Odd snorkels

[DavidRitchieWilson]

Here's another of my "oddities" series of threads about basic gear over the years. This time round the humble breathing tube is the subject of the thread. I've a little more time on my hands so I've been exploring what is currently available from today's manufacturers when it comes to snorkels with traditional rubber rather than silicone or plastic mouthpieces. This has not only led me to some interesting insights into the classification of snorkels according to shape, but also to review the historical development of the snorkel from the 1950s onwards so that I could see when different snorkel configurations emerged.

I'll report back on this research at another time, focusing today on little oddities that stimulated my interest further. A 1956 US Divers catalogue contains the following page:

Yes, four of the seven models are double-bend snorkels of the type that evokes the cry of "You're gonna die" in modern diving manuals, but what interests me more at the moment is the variety of devices keeping the tube in position on the head. The most familiar snorkel-keeping strategy is the "figure of 8" strap used for the Squale Swim Tube, where one or both holes wrap around the snorkel while the other hanging loose or the resulting loop will end up with the mask headstrap threaded through it:


The device that drew my attention most was the "gum rubber head band" tied around three of the snorkels on the catalogue page. Here's a closer look at the arrangement from another catalogue:

I don't think I've seen a picture of a diver from that era with their snorkel attached by such a head band. I can see the merits of the arrangement: the snorkel isn't pulling on the mask strap and breaking in the process the mask skirt seal against the face. However I wonder how efficient it would be to use a snorkel with its own head band. This said, don't today's competitive swimmers use similar head bands when doing workouts with frontal snorkels?


Just to complicate matters a little further, I came across another, more conventional, snorkel in a British Spartan catalogue from the mid-1960s:

As you can see, this model comes with a "lanyard" threaded through an eye at the base of the snorkel. Such cord was designed to be wrapped around the snorkeller's neck, presumably as a second means of security if the normal mask-attached snorkel keeper wasn't sufficient.

Does anybody have any images of, or thoughts about, people who actually wore the long snorkel strap around the head or the snorkel lanyard around the neck?

[SeaRat]

David,

I remember using that one snorkel, D-SP, which has the ping pong ball in the top. I ended up cutting the tube off to make a "J" snorkel out of it. I didn't like the breathing resistance, and the ping pong ball only worked some of the time (if you stayed with the ball vertical).

In the 1980s I was Finswimming Director for the Underwater Society of America, and tried to re-introduce the sport to the USA. Apparently, some have now taken it up, but my initial efforts were only somewhat successful. Here I'm using the fin swimming snorkel in the 1980s, which is very streamlined for finswimming competitions.


You need to realize that the racing snorkel that finswimmers use in competitions must be able to withstand a racing dive into the water from the blocks. So these snorkels must be both in front, and have the headgear to hold them in place for these dives. Competitions in the pool consist of 100 meters, 200, 400 and 800 meter swims with either bi-fins (long fins, one on each foot) or mono-fins (one fin for both feet). Here's a video of a finswimming competition (800 meter relay, I think):


I'll post more later, as I have a good collection of snorkels.

John

[DavidRitchieWilson]

Thanks, John, that's brilliant. It's good to learn the rationale behind the use of certain equipment.

The British diving gear company E. T. Skinner (now Typhoon International) offered a frontal snorkel as long ago as the mid-1950s. This from their 1956 catalogue:

My parents gave me the side-mounted double-bend model with the ball valve and I loved swimming with it and my mask and fins in the pool attached to my secondary school during the early 1960s.

David

[SeaRat]

Here Limons Osis, a biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, is using an AMF Voit snorkel, with a flexible, but wire-reinforced section that I also used in the 1960s. This snorkel would not collapse when in a high current situation, as some others did. One would collapse around my chin when in river currents.



A snorkel that I still use is the Dacor flexible snorkel.



This is the driest snorkel that I have used, the USD Impulse snorkel from the 1980s.



More later.

John

[SeaRat]

David,

Here is a photo of me with that original AMF Voit snorkel from 1963. It had a white top, blue spiral bottom with a mouthpiece.



John

[SeaRat]

Here's page 3 of the 1970 Voit Swim & Diving Equipment Catalog No. 270SD. The snorkel I was using in the above 1963 photo is featured here as F5B Snorkel.



Note in the catalog page above, the engineers are working on the Trieste double hose regulator.

Here's the 1972 Voit Catalog, page 5, which shows these snorkels a bit better.



The "C" shaped snorkel David spoke about above is shown pretty well here too.

John

[DavidRitchieWilson]

That's a great help, John, and complements what I've already discovered from my own catalogues.

As I said in my first message, I'm researching what is currently available in the way of rubber-mouthpieced snorkels and excluding silicone and PVC-mouthpieced breathing tubes from the search because those materials are more typical of the present century's offerings rather than the last's. My aim is:
(a) to identify which rubber-mouthpieced snorkels are in current production;
(b) to try and devise a typology of these rubber-mouthpieced snorkels based on shape.

I've already identified over 30 snorkels worldwide that fit the bill, thanks to Google! I've also been busy leafing through the tomes in my modest diving book library in search of an existing typology rather than reinventing the wheel. What I found was a wide range of nomenclature, e.g. what one author called a "J" snorkel would be called a "U" snorkel by another author; what one writer referred to as a "concertina snorkel" would be designated as an "accordion-hose snorkel" or a "flex snorkel" by other writers. British and American usage diverged in many cases, as it's always done; we on both sides of the Atlantic are divided by a common language!

Anyway, the most promising find typology wise came from a 1983-vintage PADI manual I bought second hand. The date is significant because the early 1980s would have seen an overlap between the vintage and the modern era in gear, so we have the best of both worlds. I found the following on page 18:

So 4 categories, J-shaped, L-shaped, Contour and Flexible Hose. These types cover very neatly the rubber-mouthpieced snorkels I found still in production, but the "Contour" category appeared to cover almost half of them, so I decided to divide "Contour" into two subtypes, "Semi-contoured" and "Contoured", the former having straight-up tube tops rather than the more wraparound designs. Here are the five categories again, each with images of two currently available example snorkels:

1. J-shaped Snorkels
SEAC Classic

Sommap Commando


2. L-shaped Snorkels
Majorca Simple No. 2

Sommap Clarinette


3. Flexible-hose Snorkels
Francis Corrugato

Majorca Spiral


4. Semi-contoured Snorkels
AQA Aegean

Aqua pro


5. Contoured Snorkels
Beuchat Tubair

Kiefer Rubber Scout


I'm researching along the same lines with traditional masks and fins too.

David

[SeaRat]

David,

Now I have a better idea of what you're after. I'm writing on an iPad, so this will bea short entry. Realize that many of the first snorkels were hand-made. This snorkel, that I just found on E-Bay represents one of those hand-made snorkels. Many of the former East-Block countries had no access to manufactured items during the Cold-War period, and so made their own equipment. Snorkels were made by filling plastic (PVC) tubes with sand, heating them and bending them to the desired shape. Here is one example of that process (note the slight collapse of the tube at the bend from not enough sand in the tube).

www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Soviet-USSR-Scuba-Snorkeling-Snorkel-Set-Dive-Diving-Mask-Water-Sport-/111474984425?hash=item19f46d45e9

I'm on my computer keyboard now, so writing is easier. In the fin swimming community in the 1980s, hand-made snorkels and fins (both monofins and bifins) were commonplace. We surprised the U.S. Olympic Committee when we had a hearing to get finswimming recognized as an Olympic sport, when they found out that most monofins and snorkels were home-made. "You mean, we still have a sport with home-made equipment," one of the Olympic representatives said to us, and we replied, "Yes, as no manufacturer is making anything that works." We had (and somewhere I probably still have) publications showing how to make a snorkel and monofins.

Plastic snorkels were prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s, in the inexpensive ones. It wasn't until the 1970s and 1980s that we got the molded rubber snorkels. Then we got the "big barrel" snorkels which were easier to breath through. When I was a kid, I received my first snorkel and took it to the YMCA pool to practice with, along with fins and my mask. My parents and brothers were there, and I remember snorkeling and surfacing near the side of the pool in the shallower end once, clearing the snorkel, then continuing on. On the way home, I found out that my swim team assistant coach, Margarette Lyngel, had been watching me from right over me, and my Mom informed me that I had sprayed her pretty good when I surfaced. She told me to watch out where I did that, and I told her that I couldn't see anything on the surface when I did it.

Right now, Finis is the manufacturer of competitive swimming snorkels and monofins. I have one, and still have one of their monofins too. Occasionally, I'll take both to the pool.

John

[DavidRitchieWilson]

Thanks, John, for the information, links and your own narrative behind the development of snorkels. I suspect a lot of people think that the frontal snorkel is a modern device, while my 1956 Typhoon diving equipment catalogue says otherwise. As for the Soviet snorkel, I do like its classical "J" shape and the price embossed on the mouthpiece,

1 rouble and 5 kopecks, is reminiscent of a bygone age in an inflationless economy. It's interesting that both items in the eBay auction are still on the market new, the snorkel made by Kievguma in Ukraine, the "Nymph" mask manufactured by Yaroslavl in Russia.

David

[SeaRat]

David,

It appears that others are only reading these posts, and not contributing. I would urge others to contribute here, to increase the effectiveness of this search for odd snorkels.

As mentioned, I was Finswimming Director for the Underwater Society of America in the 1980s. Below is correspondence and part of the catalog from Dol-Fin out of the former West Germany. Peter Hager wrote to me with the catalog when I was trying to purchase a monofin. Here is that correspondence, and the page that includes their racing snorkels.




Here is the catalog page:


In 1988 I published the first edition of FINSWIMMING NEWS, Volume 1, No. 1, Jan-Mar 1988, through the Underwater Society of America. In that first issue, I published an article by Dr. Ach. Lilies & Prof. Vas. Grammaticos, CMAS, from the Fin Swimming Manual by Karl-Heinz Kerll. The article discusses how to make both monofins and racing snorkels. Here is the part on racing snorkels:

...The snorkel is made out of plastic tubes (used for plumbing or electrical installations) which come in thicknesses of 0.5 to 1.0 mm. Internal diameters ranging from 19 to 23 mm can be used (the smaller being reserved for the youngest swimmers). In order to shape the snorkel one cuts out a piece about 60 cm long, fills it up with closely packed sand, closes the two ends with corks and softens the tube by heating it, for example, in boiling water. A wooden frame...can then be used to easily shape the snorkel tube, the upper part of which can be more or less bent according to the swimmer's preference. The mouthpiece is cut to fit and a rubber ring is put around it for better bite. The head piece is made from a thin aluminum band, which is shaped around the swimmer's head, and foam neoprene is placed on the band to protect the head. A rubber band goes around the swimmer's head from end piece to end piece...

This is essentially the same as the above Dol-Fin snorkels. Each was bent for a different purpose. For instance, for long distance swimming in open water the snorkel tube is higher, and further away from the head. For sprint swimming in a pool, it is closer to the head.

John

[surflung]

Concerns for Racers and Bit-thru Bite Tabs
- I have always been a fan of the basic, large bore, simple free diving snorkel. Everytime I have tried the fancier valved snorkels I have found them less useful and more troublesome than the simple free diver style. These I actually buy 6 at a time from Snorkel City for about $3.95 each (I think).
- For the past 3-4 years I've been swimming laps at the YMCA with my diving mask and this style of snorkel. My wife thought it was an advantage until she tried it and felt like she couldn't get enough air when swimming at a good, strenuous pace. We had a good discussion on this at the other forum when Nemrod contributed quite a bit of good information on air resistance using a snorkel for lap swimming.
- So, this discussion on "Racing Snorkels" has me intrigued. I think I've got to try one of those! But I wonder about a potential hazard: When swimming hard, I am sucking air fast and blowing harder than the snorkel can exhaust... Actually sometimes I'm blowing out both nose and mouth when I'm really chugging along. So one day, I felt something in my mouth and thankfully before I sucked in another breath, I discovered I had a chunk of the mouthpiece in my mouth. If I had sucked that into my lung it would not have been good.
- I check my mouthpieces often since then and had another snorkel near losing a piece and a couple of double hose regulators that had loose bite tabs, too. I wonder if your racers check for things like that?
- Finally, I discovered some better quality big bore free diving style snorkels... They make them for "Underwater Hockey". Can you believe that? Here's a link: www.usauwh.org/

[nikeajax]

Here's my Healthways snorkel I got a few months ago:



Please note the purge valve too

Jaybird

[nikeajax]

"For the past 3-4 years I've been swimming laps at the YMCA with my diving mask and this style of snorkel. My wife thought it was an advantage until she tried it and felt like she couldn't get enough air when swimming at a good, strenuous pace. We had a good discussion on this at the other forum when Nemrod contributed quite a bit of good information on air resistance using a snorkel for lap swimming."

Eb, it may be that the snorkel might just be too large for her. I have a White Stag that is just too big and doesn't have good enough venturi to move the air in and out:



Personally it's the WORST snorkel I've ever used!

Jaybird

[SeaRat]

Eban, I'm sitting in the DMV with nothing to do but wait. So I'll attempt to answer some of your questions.

Your wife's experience could be caused by a low volume of air exchanged with each breath. Large bore snorkels have less air flow resistance, but also greater volume. If the volume of your wife's air exchange is small, she may be mostly re breathing her last breath. This leads to CO2 buildup, and great discomfort. Try a smaller diameter snorkel, with a shorter length. The snorkel tube just needs to clear the top of the head to be effective in the pool.

The racing snorkel really works great for pool work. I use mine in the winter with a very small volume mask by Dacor. I'll get some photos later.

John

[SeaRat]

Jul 27, 2015 9:13:33 GMT -8 nikeajax said:

Here's my Healthways snorkel I got a few months ago:



Please note the purge valve too

Jaybird

Jaybird,

This snorkel is an example of the type I did not like. The reason was that in high current, this mouthpiece portion tended to be bent downward, fold over on my chin, and cut off the air flow. If you aren't diving a river, then this is not a problem.

One other thing many don't realize is that the tube on the snorkel can be cut. It just needs to be as high as the top of your head to be effective. Cutting it off lessens the amount of dead air space in the snorkel tube. For those smaller people (kids mostly), who have a smaller lung capacity, using a smaller diameter snorkel can help too.

John