Swimming & Snorkeling

[Irisy]

My family and I have never been snorkeling before. I am just wondering if you need to know how to swim in order to snorkel?

[rsmith55]

No....and Yes. Its always a good idea to know how to swim if you venture into water over your waist, especially ocean water. Many snorkelers wear life vests while they are snorkeling, but I think that most of them are swimmers too. In theory, if the life jacket holds you up, then you don't need to know how to swim. However, I don't think that I would recommend doing it because there is always the chance that you might slip out of the jacket and would be in big time trouble. Now what you might be able to do safely is go to a very calm, very shallow sandy area ( shallow being about 4 feet deep or so) with a life vest on and where you are surrounded by good swimmers that could help you if you got into trouble and try out some snorkeling equipment. You might even see a few fish. Or, better yet, you might also try it in a hotel swimming pool in the shallow area to see if you like it. (no fish there though) But the best thing to do is to learn how to swim first and then you are fully prepared to learn to snorkel. Its really worth the effort to learn how to swim and then I'm sure that you will love snorkeling. I've been snorkeling all over the Caribbean and its great fun spending time over the reefs. But don't ever forget that the ocean can be very dangerous. Hope this helps.