Snorkeling gear advice please

1. I'm going to Hawaii and decided not to rent this time. I went to a local
shop and tried on a Tusa Platina w/o purge, and like the Ocean master flex
dry snorkel. Are these a good choice?

2. Now I need fins. I have some old bodyboarding fins -- Churchill Makapuu,
sort of dolphin fin shaped, very short. I am going to rent a boogie board,
which they are perfect for, but how about snorkeling? Should I buy larger
fins, and just rent the surf fins w/ the board? What fins are inexpensive,
but not junk?

3. What online shop would you recommend. LeisurePro.com seems reasonable.
Can I do better?

Thanks!
Steve
Portland, OR

Steve Vallee left this mess on Sat, 9 Aug 2003 00:19:40 -0500 for The Way to
clean up:
>
>1. I'm going to Hawaii and decided not to rent this time. I went to a local
>shop and tried on a Tusa Platina w/o purge, and like the Ocean master flex
>dry snorkel. Are these a good choice?
>
>2. Now I need fins. I have some old bodyboarding fins -- Churchill Makapuu,
>sort of dolphin fin shaped, very short. I am going to rent a boogie board,
>which they are perfect for, but how about snorkeling? Should I buy larger
>fins, and just rent the surf fins w/ the board? What fins are inexpensive,
>but not junk?
>
>3. What online shop would you recommend. LeisurePro.com seems reasonable.
>Can I do better?
>

You probably want longer fins than those suitable for boogie boarding. Try to
find a pair of full foot fins. They're light and pack a little easier than
pocket fins, and you won't need booties, altho you may want to buy a pair of
socks to walk the beach. LeisurePro should be fine for this. Do a search on that
site, and utilize their handy-dandy targeted search function.

Tao te Carl

"It takes a village to have an idiot." - Carl (c) 2003

"Steve Vallee" <svallee@ihpc.net> wrote in message
news:3f34a094_1@news1.prserv.net...
> 1. I'm going to Hawaii and decided not to rent this time. I went to a
local
> shop and tried on a Tusa Platina w/o purge, and like the Ocean master flex
> dry snorkel. Are these a good choice?

I've liked purge valves since ScubaPro introduced the first one that worked.

I don't like the dry snorkel and wouldn't even if it didn't cost so much.
If you keep your tongue up as a splash guard that will protect you from a
little spray and it soes not take much time to learn to stop breathing when
a "big gulp" hits the top of the snorkel.