Snorkel equipment ?

[MarkRG]

That's a cool idea on using an old set of lenses; if it'll fit inside the mask go for it! You could even go so far as to pop the lenses out of the frame and use silicone to glue them yourself to the inside of the lens. My only warning, make sure you have a good seal all the way around the edge of the eyeglass lenses to the mask lense or you'll have a real problem keeping them unfogged.

For anyone that has had a hard time snorkeling in the past, a question for you-
Did you have a hard time by getting water in the snorkel?

There's two things wrong with a lot of bargain snorkels. One, the tube on a lot of them I saw at CC is simply too short! I had that problem using the rental ones there in the past. Put your head in the water and the top of the tube is almost underwater already. The longer the snorkel tube the better. Our immediate lounge neighbor on the beach was having that exact issue. Second, Most of them are open to the sky. bad bad bad. You need to get one that specifies it has a 'dry-break' on it. The most basic type will look like the top is bent over. If you're going to do more than one snorkel trip, I'd recommend this one: Click for the Ocean Master dry snorkel (click on dealers at the top of the page if you want to find where to buy one locally) It has a mechanism that if you go under it closes off the top of the snorkel, no water inside. It also has a vent on the bottom so if you get any leakage around the mouthpiece, when you exhale, it blows it out. It's not exactly the cheapest out there, but we had a wonderful time snorkeling with the stingrays and twice on CC with ours. And next year hopefully they'll accompany us to Hawaii.

 

[Jobro2]

I just went to Sams on May 19th and they had snorkel sets...Junior sets for foot sizes 1-4 were $28.00 each. Fins have an adjustment at the heel...Adult sets were $48.00 and came in different fin sizes...Got my dd the junior and DS13 the adult, as he has huge feet! Everything seems to fit great..they are "Body Glove" brand and have the snorkel that has the "wet/dry valve thing" in it!

 

[mobetsy]

I got a snorkel/mask set for each of my boys at Walmart for about $12; the snorkel has both a purge valve at the bottom and a design inside the top that will reduce, if not completely eliminate, water splashing in. For myself, I found a Speedo snorkel/mask set at Ross (or maybe Marshall's) for $8 that was marked with a $16-18 MSRP, with the same features. My eyes are close set, and my face is narrow at the eyes, so finding a good fit in a mask is difficult for me, but this one seems to do the trick.

Anyone have ideas beside the divers.com website mentioned about where to look for the vests? I think for my then 9 y.o. ds, a vest might make the difference between success and disappointment. For a 6 y.o. who is most likely to be doing this in waist deep water, just to see what he can see, I'm thinking maybe a standard PFD is actually the best bet.

 

[S. C.]

Looks like i'm heading to sams club real soon.

 

[buzz&woody'smom]

I checked my Sam's and they did not anything for adults just Junior sets so I ordered the set off from snorkel city. I have already received it and it is a US Divers mask and Snorkel (with thr tri view mask and anit-splash snorkel and purge valve). I ways also having a hard time finding fins and that was included. Seems to have been a good deal, the set was $48, $8 mesh bag to carry which is large enough to carry a couple of sets and the anti fog stuff. I liked dealing with snorkel city and e-mailed them a few questions before ordering and after.

The only thing I did not like was the only choices for shipping were all expensive. The cheapest was 2 day and it was $26.00. I thought that was excessive! I am not in a hurry and there was bot a cheaper option. Anyway I live in a rural area so it saved me from a long drive.