Snorkels !

[dcvf]

Hi
As everyone knows : Snorkelling comes from snorkel …

But snorkel comes from the German name ’Scnorchel’

=> Here

I made an inventory of the different versions of snorkel. It's in French, but I invite you only to look at the photos

=> Here

And of course, if you descend, don't hold the snorkel in your mouth !
Underwater, this does not help and can cause a swallowing reflex that can lead to drowning.

I had a swallowing reflex at +/- 24m (+/- 79 ') luckily I didn't swallow any water, but it was disturbing…disconcerting…astonishing !!!

At that time in 2003 in the Red Sea, I did not know this rule …no snorkel under the water !

Since that experience I spit the snorkel just after the duck dive

A hot discussion there (*), mainly with divers practicing 'snorkelling' but not aware of the "freediving rules"

(*) https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/snorkeling-advice-from-the-net.583183/

But I understand that anyone who has not had this experience will not find it useful to spit out his tuba during the duck dive

I persist in saying : what is good for "freediving or apnea » is also good for snorkeling.

If you dive spit your snorkel out of your mouth.

dcvf

 

[DRW]

Just a couple of points about the word for a swimmer's breathing tube in English and French.

The English noun "snorkel" indeed derives from the German noun "Schnorchel" and referred exclusively to the German submarine air intake of that name throughout the 1940s in the American press. Your Etymonline source gives 1951 as the year when the word "snorkel" was first used to denote a swimmer's breathing tube but with no evidence to back this up. I believe the first reference to "snorkel" as a swimmer's breathing tube can be traced back at least to November 1950 and here is my proof:

The advertisement above appeared on page 21 of the Honolulu Star Bulletin of Friday, 10 November 1950 and exhorts adults and children alike to "try the human version of the submarine snorkel and be like the fish". Every advertisement in the first issue of Skin Diver magazine in December 1951 uses the alternative spelling "snorkles" to denote swimmers’ breathing tubes; see http://www.divinghistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/skin-diver-first-issue-1951.pdf.

As for the French word for "snorkel", i.e. "tuba", which also denotes the brass musical instrument, an explanation of its origin can be found at http://museedumas.fr/li/SCANS/DOCS/PERSONNALITES/PULVENIS R/PERE DE LA CHASSE SOUS-MARINE - Roger PULVENIS - REVUE .......... ANNEE ....... - 3 pages.pdf. The author of the article, Patrick Mouton, traces "tuba" back to the Mauritian expatriate Pulvénis brothers, who went spearfishing in the Mediterranean during the 1930s and designed a frontal breathing tube for that purpose. The image below is from the first French-language spearfishing book in the world, La chasse aux poissons by Raymond Pulvénis, whose first edition appeared in1940:

The Pulvénis brothers' breathing tube was eventually patented in France and Spain. Here is what Mouton writes about the naming of the breathing tube in his article: "Un jour, alors qu’ils regardent au cinéma un film dont la vedette est un jeune premier du nom de Gary Cooper, les Pulvénis profitent de l’entracte pour bavarder au sujet de ce « tube » au nom peu flatteur qui pourrait, par exemple, s’appeler… tuba.., pourquoi pas ? C’est exactement de là que vient ce petit mot aujourd’hui connu de tous les chasseurs et les plongeurs." English translation: "One day, while watching a movie starring a young newcomer named Gary Cooper, the Pulvénis brothers took advantage of the intermission to chat about this 'tube' with the unflattering name that might be called, say, 'tuba'… and why not? This is exactly where this little word came from, familiar to all today’s hunters and divers." A good story, and one that must be taken seriously as Mouton knew the Pulvénis brothers personally. Incidentally, the Hollywood film in question may well have been Mr Deeds Goes to Town, 1936, where Gary Cooper is tuba-playing Longfellow Deeds.