THE SNORKEL - WHY?
Snorkels are fine for snorkelling, but what use is a snorkel to a diver? We have them throughout our training, then dispatch them to a dark corner of the dive box, or stuff them into a knife pocket. What's that all about ?
Why do instructors insist that trainees wear a snorkel for their training dives?
How often do the wide-eyed trainees carry out a perfectly respectable mask removal/ replacement, only to impale a nostril with the plastic pipe at the last minute?
How often do they execute a perfect arm-sweep reg recovery, only to get a gobful of water when the plakky tube tangles with the reg?
How often does their snorkel later run the gauntlet of snagging on kelp/porthole/rock/ wreck, with the real possibility of displacing a mask?
Them in the know at HQ state that: "On reaching the surface, the diver should remove the regulator and fit the snorkel for the surface-swim to the boat." Why? To give the seagulls more of a challenge?
 As good divers, we aim to arrive back at the surface with "at least" 50 bar left, so why take out a perfectly well-functioning reg, with all the risks of a watery mouthful, to stick a snorkel in? No-one I know uses them when surface-swimming. Most folks swim on their backs anyway.
Some divers stuff the dastardly tube into a knife-pocket or sheath. Again, why? Can you breathe from it when it's strapped to a leg? Do snorkel wardens lurk at dive-site exits, ready to fine divers who can't produce their tube in a given time ?
Divers trained abroad insist on wearing snorkels, yet never use them. Do they feel less than fully kitted up without one? On a recent liveaboard I watched in disbelief as a diver on the brink of leaping in suddenly stopped, let out a cry and flopped her way back to her kit box. She said she wasn't ready because she didn't have her snorkel!
 Am I missing something? Do I need enlightenment or just therapy ?
Ian Muirhead, Langley Moor, Durham