Tony Christianson's USD Impulse Snorkel

[SeaRat]

I hope I can get Tony Christianson back here to talk about his development of the U.S. Divers Company Impulse Snorkel. Here is my wife using it to re-learn snorkeling in our local pool:

Chris snorkeling by John Ratliff, on Flickr

Chris snorkeling by John Ratliff, on Flickr

Chris at the Pool by John Ratliff, on Flickr

Tony told me in a PM that not only did he develop the Scubapro Pilot regulator, but also that the U.S. Divers Company Impulse Snorkel was his creation. I'd really like to know the engineering that went into the Impulse and Impulse II snorkels, and how they came to be. My wife, Chris swears by it, as it is the only snorkel that erases the wonderful smile lines on her cheeks and allows her mask to seal.

John

[snark3]

I have a USD Impulse snorkel. I absolutely love it. I like the price I paid even better. I was diving about a mile off Manchester Ma. one day, it was sitting right there on the bottom. It hadn't been there very long, I washed it up and use it to this day.

[luis]

Tony Christianson also designed the Zepher pilot valve second stage regulator. I own one of those regulators. I have not seen any others.

I also have some interesting documents related to the regulator. I would like to talk to him about them.


I believe he also designed the Camalot. A brand of spring-loaded camming devices used as anchors to secure ropes for protection while rock climbing.

[DavidRitchieWilson]

It's good to see knowledge and effort being applied to the development of the snorkel. I'd like to learn more about the design and the engineering behind it. It's also interesting to watch features such as valves coming back into favour now that they have higher reliability in use.

As a vintage snorkeller myself, however, I just regret that modern snorkels only come with silicone accoutrements and there's no retro option with alternative traditional materials (e.g. aluminium tube/rubber flex hose and mouthpiece) for appearance sake, if nothing else, when combining the snorkel with a favourite oval mask.

DRW

[SeaRat]

DRW,

I'm in Maui, Hawaii this week with my wife, snorkeling. I was in the water today with my TUSA Liberator mask and a Farallon snorkel. That rubber Farallon snorkel is a curved tube snorkel with a rotating mouthpiece. I have moved the curve so that it doesn't curve toward my head, but instead curves directly backwards. I used it for an hour's snorkeling just off Kāànapali Beach, where I was able to swim to the the rocky outcropping area and watch a number to different fish. At one point, I came upon a sea turtle, and was able to follow it and one other for about ten minutes. I am studying the sea turtle front flippers for their hydrodynamics, and how they are used by the turtle for both propulsion and maneuverability. I am currently applying that knowledge to a second generation of my Forward Unit for my "Sea Turtle/Dolphin Swimming Technique. I really enjoyed this snorkel outing, and used my Force Fins too during this swim too; these fins date back to the 1980s, and were given to me by Bob Evans, their inventor. To keep my balding spot from sunburn, I wore an old baseball cap backwards.

At Boss Frog's Snorkel Rental and Dive Shop, I found that they are selling the Impulse III snorkel, and their rental snorkels are also Impulse III snorkels. I had thought Aqualung had discontinued this snorkel, as I could not see it in their new on-line catalog. This Impulse III snorkel is now selling for nearly $60 here in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii.

Tomorrow we will be taking a charter to Molokini, a favorite snorkeling place in the world and a marine sanctuary. Chris, who has been practicing all winter and spring for tomorrow, will have an outstanding experience with her Impulse snorkel. It should be a wonderful trip.

John

[SeaRat]

We had quite a day today at the Molokini Marine Preserve. We used the Pacific Whale Foundation's charter to get to the off-shore Molokini Island. On the way out and at the site, we received a lecture on the way to snorkel behind the boat, and not to get too close to shore. Also, it is illegal to climb up on the shore.

Then we suited up, and got ready to enter the water. I was one of the only experienced snorkelers among the passengers, and a lot of them used a floating "noodle" to allow the snorkelers to stay easily afloat. But Chris and I were using snorkeling vests (I was in my Para-Sea BC). I also had an Aqualung diving shirt for sun protection, and a ball cap worn backwards to protect my bald spot and neck. I also had bio-friendly sunscreen on my legs, and booties on my feet. My mask today was a Scubapro three-window silicone mask (my rubber one melted away), which is one of my favorite masks, and a Scubapro Shotgun snorkel.

I took my helmet-mounted Go-Pro on this snorkeling session, and hope to produce a video of it. I found out last year not to keep it in my head, as constantly going in and out of the water produces seasickness in viewers. ☺️ So I took it off and used the helmet as a handle for the videoing.

Chris was anxious about this snorkeling, as she has been mostly in the pool with her snorkeling. Most of that was in the shallow end, where she could stand up whenever she wanted. She wore a full 2.5 millimeter wet suit, as she has been greeting cold in a shorty in the pool at 80 degrees F. She is quite thin, and so needs the thermal protection. (I, on the other hand, can stay in 75 degree water almost indefinitely.). She wore her newer TUSA mask, and her USD Impulse snorkel. She had some trouble with both; the mask leaked some and towards the end she got water entering he mouth with her Impulse snorkel. I tested the snorkel and determined that it wasn't the snorkel, but that probably she had water entering around her mouth.

Chris overcame these problems, and got to see the wonders of Molokini's coral and fish. Visibility was about 150 feet--tremendous! While there were coral formations, especially in the shallows, I was a bit disappointed with the numbers of fish, and the coral. After both swims (we went to a turtle area later), I talked briefly to the boat Captain, and he said that the corals on Molokini suffered from huge swells in certain seasons, and from sunscreen. Next year Hawaii will, I think, outlaw certain types of sunscreen that are detrimental to corals. But we saw urchins, all kinds of fish (parrot fish, butterfly fish, a trumpet fish and a bunch of others), We got close to the shore, and were able to see the shore break from underwater.

While Chris had some problems and frustrations, she also had some milestones. She by herself entered the water from the boat in 25 feet of water. Where she in the pool only stayed in neck-deep water, here she was in water way over her head without problems. "I knew I could float, so that was no problem," she said. The vests helped a lot, as we inflated them several times in the course of these swims.

We moved away from Molokini and to an area where we might see turtles. The Hawaiian green sea turtle is prolific in these waters, and is protected by U.S. law. On our way to this area, we were treated to seeing two porpoises following boat. Then, when we got to the second area, we entered the water and almost immediately someone motioned that there was a green sea turtle nearby. We swam to to, and followed this turtle for about two minutes. Then it had had enough, and headed for deeper water. We moved away, as then some 80 snorkelers were headed for our area.

The water here was not as clear, with visibility at about thirty feet. But the corals were more numerous and seemingly healthier here than on Molokini. But fish were not as numerous as Molokini.

This was where Chris experienced problems with her snorkel, and while she breathed through the Impulse snorkel, she got water. We tested, and determined that the water was coming in around her mouth. She had not experienced that for months, when she first started snorkeling last fall. By that time, most of the others were coming in. I took Chris back out, and we watched fish for a few more minutes and were amoungst the last to leave the water. That made us a bit late for lunch, but was a fitting end to our snorkeling.

I did get in several free dives to the bottom, to see and video a trumpet fish, to document the corals, to see a squirming urchin in the coral, and after Chris exited, just to head to the bottom one last time.

I am so happy for Chris, that she perserviered through the problems as they presented themselves, and see things others did not (we were some of the only ones to actually see the turtle).

John

[vintagefrank]

Hi John,

seems you are having good times….

Would be interested to get in Closer contact with Tony too but seems he is absent. He could - for sure - tell a lot of interesting Things....

Frank

[SeaRat]

Frank,

'Good to hear from you. Tony lives near Yosemite National Park, and has limited internet. He also doesn't look at the internet much. My hope is that he would want to comment here on the Impulse snorkel.

All,

Good news; we (Chris and I) had a wonderful snorkel experience yesterday. I'll report back later with more detail. But no leaking mask or water in her snorkel.

John

[SeaRat]

I am back home, and settled in a bit. Tomorrow I will be talking to a high school group about my experiences with USAF Pararescue. But tonight, I want to describe my snorkel trip with Chris on last Friday. We had been to Molokini for a snorkel trip with the Pacific Whale Foundation, on one of their boats, and Chris felt a bit defeated by that trip as her mask leaked and her snorkel allowed water into her mouth. That was the Impulse snorkel that I have been talking about. But Friday was different, and Chris was not to be defeated by Wednesday's experience. We took a day off, and went to Haliokala National Park for the day. That was a great break, and allowed Chris to put the snorkel trip into some perspective.

But Friday was a different day, and all the hotels were flying the red flag for "Dangerous Breakers" coming in. These originated in New Zealand waters, and had traveled to the Hawaiian Islands after several days of almost a calm Pacific. We gathered our gear, and then walked to the beach, then down the beach to a large lava rock jutting out into the ocean, and forming a small cove. This was Black Rock, a well-known snorkeling area. As we were gearing up, Chris into her wet suit, and me putting on my booties and fins, I talked with Chris.

"Let's just sit here and watch the waves, and see whether it is diveable," I said.

Chris agreed, and for several wave sets I watched and coached Chris about what I was seeing.

"Do you see these waves? They are coming into the beach in sets. There will be at least two waves breaking pretty high, three feet or so, and then it will calm down. At times the breakers will break, then go back into the water and form a standing wave which will combine with the incoming wave to form a larger wave. That we need to avoid," I said.

I watched for another five or so minutes, then said we could go into the water. I waited for a calm entry, then we walked backwards until we were almost waist-deep in the water. I took one more step back, and the depth increased to shoulder depth, so I instructed Chris to turn around and start snorkeling out. A wave formed, but by the time it got to us, we were in deep enough water that it hadn't yet broken. I signaled Chris to kick, and we proceeded out paralleling the rocky area. I moved us over toward the rocks, and as we did so a large wave came by, not breaking but riling up the sandy bottom in a "snow storm" very familiar to anyone who's snorkeled in such conditions. As we got toward the rock wall, the bottom became more rocky, and more fish were visible. I had my GoPro camera mounted on my helmet, and started it and stopped it in order to get some sequences of our snorkeling.

We got closer to the rock wall, and I turned us again so that we were swimming parallel to the cliff face. The rock cliff extended straight up from the bottom, and was easily visible from about 30 feet away. Visibility was close to fifty feet, but not so spactacular as for our Wednesday snorkel trip. Then we swam over a large school of a white fish (I haven't dived tropical waters enough to remember the names of these fish) about a foot to eighteen inches long. There must have been over a hundred of these fish on the bottom.

As we swam, I was impressed that Chris was not having any of the Wednesday problems. She continued to swim horizontal, and it was apparent that her mask was not leaking this time. Her breathing was also regular, and apparently without saltwater intrusion into the snorkel.

We continued to swim to the tip of Black Rock, watching the fish swim below us. The coral was numerous, and appeared healthy. Some of the fish, such as the parrot fish and the butterfly fish (I do remember those) were feeding on the coral, and we could watch that. The waves were fairly large, with some breaking at about five feet on the tip of Black Rock. We could see them break from underwater, and that was great. Our bodies did not move up and down five feet though, as we were away from the rock, in deep water (about 20-25 feet deep) and the waves simply raised us up a little and they went by.

At the tip, we were as far out is I was comfortable taking Chris, and so I guestured and we turned around. I was holding Chris' hand this whole time, as she needed me doing that for her confidence. I had my Para-Sea BC on, and Chris had her snorkeling vest along with the wetsuit for buoyancy, and she knew that she could not sink. So we finned back toward the shore, and came back over the large school of fish I mentioned earlier. So we continued over them toward the beach, I caught sight of a green sea turtle toward the the rock, swimming fairly close to it too. We moved closer to see this turtle, and it was good-sized. The turtle was swimming toward the open ocean where we had just come from, so we turned around again. The turtle had about twenty feet on us, so I grabbed Chris' hand a bit harder, and swam harder toward the green sea turtle. This turtle's carapace was about three feet long, maybe 2.5 feet wide, and with a flipper-span of almost five feet. I worked pretty hard, and Chris kept up with me as we gained on the turtle when it stopped to nibble on the rock/reef. Finally, after several minutes of pursuit, we were right behind the turtle, and it dived a bit toward the rock for another bite. We stopped over it, then continued swimming right over this turtle as it rather lazily flippered across the rock/reef. We followed right over this large turtle for what seemed like several minutes, and it was getting into deeper water, then swimming a bit faster, so we let it go. I had hoped to get video of a turtle to analyze for my studies on underwater swimming techniques, and had hopefully gotten that video (later confirmed by GoPro playback). But with the turtle headed out further than I wanted to go, we again turned round, and started swimming toward the shore.

We glided over the school of fish again, and I signaled Chris to get her head up, spit out my snorkel and asked, "Okay for me to make a surface dive to the bottom?"

Chris quickly replied, "No!"

So I replied, "Okay, we'll swim back to shore."

My whole emphasis was for her to have a good experience with this last swim of our Maui trip. We continued in, close to Black Rock to see the fish in the shallow water, and I was surprised that the swell and break was lower here. But I had determined that i did not want us to exit on or near the rocks, as getting bounced by the surf would be bad with hard rocks rather than sand for a bottom. We therefore swam a bit parallel to the shore to a point where we had sand to exit onto, and I had Chris stop finning. I looked at the swells that were coming, and waited as three swept us up and down before the water laid down and became calm. Then I said to Chris,

"Swim hard for the shore!"

We did, and got into shallow water where I had already instructed Chris on the exit technique, but stated it again.

"Crawl up onto the beach on all four," I commanded. We did, and were far enough up the beach that the next breaker did not affect us, other than pushing on our fins. Then we turned over, and laid on the sand with the waves breaking in front of us, and water being thrown up by the break toward us, but only about four inches deep at our fins. We enjoyed this sensation for several minutes, then took off our fins and stood up to get to our beach towel and sandles, which we had stashed on some broken concrete high up on the shore. We sat there, and Chris exclaimed,

"Wow, that turtle was big. And we were right over it! I had fun!"

Chris later told me that she really enjoyed that last snorkeling at Black Rock, and wanted to do it again, which is exactly what I was hoping for. She actually enjoyed crawling out of the surf up onto the beach too; it reminded her of her childhood days of playing. We gathered our gear, and walked up the beach to our hotel, where they had an outdoor shower to wash off the sand. I had about a cup full of sand in the pockes of my swim suit, and wanted to wash off the gear, my Para-Sea BC, Chris' vest, our masks and fins, and Chris' alternative mask. (I had brought her older mask, a TUSA Hyper-dry mask) in my Para-Sea BC pocket, and had tied it onto the BC with a cord that normally carries my car key, which was good as it came out in the surf at the last, and got a lot of sand in it). The sand was the biggest problem I had, as I still needed to get more of it out in the hotel room, and even when we got back home.

That's the story, and I must repeat what Chris said, "There was nothing wrong with my mask, or the snorkel. It was me." She had been so anxious on Wednesday that it caused the leaks he had experienced, and this time was different.

"I was determined to relax, breathe deeply, and enjoy this snorkel trip. I did not want to be defeated!" She stated. And she was not. Undoubtedly, we will get back in the water again some time.

John

[scubalawyer]

John,

Nice write up. Felt like I was there. Reminded me of many snorkeling adventures I've had throughout the Hawaiian Islands over the years. Being able to evaluate/judge/time wave sets seems to be becoming a lost art. I see more divers walking down to the beach and, instead of pausing long enough to get a feel for the wave patterns, it's damn the torpedos, full speed ahead. I have found more lost dive gear in the surf zone over the years than I have ever bought. Plus hauled many a diver up on the beach who were flopping around on the wet sand after being thrashed and knocked down by waves they never thought to look for. Good for you for teaching your wife the proper way to evaluate a site for beach entry!

Mark

[SeaRat]

I finally got my GoPro disc to download (on the fourth try), and was able to take some screen shots off it from our trip to Molokini. Here are some screen shots off that video.

Screen Shot 2019-05-21 at 5.12.06 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Chris (center) is about to enter the crystal clear waters of Molokini from the Ocean Guardian.

Screen Shot 2019-05-20 at 10.04.44 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Chris and I spent a lot of time hand-holding during these snorkel swims.

Screen Shot 2019-05-20 at 10.06.43 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Chris swims on her own as I took surface dive down toward the coral. Neither of us actually touched the coral, becoming "environmental snorkelers" for this trip.

Screen Shot 2019-05-20 at 9.56.42 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
A butterfly fish and a parrot fish swim amoungst the coral.

Screen Shot 2019-05-20 at 9.55.16 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
A ribbon fish makes its get-away.

Screen Shot 2019-05-20 at 9.51.50 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Sea Urchin in the coral.

Screen Shot 2019-05-20 at 9.58.02 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
A parot fish along with a different sea urchin amoungst the coral.

Screen Shot 2019-05-20 at 9.48.44 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Chris snorkels by herself on the surface as I'm surfacing from a surface dive.

Screen Shot 2019-05-20 at 10.02.51 PM by John Ratliff, on Flickr
I catch back up with Chris after surfacing from my dive to the bottom, as Chris is looking for me. Note the Impulse snorkel she's using.

We both wore inflatable vests for these snorkel swims, and were some of the only snorkelers with them. But on this first trip, they came in handy when Chris had mask/snorkel problems. We were able to inflate the vests, and simply talk through the situation, then continue our snorkeling. I was really happy at how Chris worked through her mask problems. I even tested her Impulse snorkel, as she thought water was coming into it; it wasn't. This was her first time in salt water since the 1990s, and she was a bit anxious. That was the real problem, which she identified herself. But as you can see, she swam around on her own, and did a fine job. At one point, we got close to the shore where there were a lot more fish close to the surface, and that was exciting. The waves stirred up the water (1-2 foot waves) and the fish would look into those areas for food.

John

[rtonyc]

Actually our home is IN Yosemite National Park. And yes I created Camalot for climbers, probably my most successful invention in terms of numbers sold. Well maybe not, there are a lot of Impulse and Ultradry snorkels out there (yes the Oceanic Ultradry snorkel is also my invention, see note at end).

About Impulse Snorkels, the story starts with Alan Uke. Alan was thinking of expanding his company’s (Underwater Kinetics) product line to include snorkels. He asked me to create a new snorkel, he did not care what it was as long as it was different and cutting edge. At the time I was a regulator guy, creating a new snorkel would be a departure from what I usually designed. What is a snorkel? A short tube you breath through, but that pesky water keeps getting inside. Obviously something needed to be done about the water. Eventually for Alan I came up with a snorkel having two parallel passages with appropriate valves arranged in such a way that air would always be available for breathing even with the snorkel half filled with water. Nifty idea and it worked, it was different and cutting edge, and although Alan liked it the snorkel proved to be too complicated for practical production.

Back to the drawing board, but by this time Alan had decided the Underwater Kinetics would not be putting a snorkel on the market. That didn’t stop me, I was hooked and kept at it. I have no idea how many prototypes I built to test various ideas to negate that pesky water. About that time Joe Schuch created what became Scubapro’s Shotgun snorkel. The Shotgun also had two parallel passages but rather than keep the snorkel dry, the passages were arranged to lessen the effort needed to purge a flooded snorkel, a much simpler arrangement and easily fabricated. Hmm. That got me to thinking about what water does when it splashes into the snorkel tube while snorkeling on the water’s surface. The water doesn’t simply fall down the center of the tube, rather it is attracted to and gathers on the walls of the tube, runs down the walls of the tube and accumulates at the bottom eventually blocking the flow of breathing air. How to get rid of that water flowing down the walls of the tube before it accumulates at the bottom. Simple, put an annular purge valve above the waterline which dumps the water back outside. Impulse was born. It turned out that not only did the Impulse deal with water splashing in the snorkel while swimming on the surface, it was also easier to purge than the Shotgun.

I had a winner, Underwater Kinetics was out of the picture so who was going to manufacture and sell it? Initially I approached Dacor and they loved it but their legal department was afraid that the idea might infringe on Schuch’s Shotgun patent and they did not want to chance a contest with Scubapro (my patent had not yet issued, and as it turned out there was no conflict or infringement). Next I presented it to US Divers and we soon negotiated an exclusive worldwide license agreement for US Divers to fabricate, market and sell the snorkel. The name “Impulse” came from the US Divers marketing department. Usually when an invention is prepared for production the final product does not necessarily copy the inventor’s prototypes. The production Impulse snorkel closely matched my prototypes but the exterior was dressed up by an industrial engineer to give it more marketing appeal. Karl Winefordner (who now has his own company for bike enthusiasts “Crank Brothers”) was the industrial engineer at US Divers who designed the first Impulse (Impulse 1) snorkel for production. I don’t recall who designed the production Impulse 2. I designed the Impulse 3.

Note: Impulse snorkels stay “dry” while snorkeling on the surface but the snorkel will fill with water when the diver swims underwater and must be purged upon surfacing. The Oceanic Ultradry is a completely different invention, it uses a float linked to a flapper which closes when the diver swims underwater, keeping the snorkel tube free of water at all times. Ultradry is licensed exclusively to Huish Outdoors, the new parent company of Oceanic and Atomic Aquatics.

[SeaRat]

Tony,

Thank you for this reply. It sheds a lot of light on the development of this unique snorkel, the Impluse snorkel by U.S. Divers Company (now Aqualung).

In the 1990s, our family was scheduling a trip to Maui, Hawaii with our boys, Brian and Nathan. I decided to test out all the snorkels, including both the Impulse and the Shotgun snorkel. I had used the Scubapro Shotgun for years (and still do), but my tests revealed that the Impulse beat my Shotgun snorkel, and I ended up buying three Impulse snorkels for that trip. I'll see whether I can find the slides of that trip too.

The Impulse snorkel that Chris was using last month, and all winter long in practice, was one of those Impulse snorkels that we bought in the 1990s (we still have two, but Chris has taken over both of them ).

John