Tidal Dance. - A Hangover Cure That Gets You Fit?

To some Tidal Dance is a racehorse, to others it’s a contemporary dance group based in Australia or Austria or somewhere – they’re on facebook anyway if you’re interested. To us however, tidal dance is an activity and a very special one at that. Let’s explain. Imagine for a moment that you have spent the previous evening stuffing your stomach with traditional, home cooked Greek food, followed by a few beers (a lot of beers to be precise) and then maybe a night cap or two of the harder stuff. Following such an assault on your internal organs, you are no doubt going to awaken the next morning feeling a little worse for wear – mostly due to colon blocking Greek food if we’re honest. In times like this, when your body is bordering on open rebellion, some of you might reach for the Alka Seltzer, others might mix up a hair of the dog Bloody Mary and other still, might just pull the blankets over their head and curse the phrase “just one more for the road”. The members of The Dangerous Snorkelling Club however, hold Alka Seltzer in contempt and although we’d never turn down a well-made Bloody Mary at any other time, we draw the line at early morning. As for lying about in bed groaning like a sociology student we’d rather have our toenails pulled out. When the aftermath of the night before clasps us in its sweaty embrace we grab the snorkelling gear and head off to do some tidal dancing.

Immersed in calm cool waters, gliding back and forth with the tide, watching shoals of fish swim by, the excesses of the night before simply drift away. A few hours later, we emerge from the oceans restorative grasp refreshed and ready for another hard day of lazing about on the beach – anyone for a Bloody Mary? Quite simply the sport of snorkelling can have an amazing recuperative effect on the body and it’s not only us who feel it has added health benefits either. The people behind the excellent site Tidal Tao also extol the sports health boosting powers. In fact they go as far to say that snorkelling can aid relaxation, relieve stress, improve self-confidence, increase aerobic fitness, assist in the relief of joint pains, muscle strains and can provide a less damaging way for obese people to exercise. Tidal Tao also state that watching marine creatures in their natural habitat can help patients with anxiety disorders or ADHD (a controversial condition at best). And it doesn’t stop there. Snorkelling can provide an effective physical workout for the body. Quads, shoulders, hamstrings, calves, hip flexors and core all get the treatment. Snorkelling improves overall strength and endurance and burns around 300 calories an hour – a lot more if you’re strong enough to do it in rough water. These claims aren’t the result of an over active imagination either. Despite their name, the people at Tidal Tao aren’t a bunch of water-crazed hippies. The idea that snorkelling can help relaxation and improve fitness is supported by fitness instructors, swimming coaches and more importantly, the authors of the book Diving Science, Dr Michael Strauss and Dr Igor Aksenov both of whom are experts in diving and hyperbaric medicine. 

But before we get too carried away and think that snorkelling is some sort of panacea, you have to remember that there are some, very serious, inherent dangers involved. One of the most common contributing factors to snorkellers, as well as divers drowning, is an undiagnosed cardiac condition (see our post purging the dangers out of snorkelling). Another issue is people who are poor swimmers getting into trouble in strong currents and/or becoming tired. Snorkelling can be an unsurpassed sport to participate in. It’s relatively cheap, will get you fit and can be a powerful stress buster. In our case it is also a great hangover cure but we have a few words of warning. Just because you can run for bus, it doesn’t follow that you can run a marathon. If you can’t swim or are a weak swimmer, don’t think that you can snorkel – you can’t. And unless you’re a member of the Dangerous Snorkelling Club (and you aren’t) for god’s sake don’t go into the sea with a hangover!

But if you can swim, you aren’t suffering from dehydration and you have the right gear; pull on the flippers, shove the snorkel in your mouth and go do some tidal dancing – you really can’t beat it.

Here’s the post from journalist Brenda Crawford (including some great reference links) that supports the claims of snorkelling’s health benefits. And here’s a little video we put together the last time we went for a tidal dance, it's a bit shaky, but let's be fair, we had a group hangover.