It's OK
to scuba dive
without a Snorkel!

Turtle in open water during an ssi scuba diving class.

Scuba divers on a reef in their padi diving class.

Two scuba divers in open water looking at a ship wreck.

As an instructor, I teach snorkel use to conserve air and energy at the surface. Both are valid reasons for students and inexperienced divers. However, advanced divers quickly learn that there is more air than there is time on deeper and repetitive dives and that if energy is being expelled rapidly, something is wrong. So much for the valid reasons.

Another use for the snorkel is to use it to swim to and from the descent point. That’s fine if you prefer to swim face down. I, however, prefer to swim on my back, and I’ve noticed most experienced scuba divers also prefer that method. Swimming on your back has several advantages:

You have a more efficient kick. You can kick deeper and wider and keep your fins under the water. The efficiency claim is not merely my opinion, but a fact proven during a recent swim fin study conducted by NAUI.
You can breathe easier without a snorkel in your mouth.
You can talk to people and hear them.
Your Scuba tank is more stable beneath you than on top of you.
You can see and hear approaching water craft.

Some divers complain that they cannot see where they are going if they swim on their backs, or that they swim "off course" and have to constantly adjust their direction. There are several techniques for managing this problem.

Follow a reverse compass heading.
Lower one shoulder slightly so that you can turn your head easier to see where you are going.

What about entanglements? It is extremely difficult for a back – swimming diver to transverse a kelp canopy. Plan your dive so that you swim beneath the kelp at the end of the dive instead of swimming through it at the surface. If you have air left in your tank (as you should), you can swim face down at the surface or pop down a few feet and swim under the canopy. After all these types of problems are what the last 500 pounds is for, use it.

Snorkels are necessary and wonderful things for snorkeling, but they can be a scuba diving nuisance.

Snorkels and snorkel attachments can:

Snag on stipes of kelp
Cause "mask wobble" when diving in current.
Tangle and pull the diver’s hair.
Snag and pull off your mask
Tangle with regulator hoses and the BC.
Interfere when you don your scuba unit over your head. (Another advanced class technique.)
Be a nuisance to remove when you pack your mask in a mask box for protection

Isn’t it time to rid scuba diving of the snorkel menace? If experienced scuba divers want to use a snorkel, that’s fine; but I think it’s time to say that it is acceptable for competent experienced divers to dive without one.

Dive safe and dive often,
Bwana

Aquastrophics Dive & Travel
(928) 680 - 3483

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It's OK to scuba dive without a Snorkel!

It's OK
to scuba dive
without a Snorkel!