Whether a Snorkel is really necessary for Scuba Diving is a question that gets asked rather frequently by divers. Most of us have been wearing a snorkel while diving simply because we were taught to do so early on in our Open Water courses, without ever weighing out the pros and cons or asking our instructors the reason for needing one. Some of us have used a snorkel frequently, and others have never found the need. So why do we need a snorkel?
Cons
- A snorkel is obviously a great way to swim on the surface without using up air from your scuba tank. However, once underwater, it creates drag, causing masks to leak, which many divers could live without. There is also the possibility of getting the snorkel entangled especially while diving wrecks where it could be considered an entanglement hazard.
- Many divers also feel that snorkels aren’t desirable, unless you’re shore diving, as you will rarely encounter a long surface swim. Others just don’t feel like wearing something you don’t need, hanging from your head. As a result, there are those who feel a snorkel isn’t really necessary in most situations.
Pros
- Having a snorkel attached to your mask is more than a comfort issue – it is a safety issue. A snorkel is needed for safety in recreational diving, It makes it easier to breathe on the surface without lifting your head out of the water and to conserve energy when at the surface. This is important because in rough conditions, with your weight belt on and exhausted after a long dive, a diver can breathe using the snorkel and avoid getting lungfuls of water in at every breath. The snorkel can allow you to rest and swim using the snorkel while exiting or while waiting to be picked up by the dive boat.
- Scuba divers use a snorkel not only as a safety device to float for extended periods of time while locating, or being located by, a boat; it is also used to swim to diving sites without using up precious air from the scuba tank.
Still, people don’t always agree…it seems they would rather be more comfortable than safe (kind of like riding a motorcycle without a helmet). Wouldn’t you rather have that lightweight tube of plastic handy rather than be caught up in a situation where you are left needing one?
Pictured (above) National Geographic Marlin 2 Mask And Snorkel Set – Explorer Series, (below) Aeris Cuda Dry Mini Snorkel. Available at LeisurePro.com
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The idea that it’s a safety issue is a crock of dookie. It is no more difficult to breathe with your face up to the sky without a snorkel than your face in the water with a snorkel. If you dive without a snorkel, when you surface just roll over on your back and float face up. It’s a matter of personal preference, and safety is not a legitimate issue when considering whether or not to don your snorkel for a dive.
It’s taught as a safety issue in PADI, however PADI is quite over the top with its safety precautions, which extends to NDL’s as well as a few other things. I was taught in a BSAC school which is far more practical in its teaching, and we had a big discussion on this topic. It’s considered good form to swim on your back while on the surface, and not facing down for several reasons.
Firstly, if the dive boat is coming towards you, you won’t be able to see it while facing down. Secondly, you can communicate and hear your buddy/group while on the surface which is very important, and thirdly it’s actually easier to swim on your back, as your tank and jacket keep you quite afloat above the waves. Because of these reasons, having a snorkel becomes unnecessary as if you try and use it while on your back water will get in. From this point all of the con’s from above come into play.
I have always instructed using the snorkel, and it serves a very necessary purpose – saving your air for DIVING. Properly used, there is little water taken in (especially if you pay attention to the training and EXHALE HARD before taking a breath) and swimming face down conserves energy if your BCD is correctly inflated. You can periodically lift your face to check your path (if not using a compass) and I’ve never had a student who failed to stop swimming and look up when I tapped my tank with my signal hammer (small polyurethane hammer which generates quite a clang but doesn’t damage tank coating).
While I understand that some divers no longer use the snorkel, I was certified as an Open Water Diver in 1975, and would no more enter the water without my snorkel as enter without my mask.
In heavy seas, the snorkel can be the difference between comfortably negotiating back to the rear of a dive boat and becoming sick from ingesting salt water. If you have sufficient air to use the regulator, fine, but 200# can go away quickly on the surface… and then what do you do?
Mac
PADI Divemaster/Assistant Instructor
NAUI/SSI Instructor
a snorkel is a safety peice of equipment, necessary in an emergency-scubpro stoped making the folding snorkel which allowed you to have it in the bc pocket and attach when needed unlike the flexible or telescoping snorkels , this one worked
It’s sad that this is pushed as a safety device when the truth is exactly the opposite. Unfortunately not all instructors are able to think beyond what their marketing oriented organization tells them.
Proper training from good instructors that actually dive (possibly find a tech instructor that also teaches recreational) is key. They’ll teach you about proper gear and what not to buy (90% of the crap out there).
If you must carry a snorkel stick it in your pocket. in the unlikely event that you’ll feel compelled to use it it will be available. If you dont have a pocket stick one (or two) on. Yes even on a wetsuit. That way you dont look like a Christmas tree.
In all other cases swim on your back (you know that you accumulate a lot more CO2 breathing through a tube right?) do your dive and when you come up from the dive climb on the boat with all your gear in place. That is mask, fins and regulator in your mouth until your on the boat. If you can’t think of the reason ask a tech instructor.
Anton-
I’d like to see you get back on a boat with your fins on. I’ll keep my snorkel, thanks. And who cares if you look like a Christmas tree? Have you ever looked at yourself with all your gear on?
Actually Anton is right. It’s not difficult to do and divers up here in the NE get (rightly so) screamed at by the crew if they try to remove their fins. Should you loose your grip even in a minimal current without fins you would have a hard time getting back on the boat.
Even if you are not interested in technical diving, picking up a few good things here and there is beneficial. The pockets are a great way to store things you may need while at the same time reducing drag. Properly trained tech divers are far more efficient in the water with a set of doubles and 2 deco bottles than the average recreational diver with poor trim and “christmas” tree decorations creating drag. Finally to the snorkel (the subject of this whole thread). It’s really useful only when snorkeling. When diving it’s far better to swim on your back at the surface. Why some training organizations insist on it in basic training (but make it disappear down the road) baffles me…
I am a technical diver. I consider on every dive exactly what I need and ONLY take that with me. I only take a snorkel with me when there is possibility that I may need to spend a great deal of time on the surface waiting for pick up in rough salt water. Period. I use it to be more comfortable with waves splashing me in the face. It is not a guarantee that I still will not get a mouth full of salt water.
For me personally a surface swim is much easier on my back. If waves or current makes it to difficult then I find it better to descend and swim underwater.
Bottom line is to think and figure out for yourself what is the safest and therefore best solution.
Maybe I should leave the war of opinion to actual divers (I just stumbled here out of interest) but I do have one point of observation: Discovery Channel type marine sequences often show professional (technical) divers and I you rarely see a snorkel. Just saying.
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