| While you're preparing for your next warm waters | | | | first and best thing you can do is to avoid the |
| charter, playing with the hand-held GPS and poring | | | | temptation to head straight back up and try something |
| over the new cruising guide, spare a thought for the | | | | else instead. |
| lowly art of snorkeling. Poor mans scuba-diving it is not. | | | | The trick? Leek out a little air till that feeling of being fit |
| Good snorkeling skills can be a life-saver for the | | | | to burst ceases. It won't take much, just dribble out a |
| skipper and even if you've always thought you have | | | | little bit till it goes away. And it will. Suddenly you'll find |
| the lung capacity of a hamster, with a few techniques | | | | yourself floating around wondering why you didn't |
| at your disposal you can hugely improve your free | | | | come down here earlier. Again, you'll get that fit to |
| diving skills. | | | | burst feeling. Don't head top speed for the surface but |
| Good snorkel skills can give manifold benefits: see | | | | leek out more air. By this stage you're considering |
| whether your anchor's set properly or get it out of a | | | | whether to make a second home down there. Just |
| tangle, inspect the underside of your boat while it's in | | | | keep going like that till the air runs out; each time you'll |
| the water, save precious time if you need to cut off a | | | | feel back to normal until finally it's time to head back up. |
| prop-wrap. You know you're in business when you | | | | Apart from that fit to burst feeling which tells you to |
| come to anchorage and worry more about finding | | | | leek a little air, while you're heading south you'll feel |
| your free-dive depth than trying to calculate what one | | | | quite a lot of pain in your ears if you don't start doing |
| fifth of your anchor chain is. And besides all that reef | | | | something about it. So be ready to hold your nose and |
| snorkeling down to depth is a lot of fun. | | | | blow out through your ears. If you're heading to depth |
| So, you're floating in the water wondering what you're | | | | at any speed you'll have to do that quite regularly. |
| getting yourself into. Take at least three long deep | | | | An important side note is that since you're not taking |
| breaths before you think about diving. I know, not | | | | on-board any new air like scuba-divers do you don't |
| rocket science. Just relax and breathe as far in and | | | | need to worry about pressure when you come back |
| out as you can three times, make sure you push the | | | | up. Just head straight back to the surface. If you see a |
| air right out when you breathe out and all the way | | | | scuba diver and feel like a gasp of air then avoid the |
| around when you breathe in; down to the tummy and | | | | temptation to grab his spare octopus and take a |
| up to the chest. Be decisive on the breath at which | | | | breathe since you'll have to stay down there and |
| you'll dive and top yourself right up. | | | | return to the surface in controlled stages. |
| Next step? Bend over and start down for the sea | | | | While we're not exactly re-inventing the wheel here |
| bed. The sooner you can get your fins below the | | | | and I'll understand if you won't join me in lobbying the |
| water level the better, since that'll start to give you real | | | | ASA and RYA to include it in their syllabus, for |
| power to get to depth. This is where most people think | | | | chartering in warm waters spare a thought for your |
| it's time to head back to the ozone. Since you've taken | | | | simple snorkel set. Nestled in beside the hand-held |
| a lot of breath you almost instantly feel fit to burst. The | | | | GPS you might just find it'll come in handy. |