Toylike snorkels...

[MAKO Spearguns]

We offer a variety of simple snorkels which are more popular with serious freedivers than snorkels with valves and other extra features..

Dive-Masks-Snorkels

 

[Vicko]

I know it's off topic but I feel I need to react.
Holding your snorkle in your mouth can kill you if you have proper weight ballance on the surface you will turn on your back when you blackout and inhale water .

Using "hook" breaths every dive can lead to mismanagment of serious situations when u you need it. Hook breaths are used on competitions, when you know you ****ed up and youre trying to salvage the dive. It will keep you bouyant when you blackout so youre airways will not submerge and it might shorten your samba so the judge does not dq you. When you use it alone, without proper safety divers it puts you in a bad situation where you might inhale water during a samba event.
If you start exhaling while you are under the surface, and you are having a samba or blackout you reduce the chance of your first breath being air since you get less bouyant and you don't shoot out as much.

 

[Bob DBF]

I'm not a freediver, but I thought I read something that it was bad to look anywhere but straight ahead? I don't recall if it was due to increased blackouts or something else.

Perhaps if I was competitively freediving, it might make a difference. I have picked up a few tricks from a buddy that does that type of freediving, however I only dive like that with him as it has it's dangers. In my freediving, I do not do a breathing routine that blows off CO2, I simply relax on the surface, breathe normally and when ready, take a deep breath and submerge. This limits my depth and a number of bad side effects of freediving, however over the 35+ years of doing this mostly solo it still works for me. As for for facing straight ahead, how am I going to find the hole in the kelp to put my snorkel through if I don't look for it?

Ana
you're better off not having the snorkel in your mouth while underwater; if something was to happen your airway becomes a waterway. Snorkel is only to be used on the surface.

I see no difference between having a snorkel full of water or an ocean full of water while submerged. I understand the problem when competitively freediving as the diver is breaking the surface to inhale sans snorkel, I have done that with a buddy while practicing with him, as otherwise it would be pretty boring just waiting between his dives, however that is not the diving I enjoy. When I freedive my mouth is rarely out of the water at all, and if I have overstayed my welcome and the CO2 is having it's way with me and I have to get my head out of the water, I spit the snorkel before I break the surface.


As for using the snorkel with SCUBA, I use it while on the surface as I have since '63.



---------- Post added September 4th, 2015 at 08:58 AM ----------

Ah, that. No, the air will come out of the valve instead of down the tube. Unless you plug the valve with your finger on the way up.

Your right, however I haven't really used a dry snorkel since they first came out, I could see no advantage over a simple tube for me.


Bob

 

[Vicko]

I see no difference between having a snorkel full of water or an ocean full of water while submerged. I understand the problem when competitively freediving as the diver is breaking the surface to inhale sans snorkel, I have done that with a buddy while practicing with him, as otherwise it would be pretty boring just waiting between his dives, however that is not the diving I enjoy. When I freedive my mouth is rarely out of the water at all, and if I have overstayed my welcome and the CO2 is having it's way with me and I have to get my head out of the water, I spit the snorkel before I break the surface.

The difference being that when something happens and you get a blackout with the snorkel in your mouth you will turn on your back on the surface, and instead of having a chance to breath in air you will breath in water, and die the same way to many people have before.

Removing your snorkel takes half a seconds, and puting it back in takes another half a second. Leaving the snorkel in your mouth at the wrong time kills you. I know that you will probably never have a blackout, most freedivers don't, but every good freediver out there will tell you the same thing, keep that snorkel out of your mouth and try to get used to keeping your mouth dry while diving, a lot of people forget to do that after years of diving with snorkels in their mouth.

In case my posts sound derogatory or to harsh I apologize, that was not my intention at all.

 

[dmaziuk]

That still doesn't explain or give a definition of 'hook' breaths. What exactly is a hook breath and how does it prevent divers from blacking out at 15'?

Google says it doesn't, it may help with blackouts on the surface. Reminds me of a House MD episode where he tells a patient with no heartbeat but still conscious: "keep coughing, it'll force some blood into your brain". ---------- Post added September 4th, 2015 at 12:42 PM ----------

Your right, however I haven't really used a dry snorkel since they first came out, I could see no advantage over a simple tube for me.

If you just snorkel, face down, the little water that gets past the splash guard will run down to where the valve is. There should be enough room there to keep it below your mouth. Then a small exhale or two -- not a hard blow like with the simple tube -- will clear it. It doesn't work quite so well when you flood the tube completely. Considering the amount of use mine gets while scuba diving I don't care either way, I'm just using the one I already have. And no, mine's not a "dry" kind with a ball valve up top. I am not fond of those.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The other part of not having the snorkel in your mouth underwater is some say to induce further the mammalian reflex?
And also if you try both snorkel in and snorkel out, I found that it's easier to manage the urge to breathe and fight off the first involuntary C02 build up spasm by doing a swallowing movement. It really is easier with no snorkel. The mechanism that makes you want to breathe is not 02 depletion, it's C02 buildup. Many times just because you want to breathe doesn't mean that you don't have plenty of 02 still in your system.
The other thing freedivers can do if they really feel they've overstayed their welcome is to release their weight belt buckle and just hold hold it
together with their fingers, then if they do blackout they will unconsciously let go of the belt and rise to the surface.

I'm older now and little out of practice, but many good freedivers in the past have told me that for the type of freediving we do, keep your dives to no more than one and a half minutes. That's a long time when ab diving in cold murky Norcal waters. Right now I'm good for a minute on a good day on our North Coast.
Put it this way, I'm good enough to get a limit of nice abs, so that's fine.

 

[Bob DBF]

The difference being that when something happens and you get a blackout with the snorkel in your mouth you will turn on your back on the surface, and instead of having a chance to breath in air you will breath in water, and die the same way to many people have before.

Removing your snorkel takes half a seconds, and puting it back in takes another half a second. Leaving the snorkel in your mouth at the wrong time kills you. I know that you will probably never have a blackout, most freedivers don't, but every good freediver out there will tell you the same thing, keep that snorkel out of your mouth and try to get used to keeping your mouth dry while diving, a lot of people forget to do that after years of diving with snorkels in their mouth.

In case my posts sound derogatory or to harsh I apologize, that was not my intention at all.

Don't worry about hurting my feelings, I used to ride submarines for a living.

If I was using the tricks that freedivers use to extend time and depths, not only would I worry about your concerns, I also would not dive without a spotter. As I have read and heard, the reduction of natural CO2 levels plays a huge part in these blackout incidents. I do not breathe up or hyperventilate prior to a dive and it limits my time and depth but for Ab diving it works, for a competative freediver I'm crap.

I share your concern about the dangers of freediving, but this isn't my first rodeo. I have been using my method for decades and thousands of dives without incident so I'm inclined to stick with it. Considering I am not as daring as I was in my youth, I'm safer now in my freediving as I was then.


Bob
--------------------
I mam be old, but I'm not dead yet.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The discussion has broadened a lot and I am not a good freediver - neither depth nor time underwater.. And I have not had much training in it either. I know only one freediver who does not remove his snorkel when doing a strenuous freedive. I might leave mine in if dropping down for 20 seconds or something myself. When i learned a long time ago.. nobody removed their snorkel during a dive.

As for the idea that releasing the belt and holding it if you feel like you pushed it too far and the assumption that if you have a Samba or BO and you will instantly release the belt....That SOUNDS perfectly reasonable, however I have heard anecdotal stories (never witnessed it myself) that a diver can go into a samba and the hand cramps up on a gun or belt and the object is not released automatically in every case.

I've heard of rescues where the rescuer is trying to get the loaded gun away from a diver who is unconscious, and had significant difficulty prying it from their fingers.

So a more conservative approach might be to drop the belt if you are even thinking about it. Few people will do that, but they probably should.

Also, I think the idea to not move your head around and only look straight ahead pertains only to deep divers and only when "deep". Apparently the trachea (and the cartilaginous rings) is rather inflexible and vulnerable to compression and tracheal bleeds are not unusual for really deep divers. Keeping the chin down, is supposed to hold the trachea in the least vulnerable position, extending the neck and looking up does the opposite. Keeping the chin tucked also puts you into a more streamlined position, but you can't see where you are going..

 

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Perhaps if I was competitively freediving, it might make a difference. I have picked up a few tricks from a buddy that does that type of freediving, however I only dive like that with him as it has it's dangers. In my freediving, I do not do a breathing routine that blows off CO2, I simply relax on the surface, breathe normally and when ready, take a deep breath and submerge. This limits my depth and a number of bad side effects of freediving, however over the 35+ years of doing this mostly solo it still works for me. As for for facing straight ahead, how am I going to find the hole in the kelp to put my snorkel through if I don't look for it?

As for using the snorkel with SCUBA, I use it while on the surface as I have since '63. Bob

Thanks for the clarification. I've been caught once wishing I had a snorkel and it won't ever happen again. I'd rather suck my tank underwater than on a 100 yard+ surface swim, so I'm right there with you.

Also, I think the idea to not move your head around and only look straight ahead pertains only to deep divers and only when "deep". Apparently the trachea (and the cartilaginous rings) is rather inflexible and vulnerable to compression and tracheal bleeds are not unusual for really deep divers. Keeping the chin down, is supposed to hold the trachea in the least vulnerable position, extending the neck and looking up does the opposite. Keeping the chin tucked also puts you into a more streamlined position, but you can't see where you are going..

That makes sense - a compressed trachea and bleed does not sound like much fun. I did once see a video on YT where the freediver slammed into an overhang by not looking up. Neither option sounds particularly great. Luckily (?) I am much too chicken for freediving so I don't have to worry about all that.