I recently decided to try out my spare snorkel, a made-in-Italy Seac Sub Combat (a.k.a. "Seatil S/BL Tubo Mimetico", a.k.a. Seatil Combat) and was pleasantly surprised. I found it to be particularly good in choppy seas, as it rarely got swamped by water (unlike my trusty old Beuchat Tubair) and retained water less readily in the J-bend - which often causes annoying cackle noises with the tubair.
Seasub:
- Comes with a cool looking camo paint job - but being light green, it may be more visible than my black Tubair - certainly the fish came less close on 2 occasions when I wore this snorkel; might be coincidence as the conditions were choppier.
- Black end-tip has flashy silver writing (making it less visible to boats and more visible to fish
- Size, this is where the Seacsub wins out. It is perhaps 1 or 2cm longer than the Tubair (& my 30 year old Typhoon plain-J snorkel) and that seems to make a significant difference in choppy seas.
- Fit, the seacsub curves over the top of your head, this might also contribute its good performance is choppy conditions.
- Material/design, after a few minutes the differences in the black mouth pieces make little difference. The Seacsub looks more modern & professional, with the textured grooves below the mouth piece, double curved shaped, flat silver logo/writing and nifty soft double buckle mask attachment (the best I've used so far, although I suspect the flat simple clip offered on some Seacsub snorkels might be even simpler/better).
- nice large diameter bore.
Possible Downsides?
- As mentioned above, although camo, it might be more visible when used with a black wetsuit than a plain black snorkel (I hand camo'd my Beuchat Tubair with acrylic paints some years ago and it worked well and stayed put and has good matt finish). I guess I could use paint to "enhance" the Seatil's camo for my needs. I believe Seacsub now also offer a black version of this snorkel (which might also be more flexible - its been a while since I checked their excellent catalog, but like Omer-sub they are constantly innovating and tweaking their product line).
- Rubbish tip tape seems to be the norm for snorkels. I think its important though. Having watched SCUBA divers, sometimes the snorkel tip is all that can be seen - Bill McIntyre confirmed that he found this important when positioning his boat around divers. I guess it's easy enough to replace with your own tape in your preferred colour.
- The cool snorkel attachment is soft plastic and may break at some point - I hope not as I won't be able to get a replacement and so would need to make one.
- While both the main-pipe and mouth piece are made of flexible plastic tubing, the down pipe is far stiffer than the Tubair - which is perhaps the Tubair's biggest advantage (and its relatively low price). It's a little harder to un-snag one's float line from the seacsub, and its a little noiser when knocked against rocks.
- It seems quite heavy. [If they made the main tube a little thinner (while keeping the excellent wide diameter internal bore), perhaps that would make it a little more flexible and put less strain on the soft mask attachment strap/clip?]
Conclusion: overall I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by this Seasub Seatil Combat snorkel, particularly its "dryness" in choppy conditions. I think spearo snorkels should all be a bit longer (1-3cm) - and this snorkel seems to bear that out; I suspect OMD feels the same way as I notice that he extended at least one of his snorkels to make it longer. It has already become my "bad conditions" snorkel, it may well become my primary snorkel now. A very good product - and a noticeable improvement.
Seasub:
- Comes with a cool looking camo paint job - but being light green, it may be more visible than my black Tubair - certainly the fish came less close on 2 occasions when I wore this snorkel; might be coincidence as the conditions were choppier.
- Black end-tip has flashy silver writing (making it less visible to boats and more visible to fish
- Size, this is where the Seacsub wins out. It is perhaps 1 or 2cm longer than the Tubair (& my 30 year old Typhoon plain-J snorkel) and that seems to make a significant difference in choppy seas.
- Fit, the seacsub curves over the top of your head, this might also contribute its good performance is choppy conditions.
- Material/design, after a few minutes the differences in the black mouth pieces make little difference. The Seacsub looks more modern & professional, with the textured grooves below the mouth piece, double curved shaped, flat silver logo/writing and nifty soft double buckle mask attachment (the best I've used so far, although I suspect the flat simple clip offered on some Seacsub snorkels might be even simpler/better).
- nice large diameter bore.
Possible Downsides?
- As mentioned above, although camo, it might be more visible when used with a black wetsuit than a plain black snorkel (I hand camo'd my Beuchat Tubair with acrylic paints some years ago and it worked well and stayed put and has good matt finish). I guess I could use paint to "enhance" the Seatil's camo for my needs. I believe Seacsub now also offer a black version of this snorkel (which might also be more flexible - its been a while since I checked their excellent catalog, but like Omer-sub they are constantly innovating and tweaking their product line).
- Rubbish tip tape seems to be the norm for snorkels. I think its important though. Having watched SCUBA divers, sometimes the snorkel tip is all that can be seen - Bill McIntyre confirmed that he found this important when positioning his boat around divers. I guess it's easy enough to replace with your own tape in your preferred colour.
- The cool snorkel attachment is soft plastic and may break at some point - I hope not as I won't be able to get a replacement and so would need to make one.
- While both the main-pipe and mouth piece are made of flexible plastic tubing, the down pipe is far stiffer than the Tubair - which is perhaps the Tubair's biggest advantage (and its relatively low price). It's a little harder to un-snag one's float line from the seacsub, and its a little noiser when knocked against rocks.
- It seems quite heavy. [If they made the main tube a little thinner (while keeping the excellent wide diameter internal bore), perhaps that would make it a little more flexible and put less strain on the soft mask attachment strap/clip?]
Conclusion: overall I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by this Seasub Seatil Combat snorkel, particularly its "dryness" in choppy conditions. I think spearo snorkels should all be a bit longer (1-3cm) - and this snorkel seems to bear that out; I suspect OMD feels the same way as I notice that he extended at least one of his snorkels to make it longer. It has already become my "bad conditions" snorkel, it may well become my primary snorkel now. A very good product - and a noticeable improvement.