthy and clean so that everybody can relax and exercise. As a medical practitioner, I assume that you would subscribe to that worthy goal.

Let's get back to promoting snorkelling, or whatever we choose to call it - so long as it's a positive, or at least neutral, term, on this little forum. Personally, I've grown tired of just defending it.

You don't have to defend snorkeling to me, you're far braver than I to snorkel. I used to snorkel and free-dive to the depths (20 feet), until fear made me switch.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Let's get back to promoting snorkelling, or whatever we choose to call it - so long as it's a positive, or at least neutral, term, on this little forum. Personally, I've grown tired of just defending it.

It's very unfortunate that anyone would put down snorkeling because it is the "Wax On/Wax Off" (Karate Kid speak) skill that defines a diver.

It had always been an integral and inseparable part of diver education until the diving industry believed that the 1 pool session and 1 open water session delay in training would cause people to quit diving.

Having grown up snorkeling, I couldn't wait to become an adult and get a scuba tank. That happened sooner than I thought, because I started scuba diving at age 13. By age 20, I had lost interest in scuba and was old enough to enjoy the challenge of snorkeling and freediving in the peak zone of youthful athleticism. In my 30's, I found that I enjoyed both freediving and scuba diving thanks to reaching a zenith as a freediver and the challenge of technical diving. Lately, I've been focused on technical diving and teaching tech and cave, but I'm starting to feel the call of the tube. I've also been feeling a bit lazy, so I think it is time for one last hurrah as a barefoot rescuer. I promised I'd gropw up at 35, but maybe I'll shoot for 45!

Anyway, snorkeling, doesn't need to be defended. What snorkeling needs is heroes. The old diving magazines were loaded with sinewed young men and the occassional woman sporting guns, and snorkels rather than tanks.

When you look at the Harlequin-like scuba and snorkeling gear most often portrayed by the media and the industry, it is embarrassing to be a diver - in any discipline. I think that is one of the reasons DIR scuba diving became popular, the equipment and the philosophy brought dignity back to the sport in pictures.

Rather than snorkelers wearing life-preservers and splashed with 30 year out of date neon, a dignified look needs to return to the sport. Snorkeliong also needs to return to being an important part of diver education. It freaks me out to watch instructors who are required to do snorkeling rush their students through the skills and experience.

Most importantly, a diver who just uses a snorkel should be held in high regard. It's the $15.00 version of going bubbleless instead of the $8,000.00 rebreather. There is nothing wrong with snorkeling nor the term. The industry is just doing such a poor job with diving public relations and as diver quality dissipates the respect given declines.

Right now, the only real divers use rebreathers. Twin tank technical divers are respected and tolerated. Recreational divers are poorly skilled wanna-be divers and snorkelers aren't good enough to even be poorly trained recreational divers. This is the current public perception thanks to the diving industry itself.

It's time that a diver is a diver whether the tool be a snorkel, a tank, twin tanks or a rebreather. The diver is just using the tool he or she happens to have at the time, need at the time, is simply playing with or prefers.

 

[tight rope walker]

Wow tracemalin, finally sombody with enough guts to tell the truth! I woke up one day and said to myself," what happened, I must have been sleeping or something!!!!!". All of a sudden ( ofcourse it didn,t happen overnight ) I felt totally alienated in a sport that I had dedicated my whole life to for all the reasons you have mentioned. To me the whole flavor of diving has changed as the industry persues the big buck. The dive shops that I have done buisness with forever are gone, and the new ones just view me as a dollar sign as I walk in the door. If I am not a technical diver, or a deep diver or a rebreather diver or whatever, I don't matter. Too bad for them I know exactly who and what I am. My father was a survivor of the Chozan Resevouir, and I am a chip off that block. So it's gonna take alot more than that to steer me off corse. Thank you so much for your honesty. Now keep a sharp eye on the door for those industry ninja.

 

[daniel1948]

I think all of these reponses beg the larger question: why the inferiority complex?

The OP was concerned about how people perceive snorkeling, because of the sound of the word. I have not seen any inferiority complexes in the rest of the replies, and none based on the activity itself. Only the word was being questioned.

You don't have to defend snorkeling to me, you're far braver than I to snorkel. I used to snorkel and free-dive to the depths (20 feet), until fear made me switch.

The most powerful fears are the irrational ones. People who happily drive twenty thousand miles a year (by far the more dangerous activity) will shiver when I describe seeing a bear while hiking (much less dangerous than moving along at 70 mph in a pack of automobiles). Your fear is based on a misperception of the aggressiveness of sharks. It's really too bad that you allow a mistaken assessment of true risks to keep you from an activity you otherwise enjoy.

The dive shops that I have done buisness with forever are gone, and the new ones just view me as a dollar sign as I walk in the door. If I am not a technical diver, or a deep diver or a rebreather diver or whatever, I don't matter.

Gosh! I have dealt with all three of the dive shops within half-an-hour's drive of me, and all have given me (a beginning recreational diver) friendly personal service and as much advice as I've asked for.

Of course they want to sell me gear. Every business needs customers to buy its product, and every entrepreneur wants to make money, but none of these three stores has tried to push the most expensive gear on me, and none has tried to get me to buy and leave. Maybe it's the small-town atmosphere of Spokane.

I am not a highly-skilled diver. I had the privilege of meeting an old timer who was diving before there was commercial equipment, and later was a NAUI instructor, and who described the training back in the old days. I would not have been able to get certified. The swimming strength and the breath-hold underwater swim distances required would have been beyond me. But modern equipment has become reliable enough that diving is now safe at a lesser level of athleticism than previously. Thus it is reasonable for the certification agencies to be less demanding than formerly. (If some instructors rush their classes and graduate students who do not meet the standards, that's another matter, and those instructors should be weeded out, but that's another matter.)

 

[tight rope walker]

Hmmmmmmmmm, I haven't visited this forum in a while and it seems somebody has quoted something I said. I have no problem with this, in fact I am flattered that somebody actually pays attention to things I say. Thank you. Now let me drive it home. In my opinon there is no substitute for experience, and unless I am wrong, experience takes time. The shops I had done buissness with in the past had been around for many many years. Our relationship had surpassed that of a customer/vendor. It is very hard for me to put in words as my vocabulary is very limited. I would compare it to the relationship between a samurai and his sword maker, almost religous. My diving experience has taken me to some very extreme enviroments, where there has been absolutely no room for error or eguipment failure. You cannot be second quessing your gear or the credentials of the people who maintain it. The shop knew me on a first name basis, and I trusted them....based on thier experience level. When you can walk in a shop with a sp mk5, and they take you in the back, break it down right in front of you, diagnose it, repair it, and put it right back in service, I can tell you this without fear of contradiction, I now have to drive 2 hours one way to get that type of service.

Ofcorse buisness have to make money, if they don't they're not in buisness very long. The owner of my shop decided to retire, and his son did not follow him in the scuba buisness. At that point I became a Ronin. I was originally agreeing with what tracemalin had said about the dive industry in general. But I have no problem standing behind what I said. I quess that comes from experience.

 

[honeydoe2]

The reason "snorkeling" may get a little nose snub when you mention it is because most of our acquaintances or friends have never experienced "advanced" snorkeling. The little time they may have experienced consists of getting off a cruise ship and putting their heads under water for a while to see a lot of pretty fish and that's what they think snorkeling is all about. Yes, that's fine since it made a fun day for them, but for those of us that look for just the right off shore snorkeling spot or reef and like to see a lot of varied marine life and beautiful coral, etc., snorkeling means so much more. I think in reality, a lot of snorkelers would love to be divers, but don't because of cost, age, or a physical disability. Just smile and say to friends, " I love snorkeling places where there's a diversity of marine life(like sharks and sting rays!;-) and it's a sport I can enjoy until I'm 100 years old. I will always be able to float in salt water and breath through a tube!

 

[David Wilson]

I agree with much of what you say, honeydoe2, but I'd go further and say that snorkelling is an activity for everybody and for everywhere. It doesn't have to be a "second best" for anybody who can't scuba dive and it doesn't have to be confined to exotic tropical waters teeming with coral and sealife. I get a little weary with my compatriots who insist on flying to resorts abroad such as Sharm in Egypt to snorkel when there are plenty of inland and coastal waters to ply our favourite pastime back home. I'm a member of an online swimming forum where there's a thriving "wildswimming" community of people who swim most of the year round in British rivers and lakes and in the seas surrounding our island, either bareskin or clad in wetsuits. I see snorkelling as an extension of this kind of outdoor swimming, with fins, snorkels, masks and suits helping swimmers to remain longer in the water, to enjoy the view below as well above the surface and to swimhike greater distances from A to B. The real beauty of snorkelling lies in its simplicity, the few light and inexpensive items of gear that it requires and the variety of venues - local waters, not just remote destinations - where it can be enjoyed. My favourite snorkelling spot on the coast of North East England, just eight miles from my home, has very little flora and fora beyond seaweed, seagulls and shellfish, but it has infinite compensations, not least the sight of the orange sun rising sleepily over the marine horizon as I enter the waves from a sandy beach dressed in my vintage fins, mask, snorkel and drysuit for my early morning constitutional, a routine I hope to resume in the not too distant future when the snow finally clears!