Snorkel: Required or dangerous?

[Hoyden]

Just ignore the "dive boat" experts. If you want to wear a snorkel on every dive, go for it. I wear a snorkel when I am snorkeling and I am only snorkeling when diving is not an option... or when I am teaching an open water class. Past that I carry one on my pocket when teaching other recreational classes. I never wear a snorkel when diving for pleasure or work (other than the above mentioned teaching scenario).

I used to try to debate the "dive boat" experts, but now I just ignore them or say "okay, thanks" and go on about my life. I am pretty sure that the result is the same except less annoying.

YMMV,

Jackie

 

[mcohen1021]

No on snorkels, they are in the way and make you look like a noob. Buy a compact snorkel that you can pit into your BC pocket.

 

[gert7to3]

Lifeguards at Laguna Beach in California will order you to have snorkel at least with you. I keep a folding one in a pocket with a clip mount on my mask band

 

[dmaziuk]

Little issues have a way to snowball and develop into major issues that are life threatening.

Yes, and a pound of prevention beats an ounce of cure.

Personally, I'm yet to find myself in the water where I couldn't breathe on the surface without the snorkel. I'm sure that water exists, I just managed to somehow not go there. So far. That may change, YMMV, and all that.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

This discussion is entertaining. Before answering, I'd point out that when I was certified in the mid 1980's the snorkel was mounted on the right side of the mask. The idea was that all air sources were on the right. Then apparently folks grabbed the snorkel mouthpiece by mistake instead of the second stage, which is not good, so snorkels moved to the left about 2000 or so. Then I started hearing folks said "they're a hazard" and started looking down on people who wore them, even in situations where there was no real hazard I could perceive. (I only moved my snorkel to the left when I started DM training a couple years ago. I had been diving for 30+ years with it on the right, and damned if it wasn't a really steep learning curve with the change. All my muscle memory was built in to "snorkel on the right.")

My answer is "it depends." Think about the kind of diving you're doing. For shore diving in Puget Sound, I find it helpful. There are times when there's a long surface swim to get sufficient depth to start the dive. You could carry a LOT of extra air and "plan" for doing it on the regulator, but that's a pain. Or you could swim on your back, but you miss seeing stuff underwater and your navigation isn't as good. When I'm teaching, I'll use it when anchoring the buoy. I can see bottom and when I either see 20' deep or I stop seeing bottom (in poor vis), I drop down. (I also try to keep as much air in my cylinder as possible when teaching, to make sure I can assist a student if anything goes really haywire. Call it my neuroses and planning for the worst.) I also use it when teaching when I need to see a surface skill performed underwater, e.g. remove and replace weights.

Although I don't do a lot of wreck penetrations and there's no cave diving to speak of locally, I've not been bothered by a snorkel in those situations. In wrecks I've dove and our local equivalent of caves (abandoned sewer outfalls), or even in our local bull kelp, the snorkel hasn't been what's ever triggered a hangup. That said, I "get" why it could and understand why best practice might be to keep it off in those situations. There area also rare occasions I've encountered high current underwater, where the snorkel did add some drag. However, I've encountered more occasions of chop on the surface or a planned/unplanned long surface swim where I was happy to have it.

On a boat dive in the tropics I can't see condemning somebody for either having it or not.

 

[Nemrod]

During the 80s I was refused to dive without a snorkel by the PADI schooled DMs of the era in SoFla. Oh, no, you cannot possibly dive without a snorkel! In the 60s and 70s a snorkel, if used, was on the right, all air was on the right. Then somewhere along the way, the snorkel somehow got on the left. And no, I do not use a snorkel unless I think I may need to surface swim face down. In which case, I might use my roll up snorkel. I prefer to swim on my back so I can look for boats and navigate more easily. If I need to roll over and check the bottom for a moment I can do that without a snorkel or engaging my air supply. I do not think a snorkel to be particularly dangerous though they can rip a mask off, more just annoying flopping around and beating me in the head. I mostly just leave them in my dive bag. I would say, yeah, more annoying than dangerous. The danger being limited to loss of the mask at an inopportune time, not generally a big deal. N

 

[Daebado]

I carry an Aqua Lung Nautilus rolled up and hanging from my backplate where I can reach it but is never in the way. I always dive with it and I like the thought of having it for that one-time emergency you never saw coming. I figure the most likely scenario would be surfacing in rough seas with no boat in sight. To this point in my diving career, I have never used it.

The only thing I don't like about this snorkel is that it is just an open tube and I would think in rough seas, water could easily get in and cause a choking scenario (I really like my dry snorkel for actual snorkelling). I know that if it were a "dry" snorkel, it wouldn't be able to be rolled up so small but maybe a device that could be fastened to the top of the tube somehow at the time of use? Either way, it's still better than nothing.

 

[drbill]

I've been diving now for 58 years. Ever since I started filming underwater, I stopped wearing a snorkel because it got in the way when filming in tight areas. There have been very few times when I actually needed a snorkel, but in those instances it would have come in very handy.

 

[ontdiver]

The vast majority of our club members dive with snorkels on the St. Lawrence River, where we are accustomed to frequently diving solo due to low viz conditions and often have to wait an extended period of time on the surface to be picked up by the boat. I have carried this habit to LOB diving.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

They do not cause me confusion, besides being confused why some divers are so passionately against them.

Because they’re haters. They don’t need a reason.