View Full Version : When does one become a snorkeller?
Just out of curiosity, when does one cross the line and become a snorkeller? I consider myself a swimmer, but swim in lakes and sometime rivers. I had a magical experience this year swimming in a river with clear water and wall to wall fish. But apart from shorts (a bad choice, as I had a fish swim up them and had to shoo it out), and goggles so that I could see, I had no equipment. Having to surface to breathe all the time was a bit annoying. But being a "swimmer" I'm thinking that for next year I'll get a finswimming snorkel, so that (hopefully) eventually I build up a finswimming kit.
I'd guess that formally as soon as you have a snorkel of any type, even a hollow reed plucked from the riverbank, you're a snorkeller. But how would people on this forum draw the line between "swimmers" and "snorkellers"?
Nigel Hewitt
25-11-2007, 12:08
Just out of curiosity, when does one cross the line and become a snorkeller?I think it comes when you put a mask on to see what is there and start to hang about rather than keep moving.
Swimming is the buzz to a swimmer but where you are and what you see is important to a snorkeler.
A snorkel is a good tool but a good mask and fins are more important. Once seeing has become the big aim you need a mask that gives a good image and once you have used fins you know why we do it.
The other big difference is breath holding. I snorkel/freedive in an insulated suit and with weights to compensate for its buoyancy. My intention is to drop to the interesting bit and stay there for a while and see what I can so I have trained to do the time. There are a whole bunch of tricks that have been developed over the years to make this safer which is why we do training and snorkel/freedive in pairs or groups.
David Walker
25-11-2007, 13:11
Suppose my simple distinction between the two would be that swimming is primarily focussed on moving around the surface of the water, snorkelling is really just interested in what is under the surface.
David
There's an interesting insight on snorkelling in a message entitled "What is Essential for Snorkelers?" on the Snorkeling Forum at
http://snorkelingforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6
The moral is that snorkelling isn't about the fins with the longest carbon-fibre blades, the lowest-volume mask or the most over-engineered snorkel on the market.
The term "snorkelling" is in any case a comparatively recent coinage. If you look at the how-to literature of the 1950s, the British titles will refer to "sub-aqua" or "underwater swimming", while American books will use the term "skin diving". This nomenclature made little or no distinction between breath-hold and scuba diving. In the 1950s, "freediving" - a translation of "plongée libre" - usually referred to diving with air tanks, distinguishing the activity from surface-supplied standard helmeted diving with lead-weighted boots.
I would like to see the term "snorkelling" left with as loose a definition as possible. It's an activity that can be pursued with a minimum of gear. It's the aquatic equivalent of that popular everyday activity hiking, where everybody has a different idea about what is the best gear around. As such, it's quite different from freediving where there's a competitive edge and a select group of practitioners and retailers dictating gear design such as long-bladed closed-heel fins. It's also different from the images projected by many scuba divers, who treat snorkelling as a mere foundation to the ultimate goal of diving with air tanks.
I'm a lifelong snorkeller who doesn't want to "proceed" to scuba or free diving. I'm very happy swimming in the North Sea most weekends with my traditional rubber full-foot fins, oval rubber mask and simple "J" snorkel. I don't spend a lot of my time observing what is underwater because there's not a lot to see. I don't regard observation of sealife as the sole focus of snorkelling, although it can add to the interest.
As for the distinction between swimming and snorkelling, yes, perhaps the addition of a mask and snorkel represents the transition from one activity to the other. Swimmers nowadays often train with fins, so wearing them may not be enough to convert them to snorkellers. This said, does it all really matter? Wartime frogmen, equipped with exposure suits, fins, masks and rebreathers, were often officially called "combat swimmers". In the UK early drysuits were called "underwater swimsuits". When I snorkel at the weekend I don't mind if others call me a "swimmer" rather than a "snorkeller" because I'm doing a back crawl at the time.
BIGLICKER
22-12-2007, 17:35
Just out of curiosity, when does one cross the line and become a snorkeller? I consider myself a swimmer, but swim in lakes and sometime rivers. I had a magical experience this year swimming in a river with clear water and wall to wall fish. But apart from shorts (a bad choice, as I had a fish swim up them and had to shoo it out), and goggles so that I could see, I had no equipment. Having to surface to breathe all the time was a bit annoying. But being a "swimmer" I'm thinking that for next year I'll get a finswimming snorkel, so that (hopefully) eventually I build up a finswimming kit.
I'd guess that formally as soon as you have a snorkel of any type, even a hollow reed plucked from the riverbank, you're a snorkeller. But how would people on this forum draw the line between "swimmers" and "snorkellers"?
According to our club D.O. its when your P.A.D.I. qualified!!:D
rOy.
Ron Evans
28-12-2007, 18:45
I'm a DO, so what I say is The Law as well. You are a snorkeller if you have done the BSAC Snorkel Diver course. I don't think that PADI have such a course, so we must be better snorkellers than PADI!
I'm a DO, so what I say is The Law as well. You are a snorkeller if you have done the BSAC Snorkel Diver course. I don't think that PADI have such a course, so we must be better snorkellers than PADI!
Total Bo***Ks whats the PADI Skin Diver course? Are we better Divers than PADI? or are we all the same? Oh is it us and them?
I'm a DO, so what I say is The Law as well. You are a snorkeller if you have done the BSAC Snorkel Diver course. I don't think that PADI have such a course, so we must be better snorkellers than PADI!
Many years ago when I joined the BSAC you had to do your snorkel qualification before you were allowed anywhere near an aqualung
Nigel Hewitt
28-12-2007, 22:16
I'm a DO, so what I say is The Law as well.The Law, as they say, is an Ass.
Of course, as an 'occard soul I normally breath hold dive without a snorkel. I don't like the things and I certainly don't like adding half a litre of dead air space to my breathing.
(edit) OK not half a litre. See below (/edit)
Many years ago when I joined the BSAC you had to do your snorkel qualification before you were allowed anywhere near an aqualung
Was that when the old dianosors had beards:D
ChristianG
29-12-2007, 06:25
The Law, as they say, is an Ass.
Of course, as an 'occard soul I normally breath hold dive without a snorkel. I don't like the things and I certainly don't like adding half a litre of dead air space to my breathing.
Now Nigel, if you use a hard plastic "J" (no more, no less, .6 to .8 mm diameter) snorkel with a decent mouthpiece on the end and absolutely nothing else and which reaches maybe 40mm above your head in snorkel mode (properly adjusted) then it's hardly half a litre is it? You're the physics geek - work it out - I can't.
I'll entirely agree with you when we're talking about all these new-fangled "snorkels" with umpteen purges and 40 mm and more wide bores - and everything else on the wretched things the entirely needless complications of which make them go very wrong indeed very quickly just when you need them most.
Was that when the old dianosors had beards:D
No
That was so long ago that the dinosaurs were still too young to grow beards.
Is a DIANOSOR an attractive female dinosaur???
Nigel Hewitt
29-12-2007, 10:56
That was so long ago that the dinosaurs were still too young to grow beards.
When human beings have dominated the earth for 150 million years then we will have some right to be rude about dinosaurs.
Now Nigel, if you use a hard plastic "J" (no more, no less, .6 to .8 mm diameter) snorkel with a decent mouthpiece on the end and absolutely nothing else and which reaches maybe 40mm above your head in snorkel mode (properly adjusted) then it's hardly half a litre is it?
At 800 microns bore, nor is it breathable :-)
Vic.
Richard Whitcombe
08-01-2008, 04:09
According to our club D.O. its when you're P.A.D.I. qualified!!:D
rOy.
Well maybe he needs to look at the instructor manual, a snorkel is in the equipment configuration list for ocean diver so just like padi the student is supposed to have one and the instructor.
It would appear both agencies are equally as irritating with their insistence on taking a small plastic tube 20m underwater.
BIGLICKER
10-01-2008, 22:34
Well maybe he needs to look at the instructor manual, a snorkel is in the equipment configuration list for ocean diver so just like padi the student is supposed to have one and the instructor.
It would appear both agencies are equally as irritating with their insistence on taking a small plastic tube 20m underwater.
Hi Richard, I've never had a snorkel, I crossed over from padi to Ocean Diver, but now I'm progressing to Sports Diver my D.O. has told me I'll need one???
Maybe I should ask everyones advice on buying one??:D :D :D
Cheers rOy.:eek:
Nigel Hewitt
10-01-2008, 22:59
Maybe I should ask everyones advice on buying one??
Any good military surplus store should have one
Snorkels (http://www.uboataces.com/snorkel.shtml)
BIGLICKER
12-01-2008, 23:44
Any good military surplus store should have one
Snorkels (http://www.uboataces.com/snorkel.shtml)
Very interesting photos on there Nigel, but, I dont think I'd be able to get my bouyancy with one of those strapped to me !!!:eek: LOL.
Cheers ... _ _ _ ... r O y.;)
When I snorkel at the weekend I don't mind if others call me a "swimmer" rather than a "snorkeller" because I'm doing a back crawl at the time.
I'd imagine it must be quite entertaining watching someone trying to breath through a snorkel whilst doing backstroke............
I'm not sure what I'd call you, but I don't think it would be "swimmer"
I'd imagine it must be quite entertaining watching someone trying to breath through a snorkel whilst doing backstroke............
I'm not sure what I'd call you, but I don't think it would be "swimmer"
I'm sure you're right, but I don't think I've ever seen anybody breathe through a snorkel while swimming backstroke, least of all myself. A snorkel can simply be removed from the mouth when it's not required.
I'm sure you're right, but I don't think I've ever seen anybody breathe through a snorkel while swimming backstroke, least of all myself. A snorkel can simply be removed from the mouth when it's not required.
Last time I saw it was when I was running a practical rescue management course. One of the scenarios required rescuers to swim out from the beach, as it was quiet a way the swimmer turned on her back half way out but forgot to take the snorkel out of her mouth and therefore promptly got a ton of water up the tube, queue massive coughing fit. The "rescue manager" thought I was adding another problem for him, his comment was not very complimentary about my parentage. :D
joshua1996
24-03-2008, 09:56
hi well u need to get down to yr neerest bsac club and ask about snorkling and it is £25 to do
Tomas Hladik
27-04-2008, 13:49
Nobody needs any course to become a snorkler. You allways need a buddy in the water and strong mind. As long as you enjoy your selve everything is good. It is just a metter of time until swimmer become a multi function sportsman in the water. Diving opens other levels in the water and swimmers find a new space. It is not just here and there but with snorkling it becomes everywhere. ... it is soo beautifull.
Well said, Tomas. I've been a lifelong snorkeller because I can snorkel anywhere there is a river, lake or sea. Any kind of mask, snorkel and fins will do. It can be a truly spontaneous activity, which doesn't have to lead to any other pastime such as scuba or freediving. It's enjoyable for its own sake.
ukfinswimmer
03-07-2008, 22:10
If anyone is interested in finswimming (the competitive version of snorkelling and sub-aqua) please contact me or have a look at the British Finswimming Association website http://finswimming.co.uk/
People have mentioned needing finswimming kit; please feel free to discuss kit requirements with me, I have some knowledge of the sport and kit.
Michael Purcell
04-07-2008, 02:04
If anyone is interested in finswimming (the competitive version of snorkelling and sub-aqua) please contact me or have a look at the British Finswimming Association website (http://www.finswimming.co.uk).
People have mentioned needing finswimming kit; please feel free to discuss kit requirements with me, I have some knowledge of the sport and kit.
(the competitive version of snorkelling and sub-aqua) -odd description for this sport. Just because it happens to use a sort of fin and snorkel I would hardly relate it to either of the two descriptors.
1. the link is broken the ) is inside the URL tag
2. Looks like a lot of fun.
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