Editor's Corner

Hello and a happy Thursday to all y’all!

It was my dad’s 84th birthday last week, and I was lucky enough to spend it with him, my stepmom, some cousins, friends, and several humpback whales…in Mexico. I spent most of the time chatting with Pops, taking advantage of the time we had together.

During one of our coffee-drinking marathons by the pool (and Banderas Bay), we were talking about snorkeling. I said “snorkeling” and Dad said, “skin diving.” I was wondering if these two terms mean the same thing. Sometimes we use different terms just because of our ages and where we grew up.

Today I got my answer about snorkeling, skin diving, and a third activity: freediving. I’m skipping scuba diving, and covering the basics I found on the Dive In webpage.

Snorkeling

Many of us have snorkeled, and according to the article, it is the most popular of the three activities. Essentially, gear for snorkeling is “full-foot snorkel fins, masks, snorkels, and possibly a buoyancy vest.” Or, if you don’t want a life vest, there’s always a “noodle” that will help you float. Outside of the gear, the key with snorkeling is staying near the top of the water and looking down below at the coral, sea turtles, and barracudas.

Skin diving

Skin diving is an old term, for the days before masks and goggles (and I’m guessing fins). This gearless activity isn’t just cruising along the top of the water and looking down. It is actually swimming, and then when you think you see an amazing fish, or something the pirates of the Caribbean left behind, you dive down to check it out. If you’re doing it the old-fashioned way without a mask, you probably just dove down and found an old aluminum can shining there.

These days, skin divers use snorkels at the surface, and masks and fins to dive down and further investigate what they found.

Freediving

Okay, I hadn’t heard of this. This is the newest of the activities, and I personally don’t get it. Freediving is a competitive activity where people breathe in as much air as possible, then try to dive as deep as they can. Sometimes they follow ropes back up, so they can get to the surface faster. Breathing in a lot of air quickly and repeatedly is exactly what they tell you NOT to do in swimming classes. Hyperventilating can cause you to pass out in the water, so I don’t recommend it. Additionally, rising too quickly from deep to shallow water can give you the bends. Still, I’ll provide you with this:

Herbert Nitsch is the current freediving record-holder, swimming to a depth of 830.8 feet (253.2 m) on one breath! He has earned the title “the Deepest Man on Earth.”

The equipment is also a little bit different. “Masks are typically smaller than standard scuba or snorkeling masks, more similar to swim goggles. …fins are much longer than dive fins.” Snorkels aren’t used.

I hope you learned as much as I did!

Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Technical Publications

Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com

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