Beware of the "high tech" snorkel

[Geoff]

About 8 year,s ago,I went to Spain,just to get away from Croyden, England,(what a dump!). Anyway,the camp site that I was on, had a really great swimming pool,& every day I would swim about 75 length,s, with a mask & snorkel ,you understand.Well, one day, I went into town, (Roses) & bought a new snorkel.It looked very, "High Tech",& "Professional",& only cost about 3 pounds, great!.So,there I am,swimming in this very long,very wide,& very deep pool, with my new snorkel, it,s working great!,I,m very happy with it. I dive to 8 feet, return to the surface,take a breath,(through my snorkel), & ....nothing, only water,straight into my lung,s.
The "High Tech", one way valve,( just a very thin disc of sillicone) had come off,allowing the water to enter the snorkel, at the bottom of it, so when I "sucked" on the snorkel,expecting,...needing,... "air",all I got was a lung full of water.Had I not been at the side of the pool,able to grasp the hand rail,(built into the ceramic tile,s) I would have been in real shit.... Something that look,s professional,but is cheep, maybe is,nt made as well as it should be.Look,s are,nt eveything!. Moral...You only get what you pay for............Keep safe,.........Geoff.

 

[covert]

This should probably also be moved to an equipment section, but yeah when it comes to snorkels forget about the fancy vavle system snorkels they always fail at some point. Went it comes to snorkels simpler is always better, and mouth peace comfort is your most important consideration.

 

[Vov]

Yes, yes, and keep the snorkel as short as possible and comfortable...

 

[spaghetti]

Yep stay away from valves, I second that: soon or late they turn to be a second way in for water and a source of noise (bad for spearfishing too). A simple "J" shaped snorkel is the way to go IMHO (a personal recommendation: the Omer Zoom Pro, simple and soft).

 

[Jee]

Agree. I never used a snorkel with valve(s).
One more thing: a light color snorkel can be more easily spot, if dropped down (even on land), and - it is more important - good to have a very intesive (almost lighting) color (like neon-yellow) strip at the end of the snorkel - good last chance against a (motor)boat or windsurf, ... /May be it is not good for hunting though./

 

[Fondueset]

I use an Impulse II - it's got damn near as many valves as I do. Its never failed and serves me well during long breathe-ups in heavy chop. I grew up on the original Dacor Big-Barrel Wrap-around - which had no valves and a much larger diameter than, say, the Omer Zoom - which to me feels like breathing through a straw. I have had the top valve ice up on my impulse but I have a pretty highly developed shut off valve of my own from years of snorkeling in rough water. In principal I like the valveless ones best - but in practice the impulse two makes relaxed breatheups possible under circumstances that would be impossible with a normal snorkel.

 

[Geoff]

Hi Fondueset,Whats a "breathe-up"?.

 

[Fondueset]

When you are resting on the surface - preparing for the next dive. Here the water is often very 'choppy' - which interrupts getting air through a normal snorkel. The impulse II sheds water that comes in through the top - greatly reducing interruptions

 

[spaghetti]

One of my negative experiences with valve snorkel is related to the Cressi Alpha 1, which has a quick-drainage valve under the mouthpiece.
It has been doing good for one season, then the valve started making leakage and noise problems.
The valve worked with a film of thin papery plastic (just like on a kazoo trumpet), which deteriorated after time, till I found myself trying to stalk fish with a sort of kazoo playing loud in my mouth: "Trooot! troooooot!!. Not the kind of music that might help a fish to relax....

 

[Lockedin]

I also use an Impulse II, (over 6 seasons) no failures to report. The only drawback being that it isn't very streamlined, and catches on stray pieces of kelp. But that's mostly a function of my inattentiveness to my surroundings while stalking from the surface...

Spaghetti - maybe you could alter the sound to mimic the croak of a White SeaBass rofl

 

[Bill McIntyre]

I like my Riffe Stable very much, and it has a valve.

Actually, it would be just fine with me if it didn't have the valve, but I like the streamlined narrow shape, the sort of hooded top that helps keep light chop out of it, and most of all I like the accordion that lets the mouthpiece just fall away from my mouth when I remove it on every dive.

With the simple J types such as the Omer Zoom, I always seem to twist the joint where the U at the bottom attaches to the vertical barrel. Then when I put the mouthpiece back in at the surface, the vertical barrel isn't vertical any more, but at some crazy angle across my head.

Maybe I'm just too vigorous at twisting the mouthpiece away from me as I dive, but in any event it isn't a problem with the Stable.

The only thing I don't like about the Stable is that it doesn't have a high vis top, but that was easily remedied with a can of spray paint.

 

[Fondueset]

I can second the Stable - I've tried one and it is very good even in chop. Much more streamlined that the impulse and very flexible. FYI - I use my impulse for monofinning - so I carry it in my hand most of the time.

 

[Pastor]

How is that hinged keeper? Is it any good or better to whip it of and use a figure of 8? I must admit I have been thinking of getting a new snorkel with some anti choke widget at the top, every other breath up this year has a good inhale of sea water

 

[Fondueset]

My fav snork keeper is still the one on the impulse II - two O's with a little span between them. I really dislike the one they put on the impulse III. I haven't used the stable enough to really comment - I noticed no problems but only used it for one dive and not with the monofin.

 

[Vov]

Another point about the 'valve-' snorkels is that when there is no water in the special spaces for gathering it and purging, these spaces are ful of ... air (!) that must be inhaled and exhaled i.e. the VOLUME of the snorkel is increased... or am I wrong?
I just stick to the rule to keep things as simple as possible and haven't used a sophisticated type of a snorkel...