Snorkeling and Scuba Snorkels

Aside from saving cylinder air when you are on the surface, snorkels allow you to breath in rough surface conditions as well as assisting on the surface swim back to the boat or land, in the event that you run low on gas. They are attached to the left side of your mask with your regulator on the right.

The average snorkel is j-shaped about the length of a ruler with a mouthpiece and is fitted with a plastic or rubber mouthpiece. The tube provides air form the surface to the diver while submersed underwater and is fixed to the mask with an elastic rubber strap.

The mask, used in conjunction assists in supplying air to the diver through the mouth and not the nose.

The length of the tube is so designed that were it to be any longer than 50cm, it would pose a danger to the lung muscles which were not evolutionarily designed to support the pressure and mass of underwater conditions. A shorter length tube also ensures that the air inhaled remains as fresh as possible. Breathing recycled air creates the risk of causing CO2 retention.

Snorkels find their origin in World War two when they were used as air supply devices to u-boats. The breathing tube itself goes back a little further to Aristotle, whose tendency as a Naturalist lead him to making notes on various land animals who used lengthened breathing devices such as elephants.

His observations extended to the necessity eventual curvature of the tube which assisted the snorkeller in optimizing as opposed to restricting hunting. The Chinese used rhino horns for their curved version in 320AD.

Later designs ranged from leather (1500's) to aluminium in the 1930's to the addition of the notorious ping pong ball suction valve on the end which was designed to seal off water. Surprisingly it held all the way to 40m before succumbing rather loudly to pressure. Modern snorkels are no longer built into diving masks nor have the ping pong 'float valve.'