Long Hose/Bungeed Back up/No Snorkel

[RonFrank]

I agree with TS, what's the point of having the snorkel hanging off a mask where it can cause issues?

Talk to your instructor. Ours let us use a pocket as the likely hood of needing a snorkel while taking classes at the Blue Hole, NM is zero.

 

[NOVADiveGuy21]

Obviously there might be times when you might need a snorkel, but we are all divers (under water). All of my diving (all freshwater so far) definitely didn't require a snorkel. I'll practice the long hose deployment with a snorkel, but in my recreational dives, I don't plan to have one attached to my mask strap.

 

[Thalassamania]

The problem with the rollup snorkel in the pocket is twofold: 1) I've yet to find a rollup that doesn't suck as a snorkel, usually the barrel is way too narrow and they fail to clear water smoothly. 2) Wearing a snorkel for use is not just a matter of sticking it up under your mask strap, it must be carefully positioned and strongly held in place if it is to function well.

Sure, you don't use it underwater, but how do you solve these two problems except by getting a high quality snorkel that does not bend in your slip stream and have it attached to your mask strap in a strong fashion? The "excuse" that it fouls on deployment of the long hose or on unknown underwater entanglements is not true in my experience which leaves me to assume that these objections are really indicators that folks who don't like snorkels, by and large, do know how to use them ... it is sort of a tautology.

 

[PfcAJ]

I sometimes keep a snorkel under the same rubber bands that hold down a scout light on a hog harness. That combined with a quick detach snorkel keeper on my mask make for a reasonable solution. A quality, well positioned snorkel when I need it, tucked away when I don't.

The snorkel can interfere with the long hose, and I don't like things flapping in the breeze if I can at all avoid it.

 

[TSandM]

Well, although I don't have your dives, Thal, I have not once in 1000 dives wanted a snorkel that I didn't have. I have had people point out to me turtles beneath me, but I've always had enough gas to roll over and watch them while breathing off the regulator. I HAVE tried the HOG roll-up snorkel, and as a snorkel, it worked just fine. I don't swim hard or long with a snorkel.

 

[Thalassamania]

Lynne, I thought you'd made some dives in the Northern California Kelp, a long surface kelp crawl is usually enough to convince most folks. But, I suppose we are just coming at the problem from very different starting points. I might argue (successfully I hope) that carrying a snorkel attached to my mask is far less inconvenience and risk than is the weight of an extra or larger tank. I might hope that the logic of that would triumph, but ... what I understand is that while we are both highly risk adverse people, we express that condition in very different ways. I feel safest when freed from the encumbrance of all the gear, I am most comfortable freediving and really only use compressed gases as a way to extend what what I like best ... free diving. You take a very different approach, assuring your safety with a plethora of equipment based supports and backups that assure your safety. Is one right and the other wrong? For me yes, and for you yes, but in the more general sense ... no. Both work given our radically different starting places and needs.

 

[TSandM]

I've done kelp crawls, all right, but on a regulator (actually, I generally just submerge and swim under the canopy, because it's easier). But you're right -- given that I dive mostly in water where it's necessary anyway, managing heavy and bulky gear doesn't bother me.

 

[DaleC]

The last few posts have been quite interesting to me as they express two sides of my dive equipment choices.

When I started diving I was PADI rigged ie: snorkel, octo in the triangle etc... then I studied the Hogarthian configuration and created a longhose/bungied B/U rig, no snorkel, redundant air source etc...

On more complex dives I still wear that rig but on simple rec dives these days I mainly enjoy diving a small single Steel 72 or twinned 40's (relying on the surface as my alternate air source), shorter hoses and I'm back to my snorkel more often. Light, simple and easy to don and doff.

Tech equipment configuration is fine and can be attractive to newer divers but recreational diving can also be achieved successfully and enjoyably using a number of different alternatives.

 

[Thalassamania]

The last few posts have been quite interesting to me as they express two sides of my dive equipment choices.

When I started diving I was PADI rigged ie: snorkel, octo in the triangle etc... then I studied the Hogarthian configuration and created a longhose/bungied B/U rig, no snorkel, redundant air source etc...

On more complex dives I still wear that rig but on simple rec dives these days I mainly enjoy diving a small single Steel 72 or twinned 40's (relying on the surface as my alternate air source), shorter hoses and I'm back to my snorkel more often. Light, simple and easy to don and doff.

Tech equipment configuration is fine and can be attractive to newer divers but recreational diving can also be achieved successfully and enjoyably using a number of different alternatives.

I guess that is sort of my point. I'd never use a snorkel for saturation because the surface is not an option, similarly I'd never weight myself down with way more cylinder capacity than I could possibly need and multiple redundancy for a no-D dive in the kelp, I'd carry a snorkel instead. I believe in fitting the equipment to the task rather than (what I see as) forcing the task to accommodate the equipment.

 

[TSandM]

I'm not sure the difference between an Al80 and an HP100 is worth mentioning, and even a 130 is only an impediment on land. And I don't dive "multiple redundancies". I read Thal's post and get the mental image of someone equipped like the WKPP exploration teams -- nothing could be farther from the truth!