How to Snorkel - Snorkeling for Beginners

[Music] if you are new to snorkeling or have never been snorkeling before this video is for you I'm gonna take you through the basics of snorkeling show you the gear you need to do it and show you how to get started and get comfortable with snorkeling so let's get into the video you have a couple different options of masks you have the traditional scuba style mask here and you also have the full face snorkel mask I made another video about these types of masks we can talk about that later but for now if you're just getting started I'm gonna recommend that you start with a traditional scuba snorkel style mask the most important thing to consider when selecting a mask is comfort and fit so you want a nice fit around your face you want the seal to make good contact with your forehead around your cheeks under your nose all the way around and you don't want any pressure points also along with your mask you're gonna want to pick up an anti-fog solution like this personally I just use toothpaste I find it to work just as well as these Anti Fog solutions but you can buy these online or you can buy them at a snorkel or a dive shop the next important piece of gear when getting started snorkeling is a good set of fins I recommend a basic snorkeling fin like this it's got a medium length blade and it's got a close heeled foot pocket you could put your bare foot directly into this make sure that you get the right size for your foot so these come in different shoe sizes just like your shoes make sure your foot fits in there nice and snug and it's not gonna fall off let's talk about snorkels for getting started snorkeling you have a couple different options for snorkels ranging from the most basic to more advanced options like this now this type of snorkel here is literally just a pipe that's all it is it has no valve on the top no valve on the bottom just a simple pipe that you put your mouth on and breathe through this is great for traveling with it's lightweight it's never gonna break it's a very simple circle but I would recommend for getting started that you use a snorkel like this here it has a drain valve on the bottom so if you ever get water in the snorkel you can put your head above water and the water will naturally drain out the bottom of the snorkel I use this one all the time I really enjoy it also for beginners another great option is a fully dry snorkel like this so this type of snorkel here actually has a valve on the top so if you go underwater with the store the valve will shut itself off and this snorkel should not allow any water into the pipe at all that way when you resurface you're ready to go and ready to start breathing this also has the drain valve on the bottom as well the last piece of snorkeling gear to get started with is a commonly overlooked piece but a very important one you want to pick up a good rap guard you're gonna be out in the Sun for a long time and you want sun protection on your skin when you're out snorkeling you can have a lot of fun and lose track of time and be exposed to the Sun for a very long time you don't want to do damage to your skin so make sure you pick up a good rash guard that will block the Sun off your skin and make sure you're using good sunblock to keep the Sun off your neck and your legs as well let's talk about prepping your gear and getting into the water the first thing you're going to want to do is apply your Anti Fog to your mask put a couple drops inside the mask scrub it around let it sit for a minute or so and then go ahead and rinse it out next go ahead and attach your snorkel to your mask so you're gonna want to clip the snorkel on like this I usually put the snorkel on the left side of my face and then of course when you hold this up here you want this snorkel to be clipped on about a little more than halfway down so that the mouthpiece lands right about where your mouth is gonna sit like that so make sure your snorkel set up where you want it and go ahead and put it on your face so what I do is I put my mask on my forehead like this and I go ahead and I lay the strap on the peak of my head that's where I want the strap to sit because that's where it's gonna be the tightest so I set the strap in place and then what I do is I go ahead and I lower the mask now and I get it in place I make sure that I have no hair in the seal of my mask and I make sure that the mask has a good seal all the way around and that's a good fit right there I really like that then I go ahead and I put the snorkel in my mouth make sure you have a good fit make sure it breathes well and it's comfortable on your mouth and on your lips now from a sitting position go ahead and slip your fins on your feet now you're gonna go ahead and stand up and you're gonna walk backwards to the water when you have fins on it makes it very difficult walking forward you can trip over your fins and fall and get injured don't do that walk backwards with the fins easy to walk backwards with them on so walk backwards get down into the water get your body down in the water get nice and comfortable with the water about waist level then you can go ahead and slowly put your face underwater and look around and just start breathing and you're gonna find that it may be a little uncomfortable at first may feel a little unnatural but once you can see underwater and once you realize that you can breathe underwater through that snorkel it's gonna start to feel very natural and you're gonna really start to enjoy it so go ahead put your face underwater start breathing and get comfortable with that you want to look down and that's gonna get that snorkel in the nice upright position if you're looking too far forward the snorkel is gonna be tipped back and it could pick up water so you want to make sure you're kind of looking down and maybe slightly forward so you see what's ahead of you and that's gonna give you the perfect positioning on your snorkel so go ahead you can put your hand up there and feel and just make sure your snorkel is going up and down and that's how you know that you're in the correct position okay so now we can start swimming around and as you're swimming around I want you to maintain good positioning I want you to maintain head down under the water looking below the water after all you came out here on or chol and you came out here to see all the fish in the marine life and that's down below the water so keep your head below the water kick with your feet use your legs your legs are more powerful than your arms you can swim better with your legs when you have the fins on so what I do for practice is I go ahead and I put my hands behind my back like this and I go ahead and I kick with my feet now keep the head down position and keep kicking forward and just practice and let's get comfortable with that what you definitely do not want to do is put your head above the water too much and definitely don't try and do a doggy paddle and keep your head above the water that's gonna just put a lot of strain on your neck it's gonna hurt your neck it's gonna wear you out and it's gonna make you very uncomfortable and the most important thing with snorkeling is that you be comfortable out in the water that'll keep you with a cool clear head that'll give you a nice enjoyable day and you want to stay comfortable when you're kicking with the fins it's kind of like riding a bicycle you get a nice rhythmic motion with your feet up and down don't bring your feet too far out of the water if you bring the fins way up in the air like that that's just wasted energy and that's just gonna splash around and it's not smart at all you want to bring the fin just till it comes up out of the water enough to change position and then push it back down like that now only use your hands for paddling when needed if you need to get back to the boat real fast or catch up with your snorkeling partner then you can go ahead use your hands and you can paddle and go faster like that now let's talk about some necessary skills you need to know when snorkeling eventually when you're out there your mats probably will fog up and you need to know how to clear it out or if your mask leaks in water you need to know how to get that water out as well this is very easy if you need to clear your mask all you can do is put your head down a little bit tilt your mask a little bit allow some water to get into the mask then put your head above the water tilt the mask up like this and the water will fall out the bottom of the mask and it's simple as that getting that water in there will basically scrub the fog away then lifting the mask up like that will dump the water out and you're good to go again you can see so go ahead and practice in shallow water tilt your mask up like this away from your face allow the water into it take your head above water and dump the water back out go ahead and practice that a few times and get very comfortable with getting water in your mask and clearing the water out of your mask the next and one of the most important skills you need to know when snorkeling is how to clear water out of your snorkel so when you go down below the water or when you get hit by a big wave or something you may get some water into your snorkel and you need to know how to clear it out so this is very simple when you come back above the water just go ahead and blow really hard and the water is going to blow right out of the snorkel like that and then you can go ahead and continue breathing so go ahead and practice that get your head and the snorkel and dunk it all the way below the water let the snorkel fill up with water then go back above the surface and blow really hard blow all the water out of the snorkel and then go ahead feel with your tongue feel if there's any water in the bottom to store chol if there's not then you can go ahead and continue breathing now practice this over and over until you're comfortable with it and you're able to do it without taking the circle out of your mouth you should be able to go down build the song fill up with water come back up blow it completely out and continue breathing all while never taking the circle out of your mouth another important skill for you to know all snorkeling is how to remove your mask and then replace it while you're out there in the water so while you're in your shallow place or your pool go ahead practice taking the mask off of your face putting the mask back on your face putting the snorkel back in your mouth and breathing again and continue in snorkeling you may have to do that when you're out in the water so you want to make sure that you're comfortable with doing it now let's talk about the safety aspects of snorkeling number one always go with a buddy or a group snorkeling is a lot of fun and is generally pretty safe but you are out in the water and you always want to have a buddy with you to make sure that you're okay and you're there to make sure that your buddy is okay and again snorkeling is just more fun when you do with other people it's an experience that's meant to be shared and enjoy together so always build with the buddy now if you're going out snorkeling with a dive boat you would want to have a whistle with you just to go ahead and whistle and signal the dive boat and signal other snorkelers around you now if you're not going out with a tour group or a snorkel boat you're gonna want to have a dive flag with you if you swim out from shore or from your own boat make sure that you have a dive flag with you sometimes it's hard for boaters to see snorklers in the water and you want to make sure that you're visible you don't want to get run over by boats so make sure that you have a dive flag like this with you these are pretty cheap they're like twenty bucks and it'll help keep you safe when you're out snorkeling try to be aware of your surroundings now I did tell you that when you're out snorkeling you want to keep looking down and not up this is partially true when you're out there snorkeling in the ocean generally you're going to be looking down at the reef and the fish below you but every minute or so you're going to want to look up and look around and see if there's any boats coming or there's any hazards out in the water so just be aware of your surroundings also you're gonna want to keep track of your snorkel you're gonna want to know where they're at you're gonna want to know where your groups at so about every minute or so go ahead look up out of the water and look around and see what's going on above the water - and the last point of safety we need to talk about is don't touch things don't touch things below the water we don't want to harass marine life we don't want to touch the coral or anything like that it can be a hazard to you fire coral can grow on rocks and different corals and you don't necessarily see it but when you touch it you will definitely feel it it could sting you so don't touch things also coral can get damaged by people touching them excessively so let's just try to avoid that we're out there to look and enjoy what's out there not to touch and damage things now that we've covered the basics of snorkeling I want to take you onto something a little more advanced diving down when you're out there snorkeling you're on top of the water and sometimes you're in a little bit deep water the coral the fish everything is down there it may be ten feet you can't see it that well you're gonna want to be able to dive down get down low and see what's down there on the ocean floor because that's where the action is so in order to do this what we need to do is obviously we're gonna hold our breaths we're gonna breathe at the surface nice calm and relaxed and get prepared for our dive down take about a minute breathe comfortably breathe normally don't over breathe once you're ready you're gonna take a nice big deep breath in and breathe in then you're gonna go ahead and you're gonna roll forward and you're gonna try and get your feet up so you're gonna roll forward and that's gonna position you to go down then you're gonna get your feet up above the water getting your feet above the water will act like a weight and it'll push you down once your feet get below the water then you can start kicking and swimming down even more now as you're diving down the deeper you get you're gonna feel more discomfort on your ears the pressure will push in on your ears so we need to equalize our ears we call this clearing the easiest way is to go ahead and slightly pinch your nose and slightly blow into your nose and you're gonna feel your ears kind of pop and they're gonna even out and then they're gonna be nice and comfortable again now when you're all done with your dive you're gonna want to go ahead and surface so come back up to the surface get your head above the water and blow really hard to blow all that water out of your snorkel just like we practiced earlier thanks again for watching this video I hope you enjoyed it if you did please give it a like and please consider subscribing for more great underwater content snorkeling scuba diving and things like that thanks again now get out in the ocean and explore [Music]

Channel: Joe Oceanside

Views: 2,020,702

Keywords: how to snorkel, snorkeling for beginners, learn to snorkel, how to snorkeling, snorkel, snorkeling, start snorkeling, how do I snorkel, snorkeling class, snorkeling training, snorkel class, snorkel training, underwater snorkeling, ocean snorkeling, where to snorkel, snorkeling basics, snorkeling gear, best snorkeling gear, best snorkeling mask, snorkel mask, full face snorkel mask, snorkel fins, best snorkel, best fins for snorkeling

Id: 9GljSvw7r3g

Length: 13min 8sec (788 seconds)

Published: Mon May 04 2020