Snorkeling Pool Practice

Pool training is a fun way to get familiar with your snorkeling kit and find out how all fits together. Try your mask, snorkel, and clothes in the water. Dive to the bottom, see what works. Does the mask fit, does the snorkel allow you to breathe, are your clothes comfy in the water?

Preparation

Make sure you pack all you need into your swimbag. Consider this list:

• Snorkel and Mask
• Fins with socks to avoid chafing
• Unlined clothes that fully cover your body and head

On Poolside

Put your swim bag in a place where it is not an obstacle to others. Get dressed in your snorkeling clothes and head for a good warm-up in the showers.

Back in the pool hall, put your hood up. Your mask strap goes over the hood. This keeps the hood in place and avoids your hair getting tangled. Make sure the hood and your hair stay out of your mask so you get a good seal. Put the snorkel into your mouth and check the breathing.

Breathing Practice

Practice breathing through your snorkel out of the water before dipping in. Put your mask on and breathe through the tube. Don’t bite the tube, rest your teeth, or your jaw will get really sore really fast. Practice some breathing exercises to get you comfortable.

Into the Pool

Now you're ready for the water. Carefully enter the pool. Air bubbles in your clothes and hood come out as soon as you dive down with arms streched out forward and your head below your body.

When you swim a few lengths, you'll notice the feel and drag of your clothes, and you'll become more confident. Snorkeling fully clothed for sunburn protection is an important skill to learn if you don't want to destroy the coral reef with toxic sun lotion.

It may take a while to get used to the mask. Practice the classic calm floating face down in the water. You’ll see a lot of cool things underwater in the pool, this will help you focus. If your mask fogs up, take it off, spit into it, rub it around, rinse, and put it back on.

Pool Games

Once you have mastered the skills of using mask, fins and snorkel, it's great to enjoy other activities which are fun but also continue the development of basic skills and competence. The following skills can be practised as a means of sustaining and developing interest of snorkeling members:

• snorkel sharing
• underwater leapfrog
• weightbelt removal
• multiple mask clearing
• inverted mask clearing
• obstacle course
• treasure hunt
• rescue tows
• resuscitation
• HELP and HUDDLE positions
• Try a wide variety of clothes