SCUBA Snorkel Question

[Wiilldd1]

I have the oceanic one mentioned above. I also use it for snorkeling. It works great for me. I don't find it too floppy! It also has an easy disconnect from the mask.

 

[Isaac-1]

All this talk of floppy reminds me of a snorkel I once owned, I think it was a Dacor brand snorkel, the entire lower portion was made of silicone and was very pliable. This snorkel had one problem, it did not work as a snorkel when it was most important, instead during heavy exertion breathing the entire lower portion would colapse on itself and you might as well have been trying to breathe from an empty scuba tank.

Ike

 

[danvolker]

Is the flexi-hose snorkel "too floppy".....?

First, we are talking about equipment that is mostly for use when something has gone terribly wrong....to me, that means I want this equipment to work really well.
In nice smooth water, the flexi hose snorkel will usually work fine, though if you have had one for 6 months, and it has one of those ridiculous purges on it, the purge may allready have deteriorated, and the snorkel could well be useless....just another reason a straight J snorkel with no purge is what should be used--it will always work.

Here is a personal experience I had...Way back in the in the early days of my diving, I was spearfishing in the Palm Beach inlet, on a day with 8 foot seas, and about 25 foot vis...but there were tons of grouper running. A friend of mine knew rock handholds on the bottom, from the beach insertion point, near the pumphouse, all the way out to the mid mouth area of the inlet in 35 feet of water. You needed these to beat the huge outgoing tide current, as well as wave surge....After 30 minutes, I had two big fish, Ron and Steve had several, and Ron pointed out one last huge one, just prior to when we were to head back to the pumphouse...I looked at the fish, moved in , and about 6 seconds later, when I looked back for Ron, he was gone.....Needing the handholds, to beat the strong 3 to 5 mph current of the outgoig tide, I exploded after where I thought Ron had gone...but after a few minutes of fast swimming, there was no ron or Steve, and depth was now over 42 feet--which meant I was now well out of the inlet mouth, and very hosed....Now in a huge current, and not wearing a compass, I had to surface to find out where I was. Turns out, I was about 300 yards out of the inlet, and about 100 yards north of the inlet mouth--that part being good, as it was in front of the beach, and the correct direction to get out of the tidal flow. So I got my bearing as to shore, and headed straight down to the bottom, as the current was still far too strong going outwards, and I did not feel like being out 700 yards and dragging big fish with me. On the bottom, I used the perpendicular wave lines in the sand, as a directional cue, and pulled hand over hand in the sand, while kicking at full power. This got me to within 100 yards of shore, prior to sucking the tank dry. Now in 20 feet of water, the free ascent was simple, but now I needed a good snorkel. I was using rented gear, which included a flexi hose snorkel, and a weight belt that was tied on ( a lesson learned forever after this dive I was about 3 pounds negative, a choice for the bottom pulling in the inlet--but now it was lots of extra work. The flexi hose snorkel kept getting flopped down by the large waves, which were not breaking yet, and should not have been an issue at all for a straight J snorkel--but for the flexi hose, I was breathing hard with the exertion, and constantly sucking water in at the worst time possible. I had to keep my speed up to maximum, so I did not lose all the ground I had just made up. The absolute failure of the flexihose snorkel was so bad, I could not maintain my breathing rate, and was forced to spit the snorkel, and turn over on my back--keeping view of the waves behind me, to orient my swim to the beach. While this allowed me to breath well enough, as I approached the breakers, this was the worst body position to be in when an 8 foot wave hits you, as it pushes hard on your fins, and you are in a horrible position to control yourself---imagine body surfing on your back.....So then I had one final absolute stupidity--a surfer swims up to me with his board, and says " hey, are you drowning man..? " , which of course pisses me off, and I say "no, I am fine"....He turns, and head in for some waves, and I consider the probability that I may be the most retarded scuba diver in all of the world. As I fight to maintain my full speed quest to get in, the current has diminished, but now the breakers are flipping me as I cross the breaking area, and without a functional snorkel, getting into position to breathe is getting nearly impossible. I get flipped time after time, recover, get a breath or two, then get flipped again. I curse not having my stright J snorkel, I curse the crappy weight belt I foolishly tied on, and then I get sucked into a monster wave in full explosive churn, and my fish are ripped off my belt, I lose the pole spear, and I lose track of everything. My legs are so full of lactic acid, they will barely kick, I have gone about 30 seconds without breathing, at a time of high exertion, and I need to get to the surface....and I fight to correct my position to face down, head forward, so I can control myself...I need to get to the surface badly, but my body is feeling so heavy, I can;t seem to move upward to the air.....then, the wierdest sensation----I feel I am being shoved down hard on to my hands and knees...and then I see air around my head, and I can breathe.....I am on the sandbar right before the beach, and between waves, I am able to breathe rapidly for 6 seonds, until I get smashed by another wave.....I am too weak to do more than wait for the next trough between waves, so I wait, and breathe like this for about 2 minutes, gradually gaining some strength....I see the shore about 20 feet from me, and a little girl and her mother watching me---the little girl says to her mom--- " Mommy, is that man drowning?" ....which I am to weak to make a stupid answer to as before, but I manage to get out of my tank harness ( no BC's back then ( circa 1980)..anyone who needs a BC deserves to drown was the mantra at the time ....I undo the weight belt, drop it on the sand bar, and stand up. I then slowly drag the tank in to the shore, with the mother and daughter watching me. I get to the beach, get up it about 5 feet, and sit down and rest. Few times in my life had I ever felt so incredibly stupid, and few times had I ever made so many enormous mistakes at one time. I would learn from this though, and become a much safer diver---"that which almost kills you makes you stonger" kind of thing...I did learn. So after 2 minutes of resting, I stand up, and see ron and steve looking out to sea, freaked out of their mind about how I must have drowned in the 8 foot plus seas, and how they would have to call my mother
I walk over to them, they see me and come running.
I learned alot from that dive....and would change all my future diving.

I would never again tie a weight belt on ( so stupid I still can't believe I was so cocky that I thought I could use a broken belt like this)

I would never again use a flexi hose snorkel. Even with all the other stupidities I was guilty of in this dive, I would have been breathing well right up to the end with my own snorkel, and the churning would have just been annoying, in stead of life threatening.

I would never again do an inlet dive in storm conditions and outgoing tide...Previous to this, I had done some insanely difficult dives, and felt bullet proof. This was a wake up call for me, and it has kept me from doing really stupid dives ever since

I stopped telling people that "anyone who needs a BC desrves to drown"...

I also decided that Ron and steve were not the ideal dive buddies ( both had a history of taking off without being certain a buddy was watching them and following).


So, while hopefully you will never have a significant emergency use for a snorkel, if you ever do--you want a bullet proof, easy breathing, non-failing snorkel. This is the freediver type, straight J snorkel. It could save your life, while the flexi hose could kill you if enough other things go wrong.

If you know about my diving, you know I got heavily into diving with WKPP guys in the mid 90's, and ultimately became very DIR....which essentially means I don't do the dumb things I did early in my diving career. I did so many crazy dives in the 70's and 80's, that DIR ideas had direct application to my experience, quite often---many, many of the DIR ideas dealt directly with issues I had already experienced. I could write a book on these

 

[pescador775]

The Promate Flex might be suitable. It may be less "floppy" and costs about half as much as others.

I use the old style Dacor black rubber snorkel with flexible bottom tube. These have served me well but are hard to find, even on EBay. I've never had any issue with carrying the snorkel on my mask, either free diving or tank diving with double or single hose regulator. I wear the snorkel on the left side. Sometimes, when diving double hose I stow a rigid, old style rubber snorkel flat against my body in a kind of holster. I have never dived a folding snorkel but they might have some pluses.

The trend to using the valve type snorkels is somewhat mystifying. When I started, the only snorkels available were hard plastic with ball cage valves. We cut off the valves for streamlining and simplicity.

 

[ronbeau]

Are they really floppy and such as someone above mentioned?

I agree with ReefDuffer. We have not found them to be too "floppy". We did snorkeling during the surface interval in Curacao and did not have any problems whatsoever.

We have never used them in rough seas but then again I wouldn't want to be in the water rough seas anyway .

 

[mangrovejack]

Do you happen to have a link to the Aqualung one? i can't seem to find it.

Aqua Lung Sport - Snorkel - Nautilus Travel Snorkel

Not sure where you can buy one though. One shop had it, but you had to go in person to buy it (dealer agreements etc).