Scuba Diving

Scuba Diving vs Snorkelling:

Although some snorkelers will never get it, there are many things that make Scuba more enjoyable than snorkeling.

Scuba diving is when a person is able to swim right into the environment of some of the most unusual life forms that can never be observed on dry land. Snorkeling will provide a ‘birds-eye’ view of these environments, but never allow you to become a part of it.  There are different benefits or differences between these two hobbies. Let’s look at five benefits scuba diving has over snorkeling.

Purpose of the two hobbies

The main purpose of both scuba diving and snorkeling is the recreational value of these as hobbies. With scuba diving, you are able to explore wrecks that have occurred and sunk to the bottom of different bodies of water. There are also numerous underwater caves that can be explored.  Besides recreational scuba diving, it can also have a professional purpose. Civil engineers often have to use scuba diving to perform underwater inspections or welding, police departments often need scuba divers to look for evidence of crimes, and there are also military purposes that scuba divers need to perform. These are just a few occupations that scuba divers are necessary for that snorkeling cannot perform.
Snorkeling provides a recreational value of being able to observe fish, algae, and coral reefs from above but does not allow one to investigate them. This hobby can only be done in bodies of water with minimal waves where the water is warm.  To my knowledge, there are no jobs that snorkeling is a necessary skill.

Difference of techniques

When you scuba dive, your whole body will be submerged under the water. Most of the time, snorkeling has only your head and nose under the surface, although skilled snorkelers can dive down as long as they can hold their breath.  When you scuba dive, your eyes are covered by a diving mask allowing you to observe your surroundings and all the life forms under the surface and on the floor of the body of water. You cannot breathe through your nose unless you have a full face mask on. Normally breathing is performed by inhaling from a mouthpiece. When you snorkel, you will use a snorkel tube which can flood with water when you go under too far, and this water can only be cleared by returning to the surface.

Duration to stay underwater

While scuba diving, you will be able to stay under water as long as your oxygen tanks provide you a breathing supply. You do not hold your breath, you are provided oxygen to breathe the entire time you are diving. Snorkeling will require you to hold your breath if you decide to go below the surface of the water, or further under then your snorkel tube is long.

Mobility of the two hobbies

With scuba diving, you are totally submerged under water. This gives you the freedom of turning a full 360 degrees to observe the life forms or environments under the water. You can go as deep as is safe and have the opportunity to explore over 70% of the planet earth. Snorkeling will keep you in shallow waters and can be done without any training. You will only need to know how to swim and breath to snorkel.

Risks of scuba diving and snorkeling

While there may be some adverse effects of breathing compressed air while scuba diving, snorkeling can be dangerous because you are hard to spot on the water with only the snorkel tube protruding. This makes you hard to spot by jet skis and other recreational water crafts using the area.  In both hobbies, there is also the danger of coming into contact with poisonous coral, hyperventilation, dehydration, and other health hazards. Snorkeling exposes you to the sun which can cause serious sunburns if you stay exposed to long.

Scuba diving has been reported to provide great health benefits which snorkeling will not give you. Choosing scuba diving over snorkeling will allow you to put your body in situations that are not possible to duplicate on land. This allows you to exercise in ways you simply cannot perform anywhere else. Scuba diving will not only open a whole new world to you, it will help you stay healthier.

If you want to live a life without adventure, travel, or seeing new and exotic places above and below the sea, never fall in love with a scuba diver.

Great video put out by PADI, that illustrates some of the wonderful things about being a diver.

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