Snorkles

[LeadTurn_SD]

I tend to agree. I never snorkeled much and every time I do, I dive down and take a few breaths...dont seem to get much out of it except for a coughing fit...go figure.

There doesn't tend to be much cold water snorkeling, so most of us never get use to it. And our instructors dont really like them either.
Its like anything that you don't use, or don't like using...why have it on you if it just going to cause grief or be a PIA. In that case, we learn how to dive (get use to) diving without it. I think neither is right or wrong...just different things for different situations.

I do want to put together a "feed the Sea Lion candy canes day" they really like playing with snorkels. No one go ECO on me they don't actually eat them.

U/O

I highlighted the point I was trying to make. If you don't use them much, and especially if your instructors don't like them, it becomes very easy to dismiss any possible utility for OW diving.

I think as Thal pointed out based on his experiences that a snorkel CAN be used in many different environments.

Sea lions, and here in Hawaii night diving with Manta's can be good reasons to leave the snorkel behind.

Whether you CHOOSE to use it is really a matter of preference, past experience and training, and the type of diving you do.

I find a snorkel very helpful at times, and there have been a few dives I did without a snorkel that I ended up wishing I had one.

Other divers do not find them useful.

 

[Thalassamania]

Oh ... I did think of one more place I don't use a snorkel, with a helmet or with a FFM (but then I'm usually surface supplied and it doesn't matter).

 

[String]

lol...You're close, but no cigar.....Hope you don't find out one day---the hard way....Always remember , 'It ain't rare if it's in your chair'---think about that one for a while(if you need help with it, let me know).........

Keep deluding yourself with the false idea you need it if you want. The rest of us will quite happily trust the hundreds of thousands of dives done in conditions worse than you describe where not one has actually needed a snorkel for safety or comfort. They know exactly how to use one but also now know it doesn't have any conceivable use when diving.

 

[String]

My "local observation" here in Hawaii is that those most likely to use a snorkel PROPERLY have been trained to do so and have seen a reason to continue doing so. By "trained" I mean much more than the simple PADI requirement of having one strapped to their mask to pass the class: I mean actually to rig it and HOW TO USE IT in the ocean.

Again experience here would state the opposite. You see VERY few people wearing snorkels, really a tiny fraction of 1 percent. And in almost every single case that is a newly qualified diver (usually one who trained abroad) and these ditch it after 1-2 dives.

The only people you see wearing the things are people who havent learnt to use the rest of their gear properly. Those who are overweighted, dont have enough lift or those already very nervous of the water and want everything including the kitchen sink "just in case". Once they get experienced and educated they realise there isnt the slightest need ever for one and it gets dumped in the bag to grow mould only to emerge once a year on holiday when they want to do some actual snorkelling.

 

[Thalassamania]

Keep deluding yourself with the false idea you need it if you want. The rest of us will quite happily trust the hundreds of thousands of dives done in conditions worse than you describe where not one has actually needed a snorkel for safety or comfort.

The "rest of us" implies that the use of a snorkel is an aberrant behavior rather than the norm. Using a snorkel is normal for the vast majority of divers, some for the right reasons, some for the wrong ... but that's neither here nor there.

 

[String]

Id argue with that. Not one of the places ive worked (clear, warm waters with surf quote often) have had more than 5% or so of divers wearing one. Maybe another 5% or so have one stuffed in a pocket but i certainly wouldnt call it the norm. Even in the florida keys admittedly on a smaller sample scale i did 20 dives there and saw exactly 2 divers on the boat in that time wearing one (out of 12-15 people most trips).

In the UK you dont see them at all once they've qualified. Theyre ditched immediately.

 

[Underwater Ogre]

String,
I can no way take offense to your statements because I don't use a snorkel, but I cant agree with them.
So let me see if I am getting this...all the training organizations around the globe don't have a clue. If your theory is correct, they are teaching snorkel use in OW classes...for what?? It cant be a money grab...they already have your money.

U/O

 

[Thalassamania]

I've only been diving in the UK on one trip, back when I was working on stuff for UNESCO in Paris and zipped over for the Diving Officers' Meeting. Granted that was about fifteen years ago, but everyone I dove with and everyone I saw had a snorkel on their mask strap, which is pretty much the case for all salt water diving in the US.