PADI Divemaster 800m snorkel

[Posinator]

Hello friends, I’m about to wrap up my DM training. All that’s left is the timed snorkel. Any tips, tricks or recommendations? While I have diving experience I actually have very little snorkeling experience and definitely not in this exercise/endurance mode. One recommendation I’ve heard is to use a classic open tube style snorkel. I’ll be doing this in a 25m pool so lots of turns will be required. Thanks

 

[Landau]

For a better time/score:

Get as streamlined as possible - arms straight out in front, hands together. Look at videos of competitive swimmers as they push off the wall for examples.

If you have different fins available give them each a test run of 200m or so to see which works best. For me my scubapro go travel were faster than my bigger Mares Avanti quatros (same colour as your profile pic ) Do this ahead of time, not the day of.

Practice your turns with your selected fins. You'll need to turn 31 times in a 25m pool so saving 2 seconds per turn is over a minute faster. Pushing off underwater is more streamlined. keep your head down, no big bow wave!

Good luck!

 

[tursiops]

How many points have you gotten on the other four waterskills exercises? You may not need to do the snorkel swim quickly...maybe even just finish it, if one point is all you need.

 

[Posinator]

I’ll need a 2 aka under 21 minutes

 

[Posinator]

For a better time/score:

Get as streamlined as possible - arms straight out in front, hands together. Look at videos of competitive swimmers as they push off the wall for examples.

If you have different fins available give them each a test run of 200m or so to see which works best. For me my scubapro go travel were faster than my bigger Mares Avanti quatros (same colour as your profile pic ) Do this ahead of time, not the day of.

Practice your turns with your selected fins. You'll need to turn 31 times in a 25m pool so saving 2 seconds per turn is over a minute faster. Pushing off underwater is more streamlined. keep your head down, no big bow wave!

Good luck!

Much appreciated. I happen to be giving those scuba pros on vacation right now. I did a test in the pool over the summer. The Mares generate more power but also more resistance. I’ll probably stick with the SPs since I’ve bonded with them this week

 

[dmaziuk]

Out of curiosity, do they allow swimming snorkels? It'd be a nice cheat if they do.

 

[TMHeimer]

Out of curiosity, do they allow swimming snorkels? It'd be a nice cheat if they do.

What's a swimming snorkel?

 

[Scott]

Any other pools available? I use a community pool during lap swim and just use the lane instead of having DMC's use our shorter pool and having to make so many turns.

I would do a practice run just to see where you are timewise and get used to the turns.

 

[dmaziuk]

What's a swimming snorkel?

Without the nose clip it takes some getting used to, but on the flip side you'll never have problems with mask clearing drill.

Or you could gt yourself one of these:

 

[lowwall]

No arms right? In a 25m pool, it's all about maximizing the turn. Get a good push and then keep it going underwater as long as possible. Finning is relatively inefficient if your kick breaks the surface so you really want to stretch the underwater distance after the turn.

Practice clearing the snorkel by tilting your head back as it breaks the surface so you only need a small exhale and can start getting full breaths right away. It's not worth the effort of going back under once you surface, use that time to get enough air for the next turn which will be coming up fast.

You can also experiment with dolphin kicking in the underwater portion. It's potentially faster, but requires some technique and can be tiring if you aren't used to it.