Snorkel or no snorkel and why

[redacted]

Do you have a pic as to how you place it behind the wing? This is an interesting idea. Shouldn't be an entanglement hazard there, and could be useful in some situations.

I'll take some and post tomorrow. I have a 1/4 inch homemade Al plate so I have lots of metal to work with.

 

[SStrecker]

I keep a flexible Tusa snorkel in my BC pocket. It is rarely used but handy & secure, should the need arise, for a long shore dive swim. I used my old style one for several years, when I started diving in the pacific northwest, back in 1974. However, ten dives back into the sport, starting last summer, I switched to a flexible model and relegated to my BC pocket. It would be fair to call a snorkel a low value piece of equipment.

 

[fishb0y]

It is attached to my BP beneath the wing.

Again, another reason why I love duscussions such as these... Pictures would be great!!!

 

[Captain CaveMan]

Again, another reason why I love duscussions such as these... Pictures would be great!!!

i dont use mine. but i like the idea

 

[Poseidon8118]

I don't like to use a snorkel. I'm not quite sure why people spend $30+ for a "dry" snorkel when it will be under water most of the time, plus I see them as a potential snag hazard. If you don't use a snorkel, at what point in your diving career did you get rid of it? Your thoughts?

I do mostly shore dives which require long surface swims. My buddy and I like to swim out with are faces down in the water (basically snorkeling) to our dive site. Saves on our bottom time that way...

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Unstrapped mine from my mask right after OW.

I do carry it with me though, just in case someplace requires it.

Jeff

 

[HowardE]

I only use my snorkel when I'm doing a surface swim... but I keep it in my pocket on a boat dive, in case the boat isn't there right away (usually I have gas left in my tank) it's better to be prepared, then not have it, and wish you did.

 

[lamont]

I only use my snorkel when I'm doing a surface swim... but I keep it in my pocket on a boat dive, in case the boat isn't there right away (usually I have gas left in my tank) it's better to be prepared, then not have it, and wish you did.

I still don't understand when I'd wish that I had a snorkel... I've been on boat dives in fairly rough seas and I prefered to just swim on my back, or use the regulator. If I was in rougher seas, then the utility of the snorkel would go down, and I'd be wishing for more backgas to breathe through a regulator. And really even with 500 psi in an aluminum 80, you should have 20 mins of gas on the surface. If you come back to the surface with less gas than that and use a snorkel, then you're using a snorkel on the surface to correct for a gas management problem at depth. Typically these days I'm back at the surface with 25-50 mins of gas at a 1.5 cu ft / min SAC rate, so the point of a snorkel is really lost on me when I can just shove my reg in my mouth and I can breathe in the roughest seas you care to throw at me...

If you like looking at fishes on a surface swim I understand that, but around here we've only got plankton bloom to look at...

 

[Soggy]

Typically these days I'm back at the surface with 25-50 mins of gas at a 1.5 cu ft / min SAC rate, so the point of a snorkel is really lost on me when I can just shove my reg in my mouth and I can breathe in the roughest seas you care to throw at me...

You are coming back from dives on an al80 with 75 cft of gas left? That's pretty special.

 

[miketsp]

I still don't understand when I'd wish that I had a snorkel... I've been on boat dives in fairly rough seas and I prefered to just swim on my back, or use the regulator. If I was in rougher seas, then the utility of the snorkel would go down, and I'd be wishing for more backgas to breathe through a regulator.
..snip..
so the point of a snorkel is really lost on me when I can just shove my reg in my mouth and I can breathe in the roughest seas you care to throw at me...
..snip..

I regularly get faced with getting onto the rear ladder of a boat in rough seas when conditions make it dangerous to try to climb the ladder wearing the BC/Cylinder, that is unless you want to risk some serious spinal injury when the ladder jerks you.
Also a lot safer and easier to time the entry without the extra weight.
So we normally inflate the BC, take it off, push it in front of us and the crewman grabs it at the right moment. So no more reg.
Then we swim up to the ladder, grab and hold on tight as it goes whizzing up.
The snorkel also helps because normally in these conditions the boat is drifting free with engines running and spitting hot exhaust in your face just under the ladder.