Snorkels are considered a core piece of scuba gear. Mask, fins, and snorkel: the three items every beginner starts with. We take this for granted, and dive away with those plastic tubes strapped to our head. After a while, though, we start to question the utility of a snorkel. When diving the smooth Caribbean waters, for example, is a snorkel really necessary?

At this juncture, there are a few paths the blossoming diver can take:

• Keep the snorkel. Your first option is to heed your training and continue to dive while wearing a snorkel at all times. Sure, it can be uncomfortable in a current, but you rest easy knowing it’s always there.
• Exchange the snorkel for a pocket snorkel. Your next option is to remove the snorkel from your mask. Aaah, how liberating! There are times when you may need a snorkel, so for those situations you carry a foldable pocket snorkel in your BCD pocket. In an emergency, it’s only a zipper away.
• Ditch the snorkel. Look out, divers, this future tech diver means business! The last option is to ditch the snorkel completely. I don’t imagine anyone throws their snorkel away, but rather keeps it in their gear bag and wears it on a case-by-case basis. Choppy waters with low viz? Bring the snorkel. Bonaire shore dive? No thanks.

If you find a snorkel uncomfortable, I think carrying a pocket snorkel is your best option. I don’t own one (yet), so I wear a snorkel based on the dive conditions. However, be aware that some dive operators may not let you in the water if you don’t have a snorkel. For this reason, you should always carry a snorkel with your gear.

What do you think? Are snorkels for sissies, or would only a fool go in the water without one?

Photo by chrisada

I randomly came across this interesting device. It’s an ear dryer, for drying out the insides of your ears after swimming or scuba diving. It even warms the air it blows into your ear canal.

I was a little surprised to see this device selling for $100 USD. Who would pay that much for this, especially when you can make homemade swimmer’s ear for a couple of bucks?

I started reading the comments on the sales page and it hit me. If you suffer from chronic ear infections, then anytime you come out of the water you are potentially facing doctor visits, medications, and other miscellaneous expenses—not to mention, no more diving until it clears up. This pretty much eliminates swimming or diving as a hobby for you.

Enter the ear dryer. For $100, you take a few minutes after each dive to clear out your ears. Presto! Your chances of ear infection are drastically reduced. If you fit into this category, then I imagine this is a great little device.

Peeing in your wetsuit, it’s right up there with death and taxes as one of life’s certainties. Even so, our civil sides don’t like to talk about it; especially that great feeling it gives you on a cold dive. It warms you right up from the inside out—or does it?

I’ve been reading that despite what you might think, peeing in your wetsuit will not actually warm you up. What happens is that the warm urine opens up the blood vessels near your skin’s surface. These blood vessels think they are no longer cold and relax. Then, shortly thereafter, the warm pee gets washed away and cold water returns. The blood vessels are no longer constricted, so they very quickly allow your warmth to be taken away before they realize it’s cold again and constrict.

This constriction, by the way, is what leads to numbness. It’s your body’s way of protecting its vitals, by restricting blood flow to the less-important extremities.

This peeing myth was certainly news to me. It’s something to remember next time I’m tempted to pee in my wetsuit on a cold dive. But hey, who am I kidding? I’m gonna do it anyway.

Few things ruin a dive as quickly as a poorly-sealed mask. I had this problem the other day, and it disrupted my dive by being distracting and making me run through my air supply by constantly clearing it.

I started playing around with something that I think helps a little. Next time your mask is leaking water, instead of clearing it as usual, exhale a little stream of bubbles out your nose. Sometimes this will keep a small leak cleared by forcing the water out of the mask.

This approach managed to keep my mask clear without costing my air supply. I have to exhale anyway, so I just exhaled at the same usual rate but out of my nose instead of my mouth.

This may not work with all bad seals, but I imagine if the problem is at the bottom of your mask you may find it helps. It’s certainly better than repeatedly stopping to clear your mask.

Note: This post applies only to males.

I always see male divers wearing bathing suits or board shorts under their wetsuits. This requires awkwardly stuffing all the excess fabric into the wetsuit legs, and not to mention, the suit tends to ride up. I did it once for my Open Water certification and hated it.

There are options, however. Even if you would never wear it otherwise, I highly recommend wearing some kind of form-fitting lycra swim material. This doesn’t have to be the legendary Speedo briefs; I wear something similar to these Speedo jammers and think they’re great. You can also get the square shorts for something smaller than the knee-length jammers, but with more coverage than briefs.

I went to a local dive store this morning and picked up one of these neoprene mask strap covers. As soon as I got home I put it on my mask. Sitting in my kitchen with bone dry hair the mask slipped on and off painlessly.

This should prove incredibly useful, especially as I begin my divemaster training, where I will constantly be removing and replacing my mask. I wish I had bought one when I originally purchased my mask. I couldn’t find a plain one with no words or pictures, so instead put it on my mask backwards where all you see is plain black.

Anyways, I highly recommend picking one up. It’s an incredibly inexpensive way to increase your comfort level.