Bringing your own snorkel gear

[dodukes]

Ok I wanted to ask how many of you bring your own gear?? Do alot of people do this or do most , even taht have it, just get it from the tour so as to not lug it around. I have a germ isuue..lol..even tho in all honesty i have used them from the places a couple of times i can think of , like at disney and at a snorkel trip near home. I jsut figured id rather just bring my own and just get the vest from them, (which i believe shuld be included in tour prices)...is this common or will we "stick out" for having our stuff. I also figured that if we choose to just hang at a beach we will not have any one providing these and would be fun to have our own...any thought??

[suezyq50]

We bring our own. How I see it, so what if I stick out. I don't like the idea if it was really snaitized or just put in water. Yes, it is one more thing to keep track of, but that's ok.

[drdaddy]

You would never stick out. I bring my own for many reasons.

 

1) Sanitation, of course

2) I wear prescription lenses in my mask and it fits good, too. With 30 other people trying on the masks, are you certain you will find a good fit? And you really don't have enough time to try too many on. With a loose mask, your excursion could be ruined

3) I just bought fins. For $25, I have an adjustable back and spilt fins. I cut up my big toe on my last excursion from the fins that did not well. Not good when you a bleeding a bit and you get into the water with Stuart Coves and doing the "Greet the sharks" thing!

 

I do use the vests the excursion gives you.

[dodukes]

Do all the excursion, private and all , provide vests??? I really like these and iwll not do well without one...i figure i may just buy my own as well...lol

[Sandgnat]

I always bring my own. Also bring along some baby shampoo, place a drop on the lens, rub it around, and rinse once or twice. Your mask will not fog up and is much cleaner than spitting in the mask, which is another reason I don't use rental masks. The baby shampoo will not hurt your eyes and works wonders even diving in colder water. If all you are doing is snorkeling you might not want to carry fins, but do bring along water shoes as they can save your feet. Have a great vacation.

[kates70]

We always bring our own ... saves time and we are always the first in the water on any excursion. We always make sure that we put the masks in our carry-on luggage when flying, because they may get damaged in our checked baggage.

 

Great tip about the baby shampoo ... any brand in particular??

[Sandgnat]

Nope any brand of baby shampoo works. I use baby bath because I can get it for free at work ( I am a Labor and Delivery Nurse). Just get a small travel size bottle to throw in with the snorkel gear. It works better than expensive anti-fog stuff that we use in the OR.

[kates70]

Sandgnat - thanks for the information ... this is a great tip.

 

i find that if I snorkel the caribbean during feb/mar when the water is a bit cooler, i have more difficulty with fogging up of my mask. i'm going to try this in november!!

[Sandgnat]

Two other pieces of advice, wear a large t-shirt brightly colored to be seen when you are snorkeling and don't forget the sun screen right at the line of your bathing suit and the back of your thighs. It will becomes sunburned easily while you have your tush up snorkeling and is painful to wear anything on it afterwards, I learned this the hard way:D .

[winewanderer]

We always bring our own. Who knows if the rented gear has been thoroughly santized. If not, yuck!!

 

You will not stand out. True you do have to lug it around. I bring a beach bag I throw over my shoulder, it's really not a big deal.

 

You could get a back pack to carry it too.

[rjscott]

dodukes, we bought our own equipment and always take it with us. It does make life easier, as you've noted, for being able to just get in the water wherever, as opposed to having to find a vendor. My husband has a Rx mask, and as mentioned above, fit for masks and fins is very important to an enjoyable snorkel. I also have a vest because I am not a swimmer and the vest helps with my comfort level in the water.

[RachelD]

Bring your own. This way you know that it fits and there are no leaks. Last year we brought our mask and snorkels with us at Grand Cayman for an excursion, but wished we had brought our own vests (same as tour groups use). The ones that the tour group had were not in the best shape and when we were out in about 40 feet of water, DH realized that his vest was broken:confused: . The worst part is that he is not the best swimmer so we had to head back in to shore. The tour guide did not have any extras, so we could not head back out in the water. We were kind of bummed. Now we have learned to never trust other people's snorkeling equipment... it can really ruin your day. (Although we did not let this ruin ours, we still had a great time and we made it back to shore fine!:) )

[LuckyStar]

1. Your own stuff will fit better.

2. I hated the idea of pulling a snorkel out of the big barrel that was soaking with 50 others (yuck)

3. Even if they are better new, the snorkels are cheap.

4. Snorkeling is so much better with a dry snorkel.

 

We always use their fins and have never stuck out. They will require you use a vest.

[LuckyStar]

Two other pieces of advice, wear a large t-shirt brightly colored to be seen when you are snorkeling and don't forget the sun screen right at the line of your bathing suit and the back of your thighs. It will becomes sunburned easily while you have your tush up snorkeling and is painful to wear anything on it afterwards, I learned this the hard way:D .

 

You too?

[vmom]

We brought our own. On our last cruise we snorkeled once with a snorkel excursion from a boat and the other 2 times from the beach which rented snorkel equipment. Bringing your own can be a $ saver since when not on a paid excursion you have to pay rental fees for snorkel gear, plus using a mask that everyone else has spit in bothers me.

[zuscruiserz]

1. Your own stuff will fit better.

2. I hated the idea of pulling a snorkel out of the big barrel that was soaking with 50 others (yuck)

3. Even if they are better new, the snorkels are cheap.

4. Snorkeling is so much better with a dry snorkel.

 

We always use their fins and have never stuck out. They will require you use a vest.

 

This is what we will do on our next cruise. In the past, we always brought all our own gear (incl. fins), but they are such a pain to lug around afterwards if you don't immediately go back to the ship, so we will only bring masks and snorkles next year (for four :eek: ). Should cut back on the packing too - lol :D .

[jandn]

Where's a good place to buy snorkel gear if you've never snorkeled? How do you assure it will fit properly?

[rjscott]

We bought our gear at a dive shop not far from our home in the Midwest. Making sure your mask fits is the most important part, as a poorly fitting mask that leaks water can turn a snorkeling trip into a miserable experience. Dick's Sporting Goods does carry some snorkel equipment, but not sure if you can try it on. When you try on a mask, just hold it up to your face in position, breathe in through your nose and the mask should stay on your face, even without the strap around your head. Another good tip we were given is to place the strap at an upright angle on the back of your head, rather than straight back from the mask in the middle of your head. This helps the mask keep its seal.

[raina*faith]

This is such a great idea! We are probalby going to go to Dicks Sporting Goods. Thanks for the info.

[excalwop]

Darn right bring your own gear That way you know it fits. And if taken care of it will last for a good many years. Have a mask that is 36 years old only have change the Rx lens and the head strap as needed.

Rob; 1) A bleeding toe and swimming with Sharks. Just think of the great close ups you can get:D

2) Where did you get a pair of split fins for 25 dollars???

 

Sandgnat; Great idea about the brightly color T-shirt. Got left behind once in Hawaii (1966):eek: Another scuba group spotted the bright red t-shirt and picked me up.

 

Racheid; Know what you mean about bad vests had a co2 vest exploded when I inflating it. Lucky a couple of other divers were close by. I was out cold. I now bring my own vest along now.

Paul

[endi302]

You can get the vest that you blow up so they take up little room in the bag. DH says you will float in salt water but I wear the vest everytime for a safety precaution. I don't want him collecting on the life insurance to soon!

[flvol77]

Living in fl, and having awesome places to snorkel with in 2-3 hours I went ahead and bought snorkel gear for my wife and myself. I thought it would be in the way and it wasn't.

 

We are going to be crusing a lot more in the future and it is something I want to take advantage of. The only thing I didn't get which I will before my next cruise in some dive gloves. My father in law said we should have them just in case we ever got into some fire coral.

[BGcruiser22]

My girlfriend and I will be visiting CocoCay on the EOS in 2 weeks. We are considering purchasing dry snorkles and masks for snorkling in cozumel and cococay; I would assume we could use fins provided by whichever excursion we choose; but on cococay would we be able to rent fins only or would we possibly be okay there without fins? We are both relativly strong swimmers.

[DrNutzo]

My wife and I have traditionally used the equipment provided by the tours. Over the years, we have had few problems, but have run into leaky masks and poorly fitting fins. I've never been much of a germ-phobe and hadn't really thought about the snorkels until you all mentioned it here. Now I am sufficiently grossed out as well. Thanks! Lol. :p

 

For our upcoming Tahiti trip we had heard that sometimes there is not enough gear available, so we decided to purchase our own. In addition we picked up 2 mesh bags with shoulder straps, made for snorkel/dive gear, to make lugging the stuff around much easier. We are both looking forward to using a higher quality of snorkel gear, but as far as I can tell we will still be using the tour company provided vests.

[Leo Jay]

 

2) Where did you get a pair of split fins for 25 dollars???

 

 

I got a U.S. Divers set with mask, dry snorkel, split fins and backpack carrying case from Amazon.com for about $45. It may not be the finest quality, but as a first-time snorkeler not willing to make more of an investment, it worked out great for me. I went to a dive shop first and tried on a bunch of masks, and found that virtually anything would fit my face, so I felt comfortable buying an inexpensive mask online and knowing it would fit okay. Anyway, it worked out great. GF ended up using my set much of the time though, while I rented. :rolleyes:

 

GF thought I was being overly cautious wearing a rashguard to protect me from the Caribbean sun, but after getting burned the first day, she borrowed mine. :o