Beginner snorkeling question...

[gotigers01]

This may be a little silly, but I have never snorkeled before, hence know nothing about how it's done.....we want to book an offshore excursion and my question is about the depth that you are snorkeling to...

 

The websites talk about coral reefs and such at depths of 20-30 feet. Do you just take a breath and dive down then come right back up? Or just looking from above? Or are they really talking about snuba?

 

Basically, if you could give me a play by play of your off shore reef snorkeling, I would love to be enlightened!! Thanks!

[scubaran]

This may be a little silly, but I have never snorkeled before, hence know nothing about how it's done.....we want to book an offshore excursion and my question is about the depth that you are snorkeling to...

 

The websites talk about coral reefs and such at depths of 20-30 feet. Do you just take a breath and dive down then come right back up? Or just looking from above? Or are they really talking about snuba?

 

Basically, if you could give me a play by play of your off shore reef snorkeling, I would love to be enlightened!! Thanks!

 

Hi,

 

The depth IS normally 15-30 feet deep for off shore snorkeling. The boat will issue you (unless you have any of these) a mask, snorkel, fins and a inflatable life vest that goes around your neck and across your chest with a strap, or two, to keep it against you. You inflate the vest by blowing into a tube within easy reach (think airplane demonstration of a life vest) and deflate it by pulling down on the part you blew into and squeezing your arms around the vest. Once at the site (the reason for the depth is so the boat doesn't run aground on the reef), they'll give you a basic safety briefing along with "where to swim, where not to swim" instructions. Then the "pool's open". You'll inflate your life vest and get into the water, down a ladder, jump overboard, whatever the captain deems is most safe. Once in the water, you'll float, stomach down, breathing "normally" through your mouth through the snorkel. If you kick lightly or swim slowly things will be fine.

 

As far as "duck diving", diving down to check something out. As a beginner I don't recommend keeping the snorkel in your mouth. It takes a bit of practice to know how to take the right breath, dive down clamping lightly on the snorkel mouth piece so water doesn't flood your mouth without biting off the tabs on the mouth piece, then how long to stay under so that you have enough breath to "blow out" the water that filled the snorkel when you went under. It's just easier to raise your head above the water, spit out the snorkel and take a large breath, then dive under, come up, breath in a deep breath, shake out your snorkel and go back to floating breathing through it (Remember you'll have to deflate the air in your life vest and reinflate once you surface. I've felt stupid forgetting this part and then go to dive down just to pop back up because I had air in my vest).

 

You might consider contacting a local dive shop, they do a lot of pool work and I know mine has snorkel lessons in the pool so you can practice before hitting the big water.

 

Also another rookie mistake is to look down below 90 degrees (looking down along your body towards your toes). the snorkel is vertical to the water while you're looking straight down (90 degree to the water). If you look beyond 90 degrees, you tip the snorkel forward towards the water. If you look too far (like following a fish swimming below you towards your toes), the snorkel becomes parallel to the water and will begin to fill. Nothing worst than inhaling and and getting water. If you do, don't panic, raise your head out of the water and cough it out (should be natural, including the panic part, so try to resist this).

 

Another caution, if the water turns out to be shallow enough where you can stand on the reef. Resist the urge to stand on it while you adjust straps, spit out water, wait for someone, etc. The reef is actually not rock but colonies of small "animals". You wouldn't stand on your cat or dog, don't stand on them either (it's only polite :) ). And don't touch either, some corals have defensive mechanisms that can sting, plus a lot of coral is extremely sharp.

 

After you've taken all your pictures, seen all the pretty fish, and you're ready to get out of the water (if you've gone to the end of time alloted by the snorkel crew they will signal you to come out (yell, air horn, whatever they told you) you'll want to get back to the boat. They're on a schedule and you'd like to continue your cruise so it benefits both of you to get back in a timely manner (don't have to sprint back but calmly make your way back to the boat with no distractions).

 

Once you get to the boat, there will be a ladder or platform to get back in. First, don't take off your mask, shorkel or fins until you have contact with these or you're instructed to do so. You'd be surprised once you take off your fins how hard it is to manuver in the ocean. Also as you wait to board, if there's a queue to get on, don't float behind the person going up the ladder or get under the platform. Should they slip, it's you who will break their fall, not fun. Once on board, step aside so the next person can get on board and follow the crews instructions on getting their gear back to them and retrieving any gear that was yours that they collected as you came aboard.

 

Then it's just a case of enjoying a drink, relaxing in the wind and getting back to shore. If you like aquariums, you'll love snorkeling.

 

Hope this gives you some ideal. Also this description was a compulation of many snorkel trips so "your milage may vary".

 

Randall

[Mmhar4fun]

Randall,

Thank you for a great overview, it is the most useful one I have read on line. Are you prepared to answer a potentially stupid question?

Can you think of any special snorkling considerations for an obese person? A non- issue or is there something I should know?

Second stupid question- what about sharks?

Thank you for your candid response.

[scubaran]

Randall,

Thank you for a great overview, it is the most useful one I have read on line. Are you prepared to answer a potentially stupid question?

Can you think of any special snorkling considerations for an obese person? A non- issue or is there something I should know?

Second stupid question- what about sharks?

Thank you for your candid response.

 

For obese people, or any person, you have to remember that you are 'swimming' around the reef, which while slow, is still an exercise. As such, they must be aware of their breathing. If someone finds themselves huffing and puffing into the snorkel, they should consider resting awhile and probably moving closer to the boat. Also there's the issue of getting out of the water. If you have to climb out of the water and there are waves, can you support your body weight with your arms if necessary? As a scuba diver I have to come out of the water with as much as 80 lbs on my back and I can tell you I've been in conditions where that was a lot harder than other times. Also since you have to wear a life vest, fit may be an issue (sorry I'm trying to be realistic). The bright side, the higher fat content of a body the higher and better it floats in the water. Plus it's a natural insulator so hight fat content means toastier in the water (though in the Caribbean this generally isn't an issue).

 

As far as sharks, what sharks? There's sharks in the water? All kidding aside, where you go snorkeling will generally be where people go snorkeling all the time. Sharks are solitary hunters and the shallow reefs aren't the best place to find them. If you're lucky you'll get to see one. I've been a diver for over 10 years and I've seen one reef shark in all that time. And it was in water too deep for snorkelers. And it was going the opposite direction from me (I kept looking back hoping it'd come back so I could get a picture of it :) ). The reality is you have more likelihood of being struck by lightning, kidnapped by a terrorist or attacked by a pig on a farm than ever having an encounter with a shark. Watch shark week on Discovery as this will probably be the only time you'll see one of these creatures.

 

As a side note, you'll see snorkeling tours to places like 'shark alley', these are nurse sharks, which are more like large catfish than sharks. They lay docile on the bottom and are quite harmless. People go on these tours and rub their bellies, hold them for pictures and swim with them. Not your normal view of sharks (same for stingrays, "puppies of the sea" according to my wife).

 

Hope this helped,

Randall

[scubaran]

Timely report on sharks from ABC News (since you asked):

 

Shark Attacks: Low Fatality Rates Still Equal High Anxiety

 

 

Common Shark Myths Debunked, So You Don't Have to Worry (Though We Know You Will)

 

Fearful swimmers can breathe a little easier this summer knowing that the odds of being attacked by a shark are far less than their chances of being hit by a car, a boat or even lightning, according to statistics compiled by the Shark Research Center at the University of Florida.

 

Twenty-three shark attacks have been reported so far this year, 15 of them in the United States, and all of them nonfatal, said George Burgess, director of the center, which tracks the details of shark attacks worldwide.

 

The most recent shark attack occurred last weekend near Bellow Beach in Hawaii, where Harvey Miller, 36, felt something grab his left leg while he was snorkeling. Miller, who was rescued from the ocean by an onlooker, survived the attack.

 

"But we are just now getting into the summer season when we get the most activity between humans and sharks," said Burgess. "We have been averaging 61 to 62 attacks per year for the last five years."

 

Four fatalities resulted from 44 shark attacks last year, according to Burgess' International Shark Attack File.

 

If you consider how many humans enter the water annually, relative to the level of reported shark attacks, these numbers are not that alarming, experts say.

 

"When you consider the great numbers of human beings in the water on any given day and the large number of shark predators that are in the same water, it's actually very surprising there aren't more incidents every year," said Dr. Robert Hueter, director of The Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory. "I think that's just proof that sharks aren't targeting human beings because if they were, they must not be very good at it."

 

Alarming or not, everyone seems to have sharks on the brain at this time of year, thanks to the annual onset of shark attack stories in the media and popular television programming like the Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

 

Despite people's perpetual fear of the animals, experts told ABC News that sharks are largely misunderstood.

Sharks Make Mistakes, Too

 

The most common misconception about sharks, they say, is that they intentionally prey on humans.

 

"The bulk [of shark attacks] are mistaken identity in which the sharks interpret the activity of humans as the movements of the normal prey items," said Burgess. "Most are hit-and-run attacks because the shark takes a quick grab and goes away and the damage isn't too bad."

Sharks are simply inquisitive and can make mistakes when it comes to identifying sources of food in dimly lit waters.

 

"[sharks] are either curious or at depths they mistake humans for seals," said Sean R. VanSommeran, executive director of the Pelagic Shark Research Foundation, which researches the conservation of sharks. "Eventually they lose interest in anything other than what they're looking for."

 

Often times, sharks will mistake shiny jewelry for the gills of fish that they eat, says VanSommeran.

 

They're Not All That Bad

 

"There are more than 400 species of sharks and there are only a few that fit the bill as potentially dangerous animals," said VanSommeran. "But people don't learn necessarily to think about the less glamorous or menacing species of shark."

 

Movies that highlight the dangerous nature of sharks — like the classic 1975 film "Jaws" — are said to be one of the key reasons so many people are terrified of all things shark. While only around 30 species of sharks have a history of attacking humans, people tend to assume that all sharks are dangerous, experts say.

 

"The big misperception that people have from watching the movies and reading the books is that all sharks are the same and they are equated in people's minds to the great white shark," said Hueter, whose laboratory is the largest in the world focused on the biology of sharks and rays.

As a rule, one expert says, sharks six feet or longer are generally the most dangerous, simply because their size alone can harm an average human on contact.

 

Man-Eating Shark

 

While humans may worry about their next swim in the ocean, researchers are similarly concerned about the well-being of the shark population, which has been steadily declining over the last few years.

 

Humans kill approximately 50 million sharks every year, according to Burgess' research.

 

Overfishing, or when sharks are inadvertently caught by fishermen's nets that are intended for other marine life, is a chief cause of the population decline, says Marie Levine, executive director of Shark Institute and archivist of The Global Shark Attack File.

 

The high demand for fin soup, an Asian delicacy, is another shark killer, says Levine, along with the destruction of sharks' habitats and pollution.

"[sharks] are incredibly beautiful animals and are absolutely vital animals," said Levine. "They are desperately in need of protection."

 

Don't Worry, Even Though We Know You Will

 

No matter what precautions humans take — from not splashing around in shallow waters to never swimming in warm oceans at night — shark attacks are bound to happen.

 

The only way to significantly cut your risk of shark attacks is to never enter the ocean at all, experts say, which is an impractical solution to a scenario that very few will encounter in their lifetimes.

 

"The risk factor of shark attacks is much lower than all the other things that are much more frequent in our daily lives that people shouldn't worry about it," said Hueter. "But we do because of the psychological fear factor of the thought of being eaten alive by an animal. It's hard to get that out of people's minds."

 

So while you may be a little hesitant the next time you visit the beach, keep in mind that not all sharks are out to get you. In fact, they may be just as scared of you as you are of them.

 

So don't wear fish gill jewelry or wear a seal costume in the water and I'm sure you'll be fine. :)

Randall

[Mmhar4fun]

Thanks again for providing useful information. I appreciate the candor and the shark article. When I come back, I will tell you how it goes. :)

[DiveMaster]

Gerry and Michelle:

 

You got 24K advice. All I might add is keep hydrated, make sure you have adequate sunscreen, and hats to shade you from the sun when up.

 

Thanks again for providing useful information. I appreciate the candor and the shark article. When I come back, I will tell you how it goes. :)

[Solo1959]

Randall, that was amazing advice. Thank you so much. Sounds like you've done this excursion before :D

[scubaran]

Hi,

 

I'm just someone who really likes the water, wants to share this experience with friends, and I want to make sure everyone does it safely. :)

 

Randall

[love2relax]

I snorkeled at a time when I was VERY obese. Most of the life vests have straps that will accomodate almost any size: I was VERY large at that time. Every time I tried to submerge, I would literally pop back up. That being said, please keep in mind that your back and the backs of your legs are going to be exposed to a LOT of sun while you float/swim/take pics on the surface. I always wear some sort of swim pants to cover my legs (that I put on after sunscreen) before I hop in the water. I haven't been burned yet, although many of my travelling companions that didn't wear pants did. They come in all sizes. I bought a size 3X and used them until I worked my way down to an XL. I have only found them online in a store that has lots of swimwear for people that do water aerobics. I also wear a rash guard (fabric with UV protection that is made to be worn under wet suits) now to protect my back...but I have never found them in any size larger than an XL. Depending on your size, that still may work for you. You can find them in most sporting goods stores where they sell wet suits. If you're comfortable in the water, and trust your equipment, you will be addicted. From the time I first tried in 1977, I have spent more hours of vacation under water than on land by FAR.

[swanny727]

It is best to have your own mask and snorkle. That way you can practice in the pool and make sure everything fits properly. You can spit on the mask, or buy some defog for masks, then rinse. Most boat companies will have you wear a life vest. Some may say you don't have to inflate it but, will require you to put it on. However, It is helpful to inflate as it makes it easier for you to float. Keep your arms at your sides and use your fins to move around. And, always use the buddy system.

[TOgal1009]

I don't know how to swim (ie. don't know how to tread) but want to try snorkling. Is this possible and safe? :o

 

Will be going to the southern caribbean.

[swanny727]

Wow, It is possible but, I don't know if it would be safe. Depends on the location. Snorkle in open water, as opposed to a protcted cove, and it will involve waves. There is also the waiting time to climb back on the boat. The life vest they supply should keep you afloat somewhat. I guess it depends on how calm you are when in the water. A shore trip would probably be better for you. That way, no waiting time - just you swimming around wherever you want.

[rpclmc]

I am an excellent swimmer and have been hesitant to snorkle in the open water. I completely agree that maybe you should try shore snorkeling first.

 

Also, don't be embarrassed to take swimming lessons at whatever age you are. I used to be on the swim team back in high school (many years ago, 20+) and I had gained so much weight I didn't swim anymore. I lost my ability to breath correctly and in my 40's started taking lessons again to improve my breathing.

 

I am now lapping for excersise and breathing and stroking just fine. Find yourself a good instructor and learn to swim. This is so important to know and you seem like you want to do water activities. Go for it and don't let anything get in your way. The water is a wonderful place and so healing.

 

Thank you so much for your information Randall. Those are exactly the questions I had, but have been to embarrassed to ask. I am signing up for some snorkeling instruction before my cruise. I figure if I can tackle part of my hesitation - becoming familiar with the equipment, I am 1/2 way there. Then it is only the open water I have to overcome and I shouldn't have a problem with that being such an expert swimmer that I am. I have just lost a lot of confidence with my increased age and weight.

 

Linda

[TOgal1009]

Thanks for all your help and replies :)

 

I have one more question. I was planning to visit Megan's Bay when I'm in St. Thomas. Is that a safe place to snorkle? Will there be anything there to see?

 

Thanks