Kapitol Reef Snorkel

Ted,

I spoke to the doctor who invented it for about ten minutes. His first technological explainations sounded really good as did his background with respiratory medicine. However some of the features of the snorkel that he explained seemed unrealistic, and sadly I was able to stump him with a few questions regarding the ability to purge the snorkel after being submerged.

The design isn't truly a new one. I have seen plans for similiar snorkels in the past. It is the age old, "One dedicated intake tube with a oneway valve just before the mouth so that exhaled air does not enter it, and a second dedicated exhaust tube."

Think old double hose regulator!

As a surface snorkel that will not be submerged, the only drawback is it's enormous size. It is the biggest snorkel I have ever seen because of it's two dedicated unidirectional intake and exhaust tubes inside the main barrel.

As a snorkel that is brought down to depth, I will propose to you the same dilemma I proposed to the doctor. How do you purge a snorkel that now has both a water filled intake tube and exhaust tube. After you purge the exhaust tube, ..........you will next need to inhale, thus inhaling all the water within the intake tube.

He pointed out a little paper thin rubber flap at the top of the snorkel that assists in keeping the snorkel dry, but as I explained to him, it is totally insignificant in keeping water from flooding the intake tube when taken to depth, ..........and by depth I mean anything deeper than two inches!

Jim

Many years ago there were some snorkels with a curve in the surface tip (imagine an inverted candy cane) and a very simple yet effective valve actuated by a floater, that would close the tube whenever you dived, keeping it dry. In some cases, snorkels like that were attached directly to the masks, allowing nasal breathing. I don't know if those are still available, tough.

i still think the aqualung impulse series is the best

Hello Jim:

This is Dr. Johnson, inventor of the Kapitol Reef snorkel. Thank you for posting your comments here. It gives me a chance to clarify a misconception that I may have left you and others with.

Let me reassure you that Kapitol Reef is indeed an extremely dry snorkel for surface swimming in rough water and for deep diving. Your observation is correct that the inhalation valve’s membrane, on its own, would do practically nothing to keep water out of the snorkel. But this membrane is not a simple baffle. It is a critical component of a high performance check valve that maintains pressure within the snorkel. As such, when the snorkel pressurizes during exhalation or diving, this membrane provides a tight seal that prevents water from entering the inhalation chambers. Furthermore, the exhalation pressure that this membrane supports naturally clears all water that may have snuck in during the previous inhalation. Water never builds up between breaths. Every inhalation starts dry, whether you are swimming underneath a small waterfall or resurfacing from a deep dive.

Our greatest contribution to snorkel science is the beneficial application of a precise exhalation pressure. There are numerous immediate physiologic benefits that derive from this. You may visit the kapitolreef.com website to learn more. The separation of inhaled air from exhaled CO2 primarily helps those with smaller lungs, such as children. Our testing showed that the appropriate application of exhalation pressure is much more important than the simple separation of air passages for most people to improve respiratory efficiency.

One item of concern that I think is appropriate to mention in posting to this particular site concerns shallow water blackout. This snorkel uniquely affects respiratory physiology in multiple ways, so it may alter the perception of safe single-breath dive times. My concern is that some extreme freedivers may use this snorkel as a means to achieve longer breath holds. As indicated in its owner’s manual, the snorkel has not been tested or proven to enhance safety in this application. The company does not recommend that people hyperventilate through this snorkel to obtain longer dive times. Of course, we would be very interested in having this issue thoroughly studied in an academic setting if anybody is interested.

On a final note, regarding the size, for those who have not held it, the forward profile of this snorkel is similar to that of any other high-end snorkel. It does not plow more water while swimming or diving. The modest widening necessary to accommodate the narrow exhalation tube is only evident on the side profile, which we think actually provides a more comfortable surface fit against the head. Additionally, its modern clip design draws this snorkel closer to the head to further reduce swim resistance.

Best wishes to all. Unless further comment is specifically requested of me, I’ll remain silent and just let this post serve as a focal point for additional discussion by others.

Mark R. Johnson, M.D.
President
Kapitol Reef Aquatics

I saw someone bring one fo these to the pool one night during underwater hockey. It may be similar in it's front profile to a normal snorkel, but sideways the thing is huge!

I should have asked to try it, but I just can't wrap my head around a $90 snorkel.

Ted, My wife uses an Aquamaster dry snorkel and Jill is welcome to try it if she wants. Lisa loves it and I can't stand it. It really is a DRY snorkel. That means if you dive deeper than 12' with it in your mouth you actually get a "snorkel squeeze" and it sucks your tounge out of your mouth and down the barrel of the snorkel!:rcard

Of course, as freedivers, we always spit our snorkels out before every dive to help prevent SWB and having a huge tube to clear after every dive doesn't appeal to me.

I'd be interested in any "freediver" who has actually tried it pipe in with their opinion.

Jon

After my last post Mark was kind enough to send me one of these snorkels. He asked that I give it a fair shake and let me know that it was a work in progress, and that the durameter of the rubber valves will be changed in future versions to fine tune it.

First, the good.

It is a DRY snorkel. It is as dry as any Impulse or Aquamaster snorkel that I have ever used. It also gives you a fresh breath everytime you inhale. There are seperate inhalation and exhalation tubes to ensue this. The snorkel is rather large, twice as big as my Sporasub Samauri, but it wasn't as noticable as I thought it might be.

Now, the not so good.

It is NOISY. When you breath on the surface your buddy can hear you from 50 yards away- mine could. It also makes a lot of noise when you dive as both of the tubes have to flood. It doesn't matter if it's in your mouth or not it will still flood and make this noise. This won't matter much if your a recreational snorkeler, but would make a big difference if your spearing a white sea bass or something equally skittish.

Next up is the breathing resistance. Mark assured me that this is designed into it as studies have shown that PEEP breathing systems help elevate pressure into patients with breathing disorders to elevate their 02 pressure in their blood stream. I know that many/most of us use hook breathing to accomplish this same thing once we surface from a dive, but I question it's function, and usefulness, for surface swimming and breath-ups. I found it tiring to dive with for long surface swims. The inhalation is not the problem, that's a breeze, but the exhaltion is hard. Every Regulator or rebreather I've ever used/seen is designed reducing the exhale pressure, not increase it.

One thing that I didn't like, and this caught me totaly off-guard, was the fresh breath everytime I inhaled. This was the main design idea behind the snorkel, but it left me with cotton mouth- much like I was breathing off of a scuba regulator. Since there is no warm breath exhaled back into the tube to moisturize the next breath it quickly dried out my mouth and throat. This caught me totally off guard as I had never even considered it.

I now have this snorkel for any local diver to try and post their thoughts on it. The idea behind giving me one of these was to try and get as many people to try it out as possible. I will have it up at this summer's Freedive-A-Palooza so everyone there can give it a shot.

My wife is still interested in trying it as she loves her dry snorkel. Maybe I'll post her thoughts once she gets a chance to do so- since this is probably the intended market.

Jon

I have had the same experience as Jon. I used it on three snorkeling sessions at Catalina under ideal conditions. It gurgled constantly and loudly. It scared the wildlife away and made me the butt of jokes from boaters moored 50 feet away. I read all the instructions between each session to make sure I wasn't breathing wrong, but nothing remedied the gurgle. That's right it comes with a manual.

I find it does breath easy and even if you splash water in it you won't get a blast of water to the lungs. But the constant gurgle overrides any positive from the snorkel

Maybe mine has a bad valve. I don't want to pay the shipping back to find out.

I had a promising email back from one of the execs of Kapitol Reef who claimed to be very concerned. He asked three questions which I answered and I have not heard back since.

Unless you like an expensive, wet noisemaker, I'd save your money and avoid this gimmick.

Marwan said:

i still think the aqualung impulse series is the best

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I agree, my wife and I have used the Impulse for years. But I just ordered the KapitolReef to try. I like the claim of 22% increase in breath hold time.