There seems to be a lot of confusion among divers if you should dive with your snorkel in or with your snorkel out.
Now a long long time ago, in a country far far away, there were scuba diving organisations that required their students to first master certain free diving skills before progressing to Scuba.
Un till today, PADI, ( the Professional Association of Diving Instructors) requires from their open water students to swim a horizontal distance of 15 meter under water followed by the clearing of the snorkel without lifting the face from the water. This drill ensures the diver gains a certain amount of airway control.
In further lessons divers learn about the "Displacement technique" where on your way up, just below the surface you passively exhale while your snorkel is upside down. And the snorkel will be upside down if you are looking upwards, to check the surface for obstructions. Passive exhaling means you just naturally exhale without force, there is no need to blast. Then as you reach the surface swiftly look down so the snorkel ends up pointing to the sky. Now the snorkel is completely empty and you can breath without the need to lift your heavy head from the water. These are the lessons for scuba divers.
Now in free diving pretty much all organisations and instructors will tell you to not dive with a snorkel in the mouth. Maybe because at some point some athlete must have blacked out with a jaw lock and his buddy found it a bit harder to remove the snorkel. And all at once, diving with a snorkel in got called dangerous, because something went wrong with one person, witch would be the same as saying "Don't drive a car, it is dangerous, because some race car driver died driving a car"
The consequence of telling people to: not dive with a snorkel in, is that they don't get to practice the airway control needed for optimal snorkel use. Some beginners even believe that with the snorkel in your lungs will flood not realising you can lock the throat.
My recommendation to any coach or instructor is to teach snorkel blasting and the displacement technique and the only way for a student to learn that is by keeping the snorkel in on the first sessions.
To most beginners breathing trough the snorkel and clearing it is annoying, when you blast those snorkels there is always some water left inside and then you have to get used to salt water in your mouth and slurp past it to blast a second time. Yet the only way to master it and to become one with your snorkel is by practising it over and over.
Then once the student has become capable and confident with the snorkel you can teach them the benefits of having it: not in the mouth.
Ok so what's it gonna be? Snorkel in or snorkel out?
The benefits of diving with the snorkel in your mouth:
🐟 After the dive you can keep your head under water, there for your body can be more horizontal and is more streamlined. When the body is horizontal the heart has less work since the blood does not need to get pumped above the surface and there for you will recover faster.
🐟 If you keep your snorkel in during the dive you don't need to put it back in your mouth later when your back at the surface. WItch is handy when your filming a turtle and don't want to stop looking at it or when a spearfisher shot a fish and wants to keep his hands and eyes on the catch.
🐟 With the snorkel in it's easier to swim out trough a surf zone and dive under, every time there is a big wave, because your snorkel is in you can just keep swimming every time you resurface.
Some disadvantages of having a snorkel in during the dive:
🔥 It is not streamlined, your more streamlined without a snorkel in your mouth.
🔥 With higher speeds it starts vibrating
🔥 Sometimes it's nice to take the snorkel out to relax the jaw.
🔥 Your safety diver needs to be very close and needs to establish eye contact to assure you are staying conscious while you recover breathing trough the snorkel.
🔥W hen you black out with a snorkel in it could be obstructing the airway, especially if your floating with your mouth above water but the snorkel tip still below.
🔥 and if you happen to have a jaw lock during your black out then it be bit harder for your safety diver to remove the snorkel.
The Benefits of removing the snorkel before the dive are:
🐟 Streamlining
🐟 It's the right way to train for competition protocol.
🐟 It's easier for the safety diver to see if the diver stays conscious while recovering.
Disadvantages:
🔥It's easier to loose snorkels when they are not attached to the mask.
🔥You will always need to lift your head out of the water after every single dive. Your recovery time will be longer. Your focus under water gets interrupted by the fact that you need to lift your head out of the water.
🔥When divers take the snorkel out between each dive, they are more likely to start talking and there for they have less time to dive, witch becomes very ap
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