How to Put on Snorkeling Gear and Wetsuits

The basic techniques of snorkeling are skills that apply to all diving. Donning and removing your gear properly, snorkel breathing, and swimming with fins can easily be mastered by anyone who enjoys swimming. Almost anyone can learn these skills in under an hour.

Before you can enter the water, you'll need to assemble your mask and snorkel. Different manufacturers use various types of snorkel keepers to attach the snorkel to the mask, but the snorkel is usually attached to the left side of the mask. The reason behind this is that for scuba diving, the regulator comes over the right shoulder.

Bringing the snorkel over the left side helps prevent confusion that would result if the snorkel and regulator were routed over the same shoulder. If you think you may want to try scuba some day, get in the habit of using the snorkel on the left. If you have no intention of ever scuba diving, you can put your snorkel on whichever side you prefer.

Once your snorkel and mask are assembled, put them aside while you don your other gear. The snorkel and mask are normally the last gear you will put on before entering the water.

If you plan to use a dive suit, it's easiest if you sit down to don the suit. This is especially important if you will be snorkeling from a boat. If you try to stand up while you pull the bottom of the suit on, you may fall and injure yourself or other people around you. Always sit down while donning the bottom part of your suit.

Donning a skin dive is very simple. The slick Lycra surface will slide easily over your skin and the material has tremendous stretch. Open the zipper on the suit all the way and slide your feet into the legs and position the "stirrups" over the soles of your feet. Pull the suit up along your legs as far as it will go and then stand up.

Once the suit is up to your torso, insert your arms into the sleeves one arm at a time, and pull the rest of the suit up onto your shoulders. If the suit has a front zip, you'll be able to close it yourself. If it has a back zip, you'll need your dive buddy to close it for you.

Donning a wetsuit is similar to donning a dive skin, except that wetsuits are generally thicker and do not have as much stretch. The thicker the suit, the more time it will take to put it on.

To don the suit, first make sure you have the suit oriented properly. There is a back and a front to all wetsuits. Look at the curve of the legs and the bend of the arms to help figure out which is the front and which is the back. On a woman's suit, the jacket will be cut with darts for her breasts.

Sit down and insert your legs into the suit and pull the suit over your feet. You'll need to pull the bottom of the suit up a bit at a time, starting at your thighs and working it up your body.

Grab a small fold of the suit between your thumb and forefinger and work the material up a few inches. This action will need to be repeated several times, especially with thicker suits. Work the pants up until they are all the way up to your crotch. If your wetsuit pants hang too low below your crotch you won't be able to kick effectively, and you'll look pretty funny, too, somewhat like a child whose diaper is dragging.

If the pants are the farmer-john style, slip the top over your shoulders. Some farmer-johns have Velcro closures at the shoulders.

Once you've donned your pants you'll want to don your booties. Simply unzip the zipper and pull them onto your feet as you would a pair of socks. Booties have a left and right, so be sure you have the correct bootie on the correct foot. Roll the top of the wetsuit pants at the ankle over the top of the booties so the booties are covered by the ankles of the wetsuit. This will help streamline you in the water and make swimming easier, otherwise the booties tend to balloon up with water.

If your suit has a separate jacket, with full length sleeves, insert one arm into a sleeve at a time and work it on all the way before slipping into the other arm. With thicker suits, if you grab the cuff and pull it away from the inside of your wrist, you can blow air from your mouth up the sleeve to help the sleeve slide into position. You can do this yourself, or your dive buddy can oblige. It works better if your arm is extended and someone else blows the air up the sleeve.

Most wetsuit jackets either have a "beaver tail" that must be fastened to hold the jacket down, or a "step-in" design for the jacket. If your jacket is equipped with a beaver-tail be sure it is fastened or the suit will ride up on your body while you are in the water.