SCORKL for spearfishing

[Joe.spear]

i was wondering what all of your opinions are regarding those scrokl things and knock off ones and wether you think they're safe?

 

[Leander]

Heh, I typed a whole story about why the Snorkl is not safe for diving. Then re-read your post and it says Scorkl. How did brand names get so... unprofessional? Even the banks and insurance companies have these kind of names nowadays.

But scorkl or snorkl, my answer remains the same: NO, NOT SAFE. GET AWAY FROM THERE! (Should I make it red, bold and flashing?)

They look like a pony-bottle with some brand name stickers on there. But the moment they started about filling it with a hand pump they completely lost me.

If you dive down with compressed air, you're scuba diving. This means you have to take in account decompression tables, safe ascent rates, etc. So here I would say that it is unsafe by default unless you are scuba-cerified and understand the theories behind compressed gasses and the human body. But even then I wouldn't want to depend my life on something like that.

Perhaps a good place for it would be at the toilet. But unless you fill it with dried air moisture would enter the bottle, leading to a nice black mold that will still kill you.

So, in short: stuff like the Scorkl and its AliExpress rip-offs are death traps.

Now for the question, why would you want to use something like this for spearfishing?

 

[Andrew the fish]

I am with Leander on this. Bottle is too small to give any meaningful underwater time. Filling by hand will be a very laborious, for only a few breaths underwater. They clam “up to 10 minutes” which will be involving breath hold and c02 accumulation to get up to those 10 minutes.

Now, since you refill your lungs underwater from this pony bottle, you will have to keep in mind that you have to exhale on the ascend, or you are guaranteed a barotrauma. I have been offered a buddy air from scuba divers a few times, while I am freediving. I always refuse, because I am scared how I can forget, mix up with these two completely different disciplines and get into trouble. To toy around with scuba, you are better off getting full on PADI certification and a proper gear.

I know some spearfishers (Bill comes to mind) use spare air or similarly small tank to deal with complicated cases like tangled up gear and such, but not for actual hunting. If you want to stack up a few such pony bottles to get deeper, you will be ascending too often and too quick for any nitrogen tissue load calculator to keep you safe.

And lastly, considering the price of that korkel-snorkel , you can get certified and buy your regulator and bcd and other bits and pieces and will be still ahead financially.

 

[Leander]

Now for the question, why would you want to use something like this for spearfishing?

So the skorkl -claims- 10 minutes of air. That is, if you fill it from a scuba tank. (No, a home-compressor won't do as that air has water and remains of the compressor's oil and grease in it. Ask any car-painter about how nice air straight from the machine is.)
If you would take air from a scuba tank, then why not dive with the big tank instead? And spearfishing on scuba... Well even though it's legal in the UK (it is, right?), I would advise against it until you made a enough dives that people regard you as a master. Scuba diving itself is complex enough without a gun, and when stuff goes wrong you can't just bolt to the surface.

But, 10 minutes of air! Yes, and after that your dive session is over. You must be very lucky to find a good fish within 10 minutes.
If you would spearfish on breathhold however, you could dive from sunrise to sunset. Even if you can only hold your breath in the water for 30 seconds, your total bottom time would far exceed the bottom time on compressed air.

Most of my own dives are somewhere between 30s and 1 minute, but I make many of them. On a long summer day this can add up to a few hours of bottom time.