How To Use A Snorkel

Hi, I'm Howard Payne. I'm an instructor with Dive Wimbledon. We're a five-star IDC center here in Southwest London.

I teach both the recreational and technical diving and have been diving for about eight years. Today, I'm going to give you a little bit of advice on equipment and how to scuba dive. Just a few tips, when you're snorkelling, obviously, make sure you don't touch any of the coral or the fish or the marine life, because some of it is poisonous.

Generally, the more beautiful it is, the more likely you are to get stung. Just remember to keep breathing normally, and also make sure that you have got a wet suit on so that you stay buoyant, or some people like to wear a snorkel, like a little life jacket just to keep them buoyant on the surface. Just a few things to bear in mind when you are snorkelling like Jacques.

Jacques, if you'd just like to hold the mask there. You can see the snorkel goes on the left hand side of the mask, because as we start to move further and we actually get into diving proper, as it were, the reg will come around from the right hand side, so we need the snorkel over on the left hand side. You can see that there is a little vent at the stop there, to stop water and the waves from splashing down the snorkel tube itself.

Most good modern snorkels have got a little valve at the bottom here, which when you blow out hard, it clears all of the water through the bottom of the snorkel. Do you want to just put that on, Jacques, and show them how that works? Okay, so you can see there, you adjust the snorkel there, so that it is comfortable, and the mouthpiece fits into the mouth. You'll see he's breathing in and out.

Obviously, we'd be below the surface here. The air is being drawn in from the tube which is above the waves, and then down into his mouth and in and out. Should we take that out of our mouth briefly, then when we put it back in again, you need to blow hard just to clear the excess water out of the tube.

There we go. That's just a brief introduction on how you actually snorkel. .