Snorkel

A snorkel allows you to breathe on the surface while keeping your head under the water (without using the air in your scuba tank). This is especially useful when you're snorkeling or skin diving, but even when scuba diving, a snorkel allows you to conserve air while swimming on the surface (out to a dive site, back to your dive boat, etc).

snorkel

You may notice that not all divers have snorkels with them while they're diving, and there are a few potential disadvantages to using them: they make you a little less streamlined in the water while swimming, and they're often not used even while you're on the surface, since surface swimming while on your back is often more efficient than swimming face-down, and a snorkel just doesn't work well in that position.

Some snorkels are pretty fancy. It's getting hard to find a simple one without a purge valve or "dry technology" (which helps to keep the snorkel full of air while you're underwater skin diving, to eliminate the need to "clear" it by blasting the water out when you reach the surface again. If you intend to do any skin diving, a snorkel is essential. If you know it's scuba only for you, you may choose to just get a simple one (a "j-tube" style, like the one pictured) without a purge valve. Many divers like that kind best anyway: a purge may fail or leak, and you can get a "dry" snorkel by exhaling with your head tilted back just before breaking the surface as you come up. Snorkels cost anywhere from $15 to $40 or so.

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