Hi, Steve-

When I was trained as a scuba diver, I think that trainers expect that a 
certain amount of time would be spent floundering around on the surface 
with no air in your tank. Thus the use of a snorkle with scuba is heavily 
promoted in the training process.

But as you get better at managing your air, being in an totally out of 
air situation becomes quite rare so that a snorkle becomes a useless 
appendage. The fact is that you keep your reg in your mouth from the 
moment you step into the water until you are sitting on the dive platform 
on the back of the boat, and you don't run your air down to nothing.

I might also point out that with wings the correct way to move on the 
surface is on your back where a snorkel is useless anyway.

In extended diving a snorkel could be considered dangerous, it can snag 
in wreck reel lines, fishing lines or on wreckage. There are some 
situations where loosing your mask or getting tangled up could be a death 
sentence.

I remember when I decided not to use a snorkel, due to my training it was 
*hard* to leave it behind. But you do a couple of dives without the damn 
thing and you won't look back. In the diving that I tend to do, you look 
around the boat at the other hard-core types and there is not a snorkel 
to be seen anywhere.

You need to weight what gear you bring along with the likelihood of 
whether you will use it or not vs. the CF potential that gear might 
invoke. And a snorkel cannot justify it's existence. No matter where you 
put one (believe me, talking from experience on this) it is a snag 
magnet. The only thing they are good for is to snorkel around on the 
surface between dives.

 Jim


On 5/30/98 10:30 AM Steve Orrell wrote:

>Hi Jim Cobb
>
>On Fri, 29 May 1998 20:35:06 -0400, you wrote:
>
>
>> And yes I am an atlantic wreck diver not a caver, hogarth works in salt 
>> water as well as fresh.
>
>Hi Jim,
>
>I thought I'd drop you a quick line; I'm relatively new to diving (sea and
>freshwater, no cave) and am trying to incorporate "hogarthian" ideas into my
>kit configuration as I go along. At present I'm pondering the pros and cons
>of the long hose and am curious as to the fate of the snorkel.
>
>I would have thought that using a long hose would preclude it being mounted
>on the side of the mask so my question is where does it go? Or is it
>something that is omitted totally in an Hogarthian setup?  (I would imagine
>the snorkel is redundant anyway in a cave environment ;-)  I don't like the
>idea of strapping it, or anything else to the leg but is this the only
>option, along with not carrying it at all?
>
>I'd appreciate your opinion.
>
>Cheers,
>
>
>
>
>
>Steve...
>


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