Let's Re-Brand "Snorkeling"

[mgmonk]

Rlaphing is already taken.
It means to evacuate one's stomach.

 

[mgmonk]

but, in all seriousness, thanks again David and ZKY for the info. I've been integrating it into my Open Water PADI plongée libre classes.

 

[RickI]

Recently, I tried to visit a private spring in NW Florida. I asked about "free diving" there, big mistake. Used the F word, whoops. Not a palatable prospect to the operator who prefers divers with tanks. Lesson learned, the next private spring I spoke to, I asked about "snorkeling." No problem and for a lower entry fee than for SCUBA divers, thank you very much. So, when it counts, should it be "snorkeling?" Works for me.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Recently, I tried to visit a private spring in NW Florida. I asked about "free diving" there, big mistake. Used the F word, whoops. Not a palatable prospect to the operator who prefers divers with tanks. Lesson learned, the next private spring I spoke to, I asked about "snorkeling." No problem and for a lower entry fee than for SCUBA divers, thank you very much. So, when it counts, should it be "snorkeling?" Works for me.

LOL!
The new F bomb.

 

[Deputy821]

You must be young, as it is the young who has the need to be cool. That's okay because it is part of growing up and I was that way too.

I began snorkeling in Australia during the summer of 1958 and 1959. The acronym SCUBA had not yet arrived and when it did, we thought it sounded stupid. We often pronounced it with a short U, which added to the confusion. Our breathing appliances were refered to as 'aqua lungs', regardless of the brand. We called ourselves 'aqualung divers' or just 'lung divers' for short. We all used snorkels for safety, to save on air or to spear fish.

I think it is unfortunate that term Aqua Lung was copyrighted as a trade name by Rene Bussoz, because we really didn't have a word for this new device and we needed one. Scuba was not a very good choice because it also applied to nitrox rebreathers and oxygen rebreathers of the time. There was nothing exclusively for open circuit compressed air breathing appliances and there still isn't.

The early French style 'aqua lungs' were protected by a US Patent and Siebe Gorman, the Commonwealth licensee, could not satisfy demand. That was what brought about the mouth piece regulator you now call the single hose regulator. The single hose regulator was first sold in early 1952 according to the maker, Ted Eldred. The term single hose hardly applies now, as they have more hoses than I can count. However, the first ones, the Porpoise CA-1 and the CA-2 actually only had one hose with no provisions for any more.

We used a simple J snorkel. We were stuck with the ping pong ball valve models which came from the shops, but the top was quickly sawn off. For some reason, money I suppose, the snorkel has been re-invented many times, but the simple J worked well. I always have mine attached to my mask strap, regardless of the breathing appliance I have on my back or on my chest.

The early transition for a snorkel diver to what we call scuba diver today, was easy. The snorkel diver already had the basic skills and was comfortable in the water. When I first instructed scuba diving, it was simple as the students were fit and confident. It wasn't until later, when we started getting non-snorkelers taking the course that we had to go back a teach these basic skills. Snorkel divers were better by far and much easier to teach.

I am not embarreassed to say I started out as a snorkel diver. We all did back then, but that was fifty years ago. Steve

 

[tight rope walker]

Steve, You got me by a few years but I could not agree with you more. I originally started out free diving, and my mask/snorkel setup must have been the delux model. It came with two snorkels with the ping pong balls in little cages. You had the ability to use one or two snorkels, or remove both and plug the holes. When it was time for me to become a scuba diver it was a natural transition, as I was already very prepared for what was to come. But on my last dive vacation, my wife and myself were the only divers to have snorkels. I am from an old school, and I spend alot of tme on the snorkel before commiting to the dive. Many times here in New England my partner and I will snorkel out to an area we are going to work, and then go on the tank. When we hit the surface ( unless on full face masks, then you are automatically on the tank ) it's back on the snorkel. Infact, my first love has to be free diving, as that is where I came from. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe LLoyd Bridges wrote a book titled Mask, Fins, and Snorkel. That is how we were taught, you started out freediving, and if you like it, you went on to diving. If not, there's nothing wrong with snorkeling. Rich

 

[David Wilson]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe LLoyd Bridges wrote a book titled Mask, Fins, and Snorkel. That is how we were taught, you started out freediving, and if you like it, you went on to diving. If not, there's nothing wrong with snorkeling. Rich

In my modest diving library I have a first-edition copy (1960) of the book entitled "Mask and Flippers: The Story of Skin Diving", whose publishers, Chilton of Philadelphia and New York, attributed authorship to "Lloyd Bridges, as told to Bill Barada". In spite of its title, just one chapter is devoted to "basic equipment", i.e. mask, fins and snorkel, and the bulk of the book, other than its overview of diving history, is about SCUBA diving. The term "SCUBA" is actually used in a chapter heading. The term "skin diving" in the book's title and elsewhere within its pages covers both breath-hold and SCUBA diving. Many titles in the 1960s used the term "skin diving" in this way, emphasising the distinction from hard-hat diving, where a thick canvas suit was worn.

We may all remember Lloyd Bridges because of his Mike Nelson role in the TV series "Sea Hunt" but negligently forget the real-life diving history role of Bridges' collaborator Bill Barada, who not only invented the first rubber "J-shaped" snorkel but also designed the Aquala historical drysuit which is still sold today.

Bill Barada - NOGI
The brief autobiography above uses the term "free diving" to describe how Bill Barada's underwater odyssey began in 1935, but immediately qualifies the term as historically inaccurate by using the contemporaneous term "goggle fishing" as more appropriate in the chronological development of underwater swimming and diving. Goggle fishing sounds right, certainly in the context of Guy Gilpatric's seminal pre-World War II work entitled "The Compleat Goggler".

The modern use of the term "free diving" to denote, exclusively, breath-hold diving in the first post-war decades is an anachronism. On my shelves I have three books from the 1950s with "free diving" in the title:
A Manual for Free-Divers using compressed air by D. M. Owen (Pergamon, 1955)

Free Diving by Dimitri Rebikoff (Sidgwick and Jackson, 1955)

The Complete Manual of Free Diving by Philippe Tailliez et al. (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1957)

They all have pictures on the front of divers using SCUBA gear and the bulk of their content is about SCUBA diving, not breathhold diving. The deployment of the words "free diving" in the titles and contents of these books was probably inspired by the French term "plongée libre", literally "free diving", which was one of several terms coined in France to describe diving untrammelled by the hard-hat diver's hoses and cables. The use of the term "free diving" to mean diving to the depths without the assistance of artificial breathing apparatus must have begun later, possibly the 1970s in the prime of Jacques Mayol. Back in the 1960s, when I began snorkelling in the UK, I and other Europeans wouldn't have recognised the term "free diving" as describing what we were doing. We would have spoken about "underwater swimming", perhaps "snorkel diving". Our contemporaries in the United States would likely have used the term "skin diving", making clear at the same time that they were using just fins, masks and snorkels, because "skin diving" could mean SCUBA diving as well.

Sorry for so much historical exposition, but I do think terms such as "skin diving" and "free diving" need to be explored more deeply because they have broadened, and narrowed, their meanings over time. Having snorkelled for half a century, I'm not prepared to call my favourite activity "free diving" because (a) it once meant any kind of skin and SCUBA diving and (b) it is now too associated in my mind with breath-hold diving to extreme depths using low-volume silicone masks and plastic fins with long carbon-fibre blades. Personally, I wouldn't be seen dead in either, but hey, that's just me. At my age I'm entitled to regard change, particularly change I don't see the point of, with suspicion. I was brought up in the old school of "if it ain't broke, why fix it?" and the last time I looked, my full-foot all-rubber fins and my rubber-skirted oval mask both still functioned in the same way they did when the designs first came on the market decades ago: perfectly comfortably and efficiently.

 

[tight rope walker]

When I refer to free diving, my interpretation is to be free of gear, other than mask, fins, and snorkel. I am well aware of divers who ride weighted sleds to incredible depths while holding thier breaths then jump on a bag that blasts them to the surface. That style of diving(?) I believe is alittle extreme for the every day diver, and I believe that technique to be breath hold diving as the swimmer is in no way using a snorkel, nor is he viewing the underwater world from the surface. The book I refer to which I took out from the Grafton Library in Grafton Massachusetts, was a hard cover book that did not have LLoyd Bridges picture on it, and from what I can remember was devoted to snorkeling. Unless there was another updated printing or addition. Call it what you will, it allows the swimmer, to keep his face in the water, to view the underwater world with out having to remove his face from the water to get a breath. Rich

 

[tight rope walker]

It seems as though this debate might go on for ever. So I have decided to convene a panel of experts, who just so happen to be sitting in front of me listening quite intently as they have not been fed yet. This with holding of food is in no way shape or form meant to influence thier decision, only to hold thier attention.
First on the panel is our ten year old yellow labrador retreiver Biscuit. Biscuit was our first pet and my first introduction to unions. Biscuit is under contract, or as he continually tells me," a collective bargaining agreement". As a result he gets two meals a day, all his toys, all free medical care, constant love and affection. and all the water he can drink. Also in the form of perks if he doesn't cause a mess he gets a treat. Biscuits' only purpose in life is to aggravate me, and to that end he is doing a perfect job.
Next on our panel is my five year old American short hair cat shadow A.K.A. killer. Shadows only purpose in life is to kill anything swimming, flying ,walking, running, trying to sleep, watch tv, read the paper, ect, ect ect. And I can tell you from experience there are some fates worth than death..
And last but surely not least, spike our fifteen year old painted turtle, and really the only expert on this panel. Spikes' only purpose in life is to sleep, swim, lay on his rock, and bite me as often and as frequently and continusally as he can. As you can see by thier descriptions I have three over achievers on my hands.
I posed the question about snorkels and the like to my panel of experts.
Shadow, A.K.A. killer was the first and the most voisterous to respond. I DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT CAT BEHIND THE HOUSE. I should probaly bring you all up to date on this. One nice, sunny, quiet, happy Sunday afternoon, our door bell rang. When I went to the door there was this little calico cat, with about ten kittens in tow. She went on to say that Shadow A.K.A killer was the father. As I did not want a scandal, the kittens are now all living quite comfortabilty in the basemant I might add.
Next to speak was Biscuit. I did not make that mess behind the washer! Now I am starting to notice a pattern here. It's not me me me! But more importantly, I didn't know about the mess behind the washer!
Finally it was Spike. Blub blub blub! I enterpreded that as, It was not me....whatever it was.
So there you have it. I guess what it comes down to is, at the end of the day did you have fun? Well I gotta go now. Biscuit has a greivence on my desk right now, something about the quality of his food not to his likeing. Rich P.S. Does anybody need a kitten?

 

[pedro101]

Great old diving manuals David looks like you have a good size collection.