Snorkelling holidays

Mauritius?
Tonnes of reefs around the island which are fairly easy access. Lots of options to go out a bit further in boats for snorkeling with turtles & dolphins as well.
 
NickK said:
If you get a mask - something to be conscious of with "all in one" face masks. They need to fit PERFECTLY. The inner seal that pushes against your cheeks and nose needs to seal perfectly as well as the outer seal. If it doesn't then the mask becomes dangerous due to CO2 buildup from the breath not being expelled from the mask as the mask design causes it to simply recycle internally. They can't dive either so you're stuck on the surface.
My mrs likes hers as she pootles around on the surface, but she found that her face got hot due to no having some cooling water flowing around. I prefer mask and snorkel, I've dove to about 5-8m with the flippers - the difference in water pressure and your blood pressure goes up at depth so I think I need to work on that a bit..
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I'd never use a cheap full face, like you say some of them are badly designed and can lead to the CO2 buildup you mention.

Mine is fairly expensive (Aria OceanReef) and I love it. Aria have done a lot of CO2 testing and I'm confident it's safe to use.

I wear glasses so I also have a lens insert that sticks to the inside of the lens on a little sucker so I can see really well.
 
I've been thinking of what could add to snorkelling in future:

* New mask / fins - I'd consider adding a little more fin capability with the amanti pure fins. They're still snorkel focused but slightly larger.

* underwater metal detectors - for kicks and giggles but the concern I have with this is you're interacting with the reef and possibly damaging it. Great for sand but perhaps not for the reef.

* underwater camera - options here but it seems that some places have started to ban underwater cameras unless you're dive/snorkelling certified, for example https://thailand-divers.com/thailand-bans-underwater-cameras-for-beginner-divers/ where Thailand has banned them (probably to stop naughty picks on the beach but also to stop pollution through water damage/dropped cameras along with people damaging the reefs.
I had a look and there's a great Olympus waterproof camera (~400) and a heavyduty water case (~300) that would take anything you threw at it .. all in 4K 12MP.. but from experience many of the surface cameras/phones can't cope with the water depth (you really want a larger lens due to object being 2-20m away) and the light level means having a camera able to cope with that rather than large amounts of light from the surface. Focusing is another issue, as to is the pressure when pressing buttons etc.

Not going to be a problem this year but maybe for next year's holiday.

EDIT Mrs bought me some neoprene-webbed hand bits for snorkelling for my birthday.
 
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Thought of using your phone camera? Read plenty stories in a scuba group I'm in of people finding iphones under piers and they still work when taken home and plugged in to power. You can get waterproof cases for them too. Pressure / depth isn't a factor if snorkeling, staying in the same point for long enough to get a decent shot is tricky due to your natural buoyancy.
 
Vandle said:
Thought of using your phone camera? Read plenty stories in a scuba group I'm in of people finding iphones under piers and they still work when taken home and plugged in to power. You can get waterproof cases for them too. Pressure / depth isn't a factor if snorkeling, staying in the same point for long enough to get a decent shot is tricky due to your natural buoyancy.
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If I'm abroad, last thing I want is to accidentally flood it with salt water or lose it! I have a water proof case but I don't trust it enough to be honest!
 
Vandle said:
Thought of using your phone camera? Read plenty stories in a scuba group I'm in of people finding iphones under piers and they still work when taken home and plugged in to power. You can get waterproof cases for them too. Pressure / depth isn't a factor if snorkeling, staying in the same point for long enough to get a decent shot is tricky due to your natural buoyancy.
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I used one of those sleeve ones for my S23U, only for a few meters deep but did the job well. No ingress.
 
NickK said:
If I'm abroad, last thing I want is to accidentally flood it with salt water or lose it! I have a water proof case but I don't trust it enough to be honest!
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Yeah fair point. Accidentally dropping it in 10m of water I guess would make it very hard to retrieve. The pier I'm talking about water is only 5-7m. I don't know how long the phone in question had been under but long enough that the battery was dead. Theres some very large rays live under it so gets a lot of tourists and visitors.

I bought an old Gopro Hero 4 (I think) on marketplace pretty cheaply. Bought a case and a buoyant handle from temu for coppers and tie it round my wrist with a lanyard when scuba diving. Does a decent job. Still photos look good enough when reviewing on the ipad, wouldn't look great printed out at A3 or anything like that but I'm not about to put framed pictures of turtles and sharks on my wall so will do me I did a Whale Shark swim in WA in January and pics and vids look great. :)
 
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really loved egypt for snorkelling. walked down to the beach, hopped in the sea and snorkelled around reefs just off the shore seeing all sort of colourful fish. was amazing.

we stayed in makadi bay. would go back in a heartbeat. also managed to go on a boat trip out to sea and swim with dolphins.




 
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