is it worth travelling to snorkel in a coral reef? Or is it overrated honeymooner slop?
I enjoyed the Caribbean but I didn't see any coral or much variety of fish there.
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coral reefs
is it worth travelling to snorkel in a coral reef? Or is it overrated honeymooner slop?
I enjoyed the Caribbean but I didn't see any coral or much variety of fish there.
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I went snorkeling once and unfortunately my body got caught up in the coral and my spine snapped underwater
Surprised you lasted that long. Coral reefs are filled with life, and where there's lots of life, an apex predator awaits. The average lifespan of a coral reef snorkeler is 32. 1 out of 6 snorkelers die each year from shark attacks.
One time I was snorkeling Ambergris Caye off the coast of Belize when a moray eel popped out of the reef and said "ayo bish this my hood homie you best keep steppin or I'ma bite yo dick off". Luckily my girlfriend was there with me so I pushed her towards him and swam away. Never saw her again lmao.
Dorkeling, not even once
Snorkeling is my favorite activity bar none. And I can barely even swim. You can watch a million Discovery channel documentaries about coral reefs, nothing prepares you for experiencing it first-hand. Almost all poor tropical countries you can rent a snorkel and fins on the beach for $5 and go exploring. I've snorkeled in Oahu, Bali, Belize, Taiwan and Oman. Each place has something unique. I'm considering doing a freediving course in Honduras this year so I can see even deeper stuff.
Scuba divers can suck my balls though, paying thousands and flopping around like a dork with a high risk of death Black person get out
I am currently in South America, I was thinking the Rosario Islands or San Andres off Colombia first. Belize is further and more expensive but the reef seems better
I hate scuba diving I just want pretty shallow coral and fish
Anyone know of snorkelable shipwrecks in central/south America?
yeah but not telling
Global warming ruined em
Just learn to dive you coward. Snorkeling is for babies
Verification not required
I like watching youtube videos on diving and cave diving, but I have zero desire to do it.
Diving is narcissistic and dangerous.
Of course if you watch videos about cave diving you're going to think diving is dangerous. Like many things it's only dangerous if you're stupid and don't follow basic safety procedures
>narcissistic
What the frick are you talking about
voluntarily going deep into an environment that humans can't survive in, dependant on equipment to survive, is dangerous compared to 'normal' hobbies like swimming, tennis and running. You can get nitrogen narcosis or have some freak accident easily enough without doing anything wrong. Lots of people die diving.
It's narcissistic like mountain climbing because it's risky and costs thousands to pursue as a hobby so is filled with arrogant white men who dont' care if they leave their families grieving while they die on their weird quests for 'self actualisation' or whatever.
just snorkel in the coral and appreciate the pretty fish without being a jackass
Ok it's pretty obvious you've developed this shitty take solely from watching cave diving disaster videos. Racist too
Racist?
>filled with arrogant white men who dont' care if they leave their families grieving
stats don't care about your feelings, chud
>Fatality rates of 16.4 deaths per 100,000 persons per year among DAN America members and 14.4 deaths per 100,000 persons per year the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) members were similar and did not change during 2000–2006. This is comparable with jogging (13 deaths per 100,000 persons per year) and motor vehicle accidents (16 deaths per 100,000 persons per year)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuba_diving_fatalities
I bet if you look into it, that research was funded by some shark institute. Every person I know that snorkels, is dead.
>DAN America members
>BSAC members
these make up a small percentage of people who dive - specifically highly skilled and rich ones, so these stats are warped. it's like only counting mercedes drivers in car crash stats. lots of teenagers and unqualified people die diving especially in places like egypt and your stats ignore them.
furthermore, everyone knows driving is relatively dangerous, we just do it because it's part of modern life and there's little other choice if you want to have any kind of meaningful existence. Jogging deaths is just a proxy for boomer heart attacks so again a misleading comparison.
Diving is a dangerous hobby, deal with it
>these make up a small percentage of people who dive - specifically highly skilled and rich ones, so these stats are warped.
Not sure what the driver's degree of wealth has to do with risk of death. And anyway can you show me any contrasting studies that show it's actually much more dangerous than those stats suggest? Because right now you're just saying
>no it's dangerous because it just is ok??
If you stick to open water diving and follow the basic safety procedures that literal children can follow, you're not gonna die. Even if something goes wrong the worst that's gonna happen is you'll get a case of the bends. Almost every person that dies while diving was doing some profoundly dumb shit, like diving alone and actively going deeper than they're trained for.
And ffs you're on the travel board. Travel is inherently dangerous for all sorts of reasons. With your attitude you should just stay in your bedroom.
>voluntarily going deep into an environment that humans can't survive in
normally divers don't go to extreme depths
>It's narcissistic filled with arrogant white men
frick you have problems. it's your duty to enjoy the life, now you are a miserable shit who can't brighten the day of others
are you going to cry?
SighSee will argue about anything, JFC
woman moment
I was into snorkeling, then got into diving because snorkeling is indeed a bit babby tier. Haven't gone in a while because everything is expensive now. You should go snorkeling, see what life below water looks like, but also try to train on breath control, removing/replacing mask underwater, etc. Hawaii is probably the best place you can get to easily as an American for snorkeling.
Most divers only practice open water diving at depths under 100 ft which is literally just being in the water, its pretty safe and easy to recover from in case something goes wrong. The more technical stuff is dangerous, such as diving at greater depths where gas intoxication can be a problem, exploring the exterior of a wreck, followed by penetrating the wreck and cave diving is even more dangerous than that.
This is also true, diving is a dangerous activity and a loosely regulated environment. A lot of tropical countries do not give a frick about safety, seaworthiness of vessels, purity of breathing gas, etc. I've done dumb things like diving blasted out of my mind on the local ditch weed and booze in 3rd world countries.
>Not sure what the driver's degree of wealth has to do with risk of death.
Financing an expedition to do something like dive a collapsing WWII wreck that hasn't been explored in the Republic of Nauru is not just dangerous but cost wise it's also way beyond the means of the average diver who flies to Thailand or Yucatan and books a one day dive tour with like 2 dozen other tourists. It's in the same as climbing Mt. Everest vs. doing regular mountain climbing in Colorado. Diving, particularly the more extreme cases, tends to be a pursuit of wealthy, bored individuals. Also lots of Japanese. I don't really see what the problem is, if some rich frick who accomplished everything he wants decides to dive some cave, dies and leaves them millions, I'd still rather see that than a Black person who doesn't support or acknowledge his kids at all.
>is it worth travelling to snorkel in a coral reef?
If you count freediving as snorkeling then yes. At some point all the reefs end up looking the same, so you move on to shipwrecks, caves, and searching for large pelagic sea life. Sharks, whales.
Freediving is also guaranteed hot steamy sex with cute girls if you just lug around a large camera with you.
If it's purely surface snorkeling, you will get bored rather quick.
Will you die? Yeah, sure, maybe if you're unlucky or moronic. Then again, driving is pretty dangerous, better start walking.
Can I sex while scuba?
Scuba is exclusively for fat boomers. All the hotties do free diving exclusively.
>I've heard you can just learn from YT
Are you comfortable in the water? Waves, wind, water splashing on your face.
Because if not then you will never be able to relax and this will greatly affect how long you can hold your breath.
Do you know how to equalize?
This is obvious because going down just 1 meter will put enough pressure on your ears to make it hurt, you will break your ears without equalizing.
Are you fine with just going down 5, maybe 10 meters at most?
Good thing is most coral life hovers above 10 meters.
Take an introductory class, they're cheap and the goal is usually to get you comfortable enough to around 10 meters.
Besides, you will want local knowledge about the area. There could be strong undercurrents, tides, other hazards (boats/fishing/etc). Not to mention the social aspect of it, it's an easy way to get to know people.
I would personally never dive alone in a place I'm unfamiliar with because I know two people who has died doing dumb shit, I prefer to be on the safe side.
So is it worth my time and money to take a freediving course, do you think? I've heard you can just learn from YT but (1) i hesitate to trust my life to that and (2) I'm equally interested for the spiritual/mindfulness aspect of it.
Keep responding to the troll; eventually you will convince him he is wrong.
>is it worth my time and money to take a freediving course
I'm
and imo, no. I got into freediving as a side thing to diving, like "I'll go free dive to where these noobs are struggling even with breathing air."
Freediving isn't a very popular or developed sport so classes on it are going to be some egotists weirdo opinons on the subject rather than established curriculum matter like it is with PADI.
What you should do instead is to take actual diving classes, get your open water certification go scuba diving, and then watch videos on freediving and do it if you live in or visit an area where you can. A lot of the skills and higher end gear for scuba are translatable to freediving and its good practice for actual diving to be able to comfortably swim around at 50+ feet down.
There’s a standardized curriculum and certifications, it’s not just some dude’s opinions. In fact I think PADI developed the course. And I’m the guy who said above that scuba divers could lick my balls, so unfortunately scuba is not a viable alternative for me.
So despite what the experts say, there’s really no reason I shouldn’t take my skills to the reef alone, provided I’m not cave diving or pushing my depths? That’s good because I typically travel alone.
Cheers. I’m looking at a class in Utila as it’s cheap, looks like a good time
>Utila
I watched an octopus checking out a conch shell in broad daylight there. absolute kino
Going to look into Utila, looks good.
I am currently in central South America looking for some coral reefs I can get to cheaply.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g292020-r260249757-Utila_Bay_Islands.html
>So is it worth my time and money to take a freediving course
not really, maybe join the local club and visit couple times to hear useful tips and to test your limits free of worries. as a beginner there is no way to accidentally pass out, after years of pushing your limits and learning to tolerate suffering is "accidently" passing out a thing.
free diving is safe and there isn't much to know, the courses don't teach you to calm the body and mind to extend the underwater time.
Went reef snorkeling around Tioman Island, Malaysia with my friends before the pandemic hit. It was one of the most magical experience I ever had. The underwater view was more beautiful than I imagined or even from the TVs. I don't know about sharks but I was told that the waters around that area don't have them. And I was also told that Tioman Island isn't even one of the top reef snorkeling spot in the region. The top spot belongs to Sipadan Island in Sabah I think. There's no need to aim for dangerous crazy shit like shipwrecks, underwater caves, blue holes, etc. like other anons said here. Just go for regular reefs.
I'M GONNA SCOOOOOOOOOB
I am from Queensland Australia and have snorkeled the great barrier reef definitely worth it.
Took an hour boat ride out to the reef then we all just jumped off the boat in snorkel gear and the supervisors just swim around with everyone pointing out animals etc.
We saw a few turtles, frickloads of fish and pretty coral, some people came across black or white tipped reef sharks I forget which ones (they are obviously not aggressive) definitely recommend it though, don't be a pussy
>picrel an hour of the coast from this place
would you say it is the most beautiful place you have ever seen?
Well I haven't been to that many places and I am constantly exposed to Australia and pristine beaches so not really.
I went to Nepal recently and saw the Himalayas and thought that was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen but the locals barely really look at it as they have constant exposure.
It just depends what you are into I guess. (It was still beautiful don't get me wrong)
Aussie reefs are living off the glory days of explorers and muh Great Barrier Reef.
Australia does have some of the best beaches in the world but for reefs and marine life there are much better spots in Asia, Indonesia etc.
Plus the costs to access these spots in Australia where good reef still exists without lots of crowds is cost prohibitive.
>I enjoyed the Caribbean but I didn't see any coral or much variety of fish there.
where? Because I went off 3 different beaches over a span of 20 miles and saw mad coral and fish