Snorkel in mouth on surface??

[alpaj]

" Breathing from a snorkel before diving is not a good practice. The reason is simple, if you are not breathing correctly (long deep breath), and do short breathing, you end up breathing some prct of the same air again and again, lowering your oxygen level. When snorkeling, there is usually no issues but when you go under, you could black-out. Very rare but the potential of a problem still exists. "



That's rubbish if the average human has a 4-5 liter functional breathing volume. (Up to 6 if you are in good cardio shape). If you are breathing 0.2 liters ONCE again you won't notice it. That is 4 to 5 % of you're total volume that you "rebreathed" ONCE from your dead airspace (which still has a high ppo2). Even as low as 2 % if you are in good shape. If you want to use a snorkel then use one. I personally have to do surface swims (sometimes up to 15 minutes or so) and doing them face down on your gas makes sure that you'll be starting your dive with a chunk of it missing. So a snorkel is the perfect solution for me. All I'm saying is that don't use the dead airspace argument to let your snorkel rot in your bag.

 

[spectrum]

Most of us dive with a snorkel. Doing mainly shore dives I'd rather enjoy the bottom view while getting to a depth worth dropping to. Same thing if some divers are needing a few extra minutes to get ready, beats standing there or blowing tank air. It saves some air and lets your face and breathing get happy in the water before starting down. Same thing at the end of the dive though we usually say down until we're into standing range.

Of course you do need to remember to cut over to your regulator befor dropping down. Perhaps the DM has had some bad experiences with divers going down while still using their snorkels and with new and unknown divers prefers to avoid the whole situation.

Pete

 

[spectrum]

Breathing from a snorkel before diving is not a good practice. The reason is simple, if you are not breathing correctly (long deep breath), and do short breathing, you end up breathing some prct of the same air again and again, lowering your oxygen level.

Nonsense. That just means the diver does not know hot to use a snorkel and for that matter dosen't know how to use a regulator very effectively. Anything can be mnisused, diving or not.

Pete

 

[NEdivah]

i must revive this old post:

A reading from the Book of Scuba Gear, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 21:


Then did he raise on high the Sacred Snorkel of Doom, saying, "Bless this, O Lord,
that with it thou mayst slay those who dare use it, in thy mercy."

And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals.

Now did the Lord say, "First thou affixeth the snorkel-keeper to the mask. The snorkel-keeper shall have two openings at either end. Two shall be the number of the openings and the number of the openings shall be two.

Three openings are an abomination. Neither shalt one opening suffice, excepting
that thou then proceedeth to make a second opening by hand. Five openings is right
out.

Once the snorkel has been placed through the two openings, two being the
number of the openings, then hand the mask with the Sacred Snorkel of Doom affixed thereunto to thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.

So sayeth the Lord.

(plagiarized)

That's some damn funny ***** right there:lol:

 

[gadams]

I'm new here so I hope I'm not out of line. If this recent trip was in the last few weeks, this DM may have been involved in the near drowning at the Speigel Grove the first of March. It's detailed over in the accidents and incidents board. The guy was on snorkel at the end of the dive. We have a saying in my profession that you often treat your last complication so this DM may have been doing just that.

Greg

 

[DandyDon]

On a recent dive trip to the Keys we hired a guide to show us the dive sites and take care of navigation as we were all fairly new divers.

Sounds like several newbies hired a professional guide/DM/Inst? who was being careful with his/her responsibility and liabiltiy on their first boat dives. Probably didn't get tipped for what sounds like a good job.

 

[jeckyll]

H2Andy: Very very funny. I'll be sure to print that off and hand it out during my PADI rescue course at the end of the month

As for the original poster situation, it's always easy to armchair QB, but who knows how the other divers were? Perhaps they were a CF waiting to happen and the DM was trying to be a bit extra cautious (no offence to OP, just throwing out an option )

My snorkel is currently MIA though I have to (apparently) have one for rescue, so I'll need to search for it ... and then put in in my BP/W pocket.

 

[Atticus]

Wow.. I'm reading this thinking about how hard it is for me to get some of my open water students to use their snorkel instead of just sucking on their regs. If they aren't comfortable with either device in their mouths while on the surface in calm water then I haven't done my job.

Snorkels are awsome ... for snorkeling. Sometimes when I wear scuba gear I like to snorkel. Especially when I don't want to use up the air in my tanks and there's something pretty to look at on the bottom on the way to where I want to dive.

I usually don't carry a snorkel on my personal dives. My personal kit includes a long hose which IMHO is snorkel incompatible and I have things to put in my drysuit pockets that are more important to me.

 

[spectrum]

If more dive classes took the slin-diving phase seriously new divers would appreciate the snorkel as a valuable tool. In my bizarre opinion divers should make a solid open water 1 hour or more skin dive before getting into a BC.

I agree that it is inapropriate for some dives.

Pete

 

[captain]

I don't carry a snorkel, but I have had some very experienced divers tell me it is your most important peice of safety gear. I still hear their words echoing in my ears.

Dive boat left you at sea. You can see shore but it is several miles away. Would you 1-Wait to be missed and hope for rescue, 2- swim for shore dragging all the scuba gear, 3- ditch the scuba and swim having to keep your face above water to breathe or 4 ditch the gear and swim with a snorkel. I'll pick 4 everytime. A lot of divers don't see the value of a snorkel but get in the situation where you have to rescue yourself with a long swim and I'll bet you will wish you have one.