Snorkeling Blog

Here is a great story from the Isle of Man about a new training program aimed at eventually training 3,000 people as snorkeling instructors in the UK.
Seven enthusiastic volunteers have completed the Isle of Man’s first ever Snorkel Instructor Training course.
The British Sub Aqua club, the national governing body for snorkeling, recently launched an initiative to train 3,000 new snorkel instructors across the UK.

read the whole thing
This is a GREAT idea – while diving takes a much larger investment in time and money, snorkeling is simple, accessible and cheap – but many people just don’t know how to do it. We get emails all the time from people who want to go but just don’t know how / what to do.

More proof that celebrities love snorkeling - here are some photos of Rihanna in a Bikini Snorkeling

From Our Celebrity Snorkelers Collection….

Kim Kardashian Snorkeling in a Bikini.

Next time you are in Hawaii and want to hit the water, but think it may be a bit rough or that you won’t be able to see many fish – here is an option that guarantees you will see the fish up close.  The 280,000 gallon oceanarium  at the Pacific Beach hotel now offers SNUBA - $45 for 20 minutes for hotel guests, maximum 2 at a time.

Jim Cody discovered this shell while snorkeling in an isolated cove in the Bahamas.

Read the full story here.

Here is a great post on the Hawaii Insider blog on the SFGate website that talks about water safety in Hawaii. Dozens of people - many of them tourists - die on the water every year in Hawaii, many of them by simply making bad decisions. The author makes some great points…

But millions of visitors to Hawai’i over the years have survived their vacations quite happily, in large part thanks to their answers to these and other commmonsense questions:

• Do I know what I’m doing in the ocean — snorkeling, boogie boarding or even open-water swimming?
• If not, will I seek out qualified instruction once in the islands?
• If I do know how, can I accept that conditions in Hawai’i might be more challenging than those found elsewhere, and adjust my behavior accordingly?
• Will I read the beach safety brochures in hotel rooms, check the local newspapers and/or online updates for current conditions, and talk to locals before heading to a specific beach?
• Can I remember that a pretty guidebook picture or the advice of friends might portray different conditions from what’s actually in front of me?
• At the beach, will I take warning signs into account, and — especially if I see no one in the water, or only people who appear to be other visitors — will I consider heading to a lifeguarded beach instead, or just enjoying the view from a safe distance on the sand?

And after thinking about this, we have to admit - we’ve made some bad decisions in our day. Snorkeling alone, snorkeling too far from shore, or in rough conditions. 99% of the time you will be fine doing these sorts of things - but who ever expects those “1%” types of things to happen? Certainly not the people who are killed every year. Be safe out there everyone.

President Obama Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay in Hawaii - Fall 2008.

Welcome to a brand new feature here on Snorkeling.info - where we feature recent celebrity snorkelers.

Today we feature Jude Law on a recent snorkeling trip….

At the Beneath the Sea show this spring the team from Sting Mate was  promoting their Jellyfish Sting Neutralizing Gel. The most incredible part of this product is the fact that they test it on themselves – by going to acquariums and putting jellyfish on their arms - talk about dedication!

jellyfish stings

Here is a great advertisement that we found in a Boys Life Magazine from 1969 promoting Voit snorkeling equipment. The “Duck Feet Fins” are fairly expensive - $10.95, the snorkel is $2.10 and the “Depth Equalizer Mask” was selling for $5.95.