Snorkel Gear – How to Choose the Best Snorkeling Set

I discovered, many years ago that the most relaxing and at the same time exciting water sports is Snorkeling. Just to float around in the water and become part of the underwater world is enough for me to escape the rush and pressure we live in now a days. Don’t worry; you don’t have to be an Olympic swimmer. As long as you can float and kick your legs, you can snorkel; we’ll deal with style later.

Now in order to be able to relax and enjoy snorkeling the right way, we need to learn how to choose the proper snorkeling gear. To make sure that everything fits and works properly so we can enjoy the beauty of the world that awaits us. 

There are three essential items you will need. A snorkel mask a snorkel and snorkeling fins. Some folks call it a diving or scuba mask. Yes, you can use a more expensive diving mask used for scuba diving they are the same (just more high priced), but you really don’t need to. There are two additional items that I recommend but we will discuss these in the future these are a diving knife and a snorkeling or vest.

So let’s talk about the snorkel mask, that’s what lets you see under the water. Masks come in different shapes and sizes and the ideal way to check if it fits properly is to hold it against your face and suck in through your nose. When you let go and it continues stuck to your face, you have a perfect fit. The thing is that all masks come in three types, for average faces, for larger faces and for small faces. Most of the masks will come for average faces so when you buy the mask, make sure you get the correct type. Also, the masks skirt, or area that wraps around your face will come in two materials. These are PVC or rubber, for more economical models and of silicone for better models. The last being a bit more expensive, but more comfortable to use and depending on how much you’re planning to spend snorkeling and you’re budget, both work well.

The snorkel: This item allows you to breath while floating on the surface of the water without having to lift your face out of the water to get a breath of air, like what you have to do when normal swimming. Now, these come in different types also, Dry, Semi-Dry and the regular or purge snorkel. Of course, the dry snorkel says it all, if you submerge, the snorkel will stay dry and when you surface you will not need to empty it out like the purge snorkel. This last one you need to blow out the water that fills the tube while you were under water. With the Dry snorkel you definitely can spend more time under water, since you wouldn’t need that extra reserve of air in your lungs to blow the water out. Again, depending on your budget and your interest in snorkeling, that’s the one you will buy. But make sure the mouth piece is made of silicone and not PVC, this will avoid irritating your gums and inner lips. 

And then there were the fins. Yes, you guessed it; there are various types of fins, actually, too many. But for our purpose, we will discuss two types of snorkeling fins. They are the full foot and the open heel. The advantage of the full foot is that it covers the entire foot and if you were to do some walking on the shore, your feet would be protected. But they don’t come in exact shoe sizes and they may fit either lose or too tight, and besides who wants to walk around like a clown with those big shoes they wear. The open heel fin comes with an adjustable strap that you tighten or loosen depending on how you need to properly fit it. Yes your heels will be exposed but probably the fins will fit better and you won’t have to worry about them coming off or being too tight that could make you uncomfortable.

So, when you go hunting for the best snorkeling set or snorkeling gear, keep these hints in mind and they will help you choose the Best Snorkeling Set.

Copyright (c) 2010 BestSnorkelingSet.com. All rights reserved.
<a href="http://www.webdirectoryglobal.com" id="R3FB100">Web Directory Global - Internet Resources seo friendly web directory</a>