Snorkels for spearfishing - models / short /medium / long /camo / soft /...

[Mr. X]

#1 I lost my favourite snorkel last year, it was 40 years old, made by Typhoon, England. Having tried several modern snorkels I came to realize that none of them quite matched the trusty ol' Typhoon, let alone exceed it. The differences are admittedly subtle but quite real.

Similar but not identical snorkel:

So I was curious to find out what folk are using now and what they like/dislike about their chosen snorkel.

 

[Mr. X]

#2 For several years I used a flexible Beuchat Tubair, which I camo'd myself. Not bad but a tad too soft and too short, such that even a little chop would keep pouring in. If it were just an inch or two longer it might have been excellent.

Before that I used a clear, semi-dry top, purge valved snorkel (Typhoon I think?). Which was great for surface snorkelling (which is what my wife uses it for now). Occasionally the rubbery silicone valve would leak when same became trapped in it. It was perfectly adequate, actually quite good but it didn't seem "quite the thing" for spearing and I didn't need the value or semi-dry top, as I have no trouble clearing a simple-J. I believe some serious spearos use dry-top snorkels in the sea, especially in heavier conditions.

 

[Mr. X]

#3 I tried a Seacsub combat snorkel next, that had a black mouth piece and some basic green & light tan camo on the pipe. Probably an earlier version of this one:

It would have been ok except that it was much too short for me, shorter than the Beuchat Tubair. It might suit a smaller person (e.g. adolescent/child/woman) but was much too short for me, it needed to be 1-2" longer for use in the sea IMHO. I reluctantly gave that up after only a couple of uses, hopeless.

 

[Mr. X]

I recently came across a product which looked very interesting, the Aqualung US military/rescue snorkel:
http://www.scubacenter.com/scubacenter_onlinestore/snorkeling/Aqua_Lung_Military_Snorkels.htm
...it appears to be very long in the pictures ,. e.g.

http://breakingmuscle.com/swimming/want-to-be-special-ops-learn-the-combat-swimmer-stroke

 

[Pinniped72]

I have, or I should say had two favourite snorkels, I lost my Omer brown mimetic at sea, school boy error my other is a typhoon with splash guard. I am not bothered about having the splash guard to be honest, it just has it! My Omer was my favourite out of the two, I visited a local dive shop to get a simple snorkel with no valves or dry tops and guess what.............. no luck. Will stick with the typhoon for now!

 

[Mr. X]

#4 & #5 I shopped around & bought several promising looking snorkels inexpensively (~£4-£10) to try out this year .
First up I bought the Mares basic & dual:

They both look very good, except no hi-viz safety end tip (I add my own now). They are the same snorkel except the Dual has a some flex in the shaft (by using 2 types of plastic, hence Dual) but it is by no means floppy (like my Tubair). Both have softer mouth sections. I used to prefer flexible snorkels, because they behave better when you are close to rocks or get your float-line around them - but then I switched back to my stiff 40 year old Typhoon snorkel and noticed no problems, I found it effortless to use (perhaps because that it what I first learnt with). The inexpensive basic snorkel is fine, more than adequate, but, if you feel the need for a little flex, the dual has probably got the stiffness just about right, for my (current) tastes.

Unfortunately the Mares snorkels appear to be about the same length as the Beuchat Tubair, i.e. an inch or 2 too short for my tastes I haven't tried them out yet though. The Mares Dual is intended to be my main snorkel this season.

 

[Mr. X]

#6 I also got one of these inexpensive Cressi Corsica snorkels off Amazon as reviewers say that it is good and a little bit longer than most modern snorkels. By the look of it, very flexible too:


BTW The pipe is of normal thickness, not as thick as it appears in that back-of-head image above.

I've already added bright tip marker to mine & it seems to be about 1cm or so longer than the Mares snorkel/Beuchat Tubair - which is most welcome. Mine also has a well designed looking clip (as shown on the Amazon page but not shown in the images above). This will likely be the snorkel I use in "heavier" conditions (chop/swell/non-millpond) - it may well become my main snorkel. I won't camo this myself (as I have done with some other snorkels) as it already has a nice matt finish.

There are brown & green camo versions available too (see above page), albeit at significant extra cost - brown camo is currently cheaper than green camo:



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Interesting to see that poll participants so far prefer shorter snorkels - so perhaps there is a market for my rejects! I am wondering why though? Reduced drag/visible profile?

The reason for my preference for longer snorkels is that in the chops & swells that I often encounter, I found that water can keep flooding into short snorkels - sometimes to the point of making the snorkel worse than useless, a liability. Perhaps I just don't position it right? I probably look down more than a regular snorkeler would (& go out in worse conditions).

 

[William Freeman]

I use one of these:
http://www.leaderfins.com/de/snorkel-l1.html
It looks like a regular freediving snorkel but has a hidden purge valve, which comes in quite handy.
Does a great a job.

 

[mariusshobo]

Cressi Corsica is my favorite. I like it for it's flexible tube. I use the snokel fixed directly under the google's strap, no clips.

 

[NoFair]

I use both the Cressi Corsica and Omer slalom and both work fine for me. I prefer longish black simple snorkels

 

[Mr. X]

#7 I also ordered one of these, the Cressi America Dark, as it looks similar to my old Typhoon:

Most on-line sellers seem to carry this one, so shop around. Unfortunately it is rather too glossy/shiny and has several unnecessary silver lines painted on it - probably aimed at holidaymakers - so I have camo'd mine with water-miscible artists oil paints. It takes weeks & weeks to dry though! I will likely add a more brightly coloured tip marker using electrician's tape, sigh.

I wonder if the Cressi Adult Gringo Snorkel - Dark might be similar but a tad longer? (The reviews are mixed and suggest it is short but there is a"junior" version of the Gringo model & I wonder if some buyer received that instead of the adult version).

 

[Mr. X]

...I use the snokel fixed directly under the google's strap, no clips.

Yes, I did that with my beloved 40 year old Typhoon snorkel and that is how I came to loose it On the other hand, I suppose it is possible that I might have lost my mask too if it had been attached with a clip.

 

[William Freeman]

I also order one of these, the Cressi America Dark, as it looks similar to my old Typhoon:

Most on-line sellers seem to carry this one, so shop around. Unfortunately it is rather too glossy/shiny and has several unnecessary silver lines painted on it - probably aimed at holidaymakers - so I have camo'd mine with water-miscible artists oil paints. It takes weeks & weeks to dry though! I will likely add a more brightly coloured tip marker using electrician's tape, sigh.

I wonder if the Cressi Adult Gringo Snorkel - Dark might be similar but a tad longer? (The reviews are mixed and suggest it is short but there is a"junior" version of the Gringo model & I wonder if some buyer received that instead of the adult version).

Yeah, I have a Cressi America too. The bore is huge which is great but the snorkel's rather short, so it's not for choppy water....for me. I think I saw Stig Severinsen use one in that documentary where he's swimming with Killer Whales in Norway and it was very choppy, but then again he's Stig Seversinsen.
It is glossy and shiny, but a mate of mine just sandpapered his nice and evenly and now it's matt. Looks cool.

 

[Mr. X]

Yes, I compared my Cressi America with my Mares snorkel yesterday. Disappointingly it is even shorter than the Mares However, because it is less curved - the top section is straight & its top is flat, its effective length is probably similar i.e. the horizontal top of the Cressi America is at about the same level as the bottom of the vertically cut top of the Mares.

The above makes me wonder if snorkel length might not be the only issue here. The current fashion for vertically cut top openings in more curved snorkels seems to be lowering the effective length of snorkels. On the other hand, it might help reduce the effect of waves/swells breaking over the top of the snorkel. I'm thinking curved snorkels with vertical cut opening should probably be an inch or 2 inches longer, so that the bottom of their opening is at least as high as the top of traditional horizontal top snorkel.

BTW I like your friend's idea of sanding glossy snorkels like the Cressi America: cheap, simple & effective

 

[Mr. X]

BTW I seem to recall OMD (old man dave) extended his snorkel himself. My Seac snorkel has a hole under the (black!) tip marker tape - suggesting to me that perhaps it was originally intended to have some kind of additional tip (e.g. dry tip/semi-dry tip/marker-tip?).

 

[William Freeman]

Yes, I think it would probably be OK to lengthen a snorkel by maybe an inch or two, but I read somewhere that a snorkel shouldn't exceed 14 inches. Something about the recurrence of CO2, which is heavier than the air we breathe in. Especially for freedivers/spearos who use a snorkel for their breathe up. Then again I know some spearos who use snorkels with the whole shebang on them; top dry, double purge valve, flextube, bright pink etc. They'll argue that it's got to be comfortable and that's it. They're probably right as that pertains to all gear but for me it's got to look cool too being the vain f***** that I am.

 

[Mr. X]

... it's got to look cool too ...

Invisible is even better for spearing

 

[Mr. X]

...

http://breakingmuscle.com/swimming/want-to-be-special-ops-learn-the-combat-swimmer-stroke

Excellent peripheral vision with those masks? White tips -even white tape over orange tape - I guess it would reflect more light than orange or any other colour. Actually I have some reflective white tape that I could use.

There was an article on BBC Radio 4 this week about a new black that has been created - I think it use carbon/graphene pipes to absorb light - Vantablack, developed by Surrey Nanosystems. When held next to black card, the black card appears light grey! No texture shows, no folds or creases are seen. Excellent, I want a Vantablack snorkel -- and eventually wetsuit, fins, weight belt & mask!

References on Vantablack:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29326916
http://www.dezeen.com/2016/03/02/anish-kapoor-exclusive-rights-vantablack-blackest-black-pigment/

 

[Pinniped72]

I have been toying with the idea of using a 3 window mask, could be ideal for shallow water spearfishing, flatfish on sandy beach etc? I have also been toying with the idea of making a snorkel that wraps round to the back of the head on both sides, I saw a DIY job on line somewhere and it looked pretty good, just wondering about clearing, how much lung power would be needed etc. It would be good for surface swimming, like a frontal snorkel but less annoying and practical for spearfishing............... maybe!

 

[William Freeman]

I have been toying with the idea of using a 3 window mask, could be ideal for shallow water spearfishing, flatfish on sandy beach etc? I have also been toying with the idea of making a snorkel that wraps round to the back of the head on both sides, I saw a DIY job on line somewhere and it looked pretty good, just wondering about clearing, how much lung power would be needed etc. It would be good for surface swimming, like a frontal snorkel but less annoying and practical for spearfishing............... maybe!

Yeah, I think I've seen that same DIY thing too. Is it where they carve the mouthpiece out of the plastic plumbing tube with a hack saw and the snorkel is two sided? I think all you needed was a some rigid plastic plumbing tubes, two soft rubber tubes and a hack saw. Looked quite adventurous but it worked.
@ Mr X: Nah, invisible wouldn't be my style. One of the reasons I was attracted to this sport was the cool gear. The long, elongated fins, the steeamlined suit, the black mask, the marsaillaise belt, the no-nonsense approach and the aire of aloofness. Does that sound arrogant? Yeah, probably.
OK; if you're a spearo I suppose you'd like the invisible cloak idea. I'm a freediver and I'm not just a vain F***** no, I'm a flashc*** too. No Vantablack for moi.