BSAC Level 2: Ocean Snorkeller

OCEAN SNORKELER is a snorkeler who has achieved the status of Snorkel Diver, and has received further training to take a full and active part in open water snorkelling activities, including rescue techniques and further advanced exercises. This grade of student, on completion of training, should be competent in the safe use of all appropriate open water snorkelling equipment including protective clothing and should be able to act safely as one of a buddy pair of snorkelers.

Theory Training

• Section 1: Breath-hold Diving - review and elaborate on the relationship of water pressures and volume changes and how such changes affect our body airspace as we descend and ascend on surface dives.
• Dead airspace - created mainly in the snorkel tube, dead airspaces can affect our breathing and in particular oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in our lungs. We look at these issues and explain how to avoid problems relating to dead airspaces.   

• Section 2: Skills and Equipment - we take a look at thermal protection in the form of a wetsuit and wetsuit accessory. As we will be making dives down to depth, we may need to record this depth and time by using a depth gauge and watch. We may also want to snorkel out to a reef from shore, so in this lesson we look at compasses and how to use them.
• Use of weight belts - when making snorkel dives, we may need to wear a weight belt on descent especially in the case when we are wearing a wetsuit. Therefore, we look at some different weight belt configurations and how to jettison them by using a quick release mechanism.
• Buoyancy – we look at surface support buoys or floats together with reels used in deploying these floats;  floats are an essential piece of equipment for open water snorkel diving.       

• Section 3: The Heart and Lungs - Knowing some background on how our lungs work, together with the respiratory process, is important to snorkel diving. The build-up of carbon dioxide in our lungs and the dead airspaces can cause unconsciousness underwater. So knowing how to breath through a snorkel and control your carbon dioxide level is crucial. Hyperventilation is another concern, in particular to snorkel divers. Hyperventilation is caused by the snorkel diver when they try to increase the amount of oxygen inhaled in an attempt to extend their snorkel dive. This delays the stimulus to breath out, causing the oxygen level within the lung to drop, rendering the diver unconscious. In this lesson we show you how to avoid such conditions.   

• Section 4: Rescue and Rescue Techniques – Snorkel diving is safe if you are properly trained and it is conducted properly. However, there may be on very rare occasions an incident where you may need to perform a rescue of your buddy or other snorkeler. In most cases, this rescue will entail conducting a surface tow of your buddy, either back to shore or to the boat. However, incidents that happen underwater will be more serious and may require you to dive down and recover your buddy and administrate rescue breathing once back at the surface. This section addresses how to prevent such incidents from occurring in the first place by proper planning and following snorkel safe diving procedures, and how to deal with an incident if one arose. 

• Section 5: Safe Snorkelling Practices - This lesson is designed around Snorkel Dive Planning. It will give you an insight on planning your own snorkelling trips.

• Theory Assessment (20 multi-choice questions)

Practical Training

• Snorkel skills
• Back and forward Entry rolls
• Breath holding dives with a distance of 15 metres
• Finning without mask: face submerged, breathe through snorkel. Finning at least 50m
• Mask removal, replacing and clearing
• Swimming with a weight and emergency jettisons at the surface
• Using lifejacket inflation and deflation techniques
• Rescue Skills
• Recovering a casualty to the surface
• Towing casualty while administrating Artificial Ventilation
• Recover casualty onto the boat or shore
• Snorkel Diver Skill Tests 
• Fin 200m, including 8 surface dives in appropriate depths
• Fin 50m without mask, face submerged, and breathing through snorkel
• Fin 50m on back, with mask and snorkel removed
• Fin underwater for a distance of not less than 15m
• Fin 100m on surface, wearing an appropriately weighted belt
• Rescue Assessment

Qualifying Dives – open water

On completion of the practical skills, the Ocean Snorkel Diver will then make 3 open water snorkel dives. Each dive will be around 20 minutes in duration. One of the 3 - dives will include the use of a compass. The final qualifying dive should include the Snorkelling Skills Test below:

• Make a breath-holding dive to a depth of 5 - 6m
• Carry out a rescue and tow of a buddy simulating unconsciousness at the surface: - giving two full breaths of Artificial Ventilation at the rate of 2 breaths per 15 seconds and towing for 50 metres. The rescuer will then remove the casualty from the water and place in the recovery position

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Information by BSAC Thailand.