Snorkling WITHOUT life vest??

[Roxxy4me]

I would love to go snorkling in Belize. After all, they have the second largest barrier reef in the world! The cruise excursions do not interest me at all. I have looked at Coral Breeze tours and they sound ALMOST perfect. They force snorklers to wear life vests. :mad: We are both exceptionally strong swimmers and avid snorklers. Is there anyway around this life vest policy? I love diving and getting the wonderful up close view of the coral and fish!

[Kamloops50]

I would love to go snorkling in Belize. After all, they have the second largest barrier reef in the world! The cruise excursions do not interest me at all. I have looked at Coral Breeze tours and they sound ALMOST perfect. They force snorklers to wear life vests. :mad: We are both exceptionally strong swimmers and avid snorklers. Is there anyway around this life vest policy? I love diving and getting the wonderful up close view of the coral and fish!

If it's a ships tour probably the cruise-line requires that life-vests be worn.

Even strong swimmers get tired ( personal experience when I was a young adult) and need assistance to stay afloat.

[Will in sunny FL]

I would love to go snorkling in Belize. After all, they have the second largest barrier reef in the world! The cruise excursions do not interest me at all. I have looked at Coral Breeze tours and they sound ALMOST perfect. They force snorklers to wear life vests. :mad: We are both exceptionally strong swimmers and avid snorklers. Is there anyway around this life vest policy? I love diving and getting the wonderful up close view of the coral and fish!

 

Why invite potential disaster ?

You are about one mile off of Caye Caulker, if you go with Coral Breeze Tours, to snorkel the reef & if anything at all were to happen, like a leg cramp or whatever, I'd want everything possible to be working in my favor to ensure a positive outcome of any enent.

There looks to not be much in the way of immediate medical care on Caye Caulker & Belize city is almost an hour away by boat & what type of medical care there is available there, who knows.

I gladly wear the life vest provided by Coral Breeze around the waist or our own snorkel vest.

[crewsweeper]

I believe, all vendors' liability policies require this.

 

If you don't want to or feel you need to wear one, perhaps a small boat captin would be willing to take you on. But in larger groups, the guides haven't a clue as to each snorkelers abilities and mus tlook out for all snorkelers. Don't fret, you can still swim with the fishes, and the sharks and rays won't laugh at you.:D

[wadethegringo]

When the tide is going out the current can be strong at the reef. Without going into details, even a tour guide had to be pulled in to safety a couple of months back.

 

Your life vest is deflated to allow you to dive. But it is there to save your life if needed.

[OCruisers]

Ashley & Rob .... You're right! It's the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world! Awesome! Please don't let the need to wear a life vest keep you from going. When they aren't inflated, you'll hardly notice you're wearing one. :)

[pdmlynek]

I’ve never worn a vest when snorkeling. I just don’t understand how one would dive with it. The problem is that having a vest really hinders you from going under the water level. Some of my kids wear a vest when they snorkel (especially in choppy waters), others of our kids do not. I try to discourage my kids from wearing life vest, but if one of my kids feels safer wearing a vest, then I don’t really fight them too much, otherwise they would be scared of snorkeling instead of looking forward to it.

 

I have no idea about Coral Breeze Tours, but we snorkeled in Belize (we did both the Hol Chan and Shark/Ray Alley) a couple of months ago, and had a blast. It was wonderful. Those of us who wanted to wear a life vest wore it, those of us who did want to did not wear it. I dunno, it is possible that the company required people to wear life vests, but nobody really cared. Why would they?

 

Again, there is this recurring viewpoint that cruiser are mentally retarded and that the cruise ships and tour guides need to act as caretakers. There is this feeling that it is perfectly acceptable that any passengers that get hurt because the passengers are doing something stupid, go running to their mommies and daddies and lawyers, and sue whoever has the money. This lack of personal responsibility and avoidance of common sense seems paternalistic and degrading to me.

 

My view is: if you want to wear a vest, then wear a vest. If you do not want to wear a vest, then don’t wear a vest. This is not rocket science, people!

[cruising cockroach]

Was in Belize 2 months back and did 4 snorkel trips (2 with the same outfit in Placencia where 2 dives each were in deep (as in can't see the bottom), open water and the other two with different outfits in Caye Caulker. The life vest was optional and only there only for those with buoyancy problems. I just dragged mine along as I don't float all that well and cling onto it to clear my mask, etc.

 

As others say, the tide can be very strong the way it channels particularly in parts of either Hol Chan or Shark Ray Alley (I forget which). Two tourists were killed by being smashed against coral just over a week before we did this snorkel trip. Not sure the lifevest would have helped at low tide.

[scubagirrl]

For the most part, vest are policy due to insurance. But it also helps in saving our reefs from those who get too close and tend to either step on or break off the coral and fans.

 

Too many snorkelers don't know enough not to touch or stand on the coral.

 

As a strong swimmer, it's easy for me to dive to see coral upclose. If you are not a strong enough swimmer to do so.. you SHOULD be wearing a vest. Just deflate it.

[pdmlynek]

For the most part, vest are policy due to insurance.

 

I am not sure if snorkeling outfits in Belize even know what liability insurance is. Belize is not as suit-happy as we are in the US. And if they are not actively soliciting in the US, could they be hauled into a US court?

 

But it also helps in saving our reefs from those who get too close and tend to either step on or break off the coral and fans.

 

Too many snorkelers don't know enough not to touch or stand on the coral.

 

Yes, that is a big problem. It is too bad that a lot of snorklers, and especially divers who were likely taught not to touch corals, behave like that they do not know how harmful their even seemingly innocent actions can have on the well being of corals. :(

[thescot123]

I would love to go snorkling in Belize. After all, they have the second largest barrier reef in the world! The cruise excursions do not interest me at all. I have looked at Coral Breeze tours and they sound ALMOST perfect. They force snorklers to wear life vests. :mad: We are both exceptionally strong swimmers and avid snorklers. Is there anyway around this life vest policy? I love diving and getting the wonderful up close view of the coral and fish!

 

I used them last Oct and didn't like the vests they gave us. They were the type that contain foam which made it impossible to go down to the coral. They won't allow you to not go without one. The only option is to take your own which I will do in Nov. It is better to get the type that allow you to add/remove the air as it will allow you to snorkel down to see the fish up closer.

 

Was on a ship shore excursion to Shark Ray Alley and due to calm seas the operators did offer the option to not wear the vest. This is a rare event since they could loose their relationship with the ship if found out.

[cruising cockroach]

I am not sure if snorkeling outfits in Belize even know what liability insurance is. Belize is not as suit-happy as we are in the US. And if they are not actively soliciting in the US, could they be hauled into a US court?

 

Anyone can sue someone outside the U.S. but if they don't have assets that can be seized. I think any accidents would be met by a shrug.

 

Yes, that is a big problem. It is too bad that a lot of snorklers, and especially divers who were likely taught not to touch corals, behave like that they do not know how harmful their even seemingly innocent actions can have on the well being of corals. :(

 

The guides at all 3 dive/snorkelling outfits we went wth made sure everyone knew not to ouch the coral, and also use not too much sun block as it (oils) was bad for the coral.

[pbmsmile]

I would love to go snorkling in Belize. After all, they have the second largest barrier reef in the world! The cruise excursions do not interest me at all. I have looked at Coral Breeze tours and they sound ALMOST perfect. They force snorklers to wear life vests. :mad: We are both exceptionally strong swimmers and avid snorklers. Is there anyway around this life vest policy? I love diving and getting the wonderful up close view of the coral and fish!

We too are avid snorklers and strong swimmers and here is how we got around the policy.... we took the local water taxi to the small island of Caye Caulker and hired a local man...( his shack was about 50 yards up the beach on the right..bright blue in color) for about $45. We snorkeled for close to 2 hours and had the best experience of our lives. The small boat was there if you got tired (as my husband did) and the guide was in the water with us directing us to interesting fish etc... We swam with nurse sharks and stingrays and all the way out to the reef..PERFECT DAY!!

[pdmlynek]

Anyone can sue someone outside the U.S. but if they don't have assets that can be seized.

 

What does this sentence mean?

Are you suggesting that anyone can sue a Belizean entity in the US courts? Or are you suggesting that anyone can sue a Belizean entity in Belizean courts?

What do you mean by the phrase "but if they don't have assets that can be seized"?

Thanks!