weights to make snorkel less buoyant

[agilis]

"The misconception that a BO is only for the experts..."

I believe exactly the opposite. Any group of free divers experiencing a high percentage of blackouts is doing something wrong. Very wrong.

 

[ballastbelly]

my genuine question has turned into a war on SWB.

on longer dives i spit my snorkel out on freediving as it feels more comfortable to me
its still tied to my mask.


a snorkel does have buoancy.it is a tube filled with air, & like an inflatable,or submarine
& it does take a little amount of force (primarily from upper left teeth) to hold underwater . try it.
this might cause disconformt to you but in my case, aftre a few hours in the water
it does. i have been looking at ways of countering this,




-weigth down snorkel with lead
-try and find a narrow bore norkel that fits an adult mouth
(like a kids snorkel 10mm), less volume means less buoancy
-look at orthodontic snorkels ( like the mares orthodontic ),anyone know if they are any good? as visually they dont look much thinner than my mares samoa
and for now:
-wear snorkel on right side

any comments/ideas are welcome

---------- Post Merged at 11:29 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:23 PM ----------

Because the snorkel is open on top it exerts no upward pull. It has no buoyancy. The problem may be the mouthpiece, the way in which the snorkel is attached to the mask, or the way you are biting down. I can't imagine why you remove the snorkel from your mouth when diving below the surface. It complicates what should be a smooth and effortless process. I'm wondering if this is a serious inquiry, or something related to the woman who called a radio station about the poor placement of deer crossing signs.

at the surface, my 12" snorkle has around 8"x approx 1" sq displacement. there is a upward pull,although small. by holding the snorkel with my hand i can feel and neutralise this pull. it affects my left upper teeth

 

[Diver0001]

a snorkel does have buoancy.it is a tube filled with air,

Dude... under water it's a tube filled with water and it's more likely to be negatively buoyant than positively buoyant.

If you put aside the freediving push-and-shove in this thread then you have received some good suggestions, including adjusting how the snorkel is attached, a technique for seeing if it's in your mouth at the proper angle, a suggestion about trying a different snorkel with a mouthpiece that enters your mouth at a different angle and trying a new mouthpiece on your existing snorkel. All of those were suggestions to avoid the need to clench your teeth because that's more likely to be the issue than anything unique about your snorkel that makes it the only positively buoyant one on the planet.

And you ignored all of that and went right back to where you started.

If you didn't want to listen to the advice then why did you ask for it?

R..

 

[agilis]

I knew your reason for removing the snorkel was not connected to best practices as recomended by extreme freedivers. You removed it because it hurt, right?

It hurt because it is being pulled upward, but not by air/bouyancy. It's almost certainly the way you have it attached to your mask that's causing the pulling. Try keepng it in you mouth but unattached to the mask, and you'll see what I mean. While doing this (in shallow water) let go of the snorkel and see what it does.The opening that allows you to breath also allows the snorkel to sink. Just like the opening in the side of the steel Titanic allowed it to sink. You are probably biting down to hard to keep the snorkel in position. Your mask might br leaking because the snorkel is pulling it down.

You ought to post in the section for new divers, not in a highly technical section designed for specialists whose issues are not yours.

 

[Diver0001]

You ought to post in the section for new divers, not in a highly technical section designed for specialists whose issues are not yours.

Well... yeah but on the other hand, we should be able to give him advice he can use.

Sometimes I think we're so edgy the way we communicate that the message gets lost in the manner of the delivery.

R..

 

[danvolker]

my genuine question has turned into a war on SWB.

on longer dives i spit my snorkel out on freediving as it feels more comfortable to me
its still tied to my mask.


a snorkel does have buoancy.it is a tube filled with air, & like an inflatable,or submarine
& it does take a little amount of force (primarily from upper left teeth) to hold underwater . try it.
this might cause disconformt to you but in my case, aftre a few hours in the water
it does. i have been looking at ways of countering this,




-weigth down snorkel with lead
-try and find a narrow bore norkel that fits an adult mouth
(like a kids snorkel 10mm), less volume means less buoancy
-look at orthodontic snorkels ( like the mares orthodontic ),anyone know if they are any good? as visually they dont look much thinner than my mares samoa
and for now:
-wear snorkel on right side

any comments/ideas are welcome

---------- Post Merged at 11:29 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:23 PM ----------



at the surface, my 12" snorkle has around 8"x approx 1" sq displacement. there is a upward pull,although small. by holding the snorkel with my hand i can feel and neutralise this pull. it affects my left upper teeth

A few issues....First, the "tube filled with air" means you were sucked in to buying the cr*p snorkel made for people with zero coordination and no clue whatsover, about the "really difficult" process of using a snorkel[ sarcasm ].....If you have even the slightest coordination, you don't want a "dry snorkel" the "tube full of air"... You want a standard J snorkel with a wide tube, with no purge on it. With the tiniest of training, you can snorkel easily in 1 foot waves, 5 foot waves, and if you are athletic, even much, much larger waves with a j snorkel and no purge.
You can buy these at any of the many freedive stores on the internet, for much less than the garbage snorkels sold at most scuba stores...the ones with the lousy flexible hose, the will cause the snorkel to flow around and not hold position if you are in rougher conditions.

So, in using one of these, it fills with water as soon as you go under water, and yest they do sink on their own..they are negative.
They cost less than the rip offs sold at scuba stores, with fancy purges and flexi hose. $20 is a good price, for an excellent real snorkel. Some of these rop off snorkels will cost more than $60, and it is absolute stupidity to own one....if anyone here reading this, has one of these high priced marvels, throw them in the garbage quickly before anyone see it in your dive bag...much like a sign for your back that says " Kick Me ! "..
See https://www.flfreedivers.com/store/index.php?cPath=40&osCsid=5aoh23583p6lj65strhjmp5t67 for some examples.
Whether you spit the snorkel out on your drops or leave it in, it will work either way.

 

[Diver0001]

With the tiniest of training, you can snorkel easily in 1 foot waves, 5 foot waves, and if you are athletic, even much, much larger waves with a j snorkel and no purge.

Meh....

and if you buy the one with a purge then you can snorkel in 100, 200 and 400 foot waves.

The simple J snorkels with no purge is what I use to teach scuba diving because it doesn't get any worse than that.

For snorkeling, buy a proper snorkel.

Dan, I have nothing but the highest respect for you but sometimes even YOU "piss outside the pot".

What you definitely don't want is one of those ping-pong ball things that we had in the 80's that was supposed to stop water from getting in the snorkel but actually just inhibited normal breathing.

R..

 

[danvolker]

Meh....

and if you buy the one with a purge then you can snorkel in 100, 200 and 400 foot waves.

The simple J snorkels with no purge is what I use to teach scuba diving because it doesn't get any worse than that.

For snorkeling, buy a proper snorkel.

Dan, I have nothing but the highest respect for you but sometimes even YOU "piss outside the pot".

What you definitely don't want is one of those ping-pong ball things that we had in the 80's that was supposed to stop water from getting in the snorkel but actually just inhibited normal breathing.

R..

While I could enjoy kidding about this topic for a while, the skill of using a snorkel is so tiny...so easy, I have found most athletic people that I have showed this skill to for the first time, picked it up in minutes, and then were able to snorkel with ease from then on... I have also shown this to people that have done little in outside sports their entire lives, and they have a much harder time grasping the idea of wanting air, but having to push the water out first with a blast.....Maybe it is a "genes" thing....Maybe it is not coordination at all ( more like the Valsalva Maneuver, that some divers just can't do)....... But if you happen to be one of the people that finds a j snorkel easy to use, then the dry snorkels would piss you off quickly....they create so many problems, their is not reason to have them...this including the bouyancy foolishness the OP did not like....so here I am giving the real solution to the problem...use a real snorkel, not the nonsense dry snorkels....

 

[ballastbelly]

>It hurt because it is being pulled upward, but not by air/bouyancy.
>You ought to post in the section for new divers, not in a highly technical section designed for specialists whose issues are not yours.[/QUOTE]
????

My snorkel is not a dry snorkel. The buoyancy i am mentioning is at the surface, whilst snorkling:
at the surface, my 12" snorkel has around 8"x approx 1" sq displacement. there is a upward pull,although small. by holding the snorkel with my hand i can feel and neutralise this pull. it affects my left upper teeth


Ignoring waves, with a J tube snorkel, while you are breathing though it,it is sealed from water entry, & its volume displaces water. This water displacement causes bouyancy, albeit insignificant for many. I can feel this upward pull and if i counter it by holding the snorkle a bit with my hand to counter this small buoyancy, my upper left teeth felt better.


I think this problem affects me more as I snorkel a lot, around 5 hrs a stretch on both sat & sunday, summer or winter ,or i might have more sensitive teeth than others who snorkel as much as i do. I think this is a valid question for this group "snorkeling/freediving" . I have heard about hydrodynamicly shaped snorkels to reduce the pull on teeth from current, maybe someone here knows about a neutrally bouyant snorkel (when used at the surface)?

thanks

 

[danvolker]

There is also the "Sea cure" custom molded mouthpiece...some people use them for scuba second stages....There may be a snorkel that would accept this sea cure mouthpiece, and then it would "distribute" the pressure in your mouth much better over 5 hours....

I just did a search, and there are many snorkels that will take the custom molded mouthpieces.