Think You've Got Insurance To Snorkel? Think Again.

Going on a trip? Then you'll need to make sure that if anything untoward happens, you have insurance. Fortunately there are a whole host of men and women in swanky suits on the other end of your internet connection just waiting to offer you platinum cover insurance at rock bottom prices. Just click and pay and you're covered..... It's so easy. Ah if only it were so. Any seasoned traveller will be well aware that when it comes to insurance, the devil really is in the detail or to be more precise, it's in the microscopic small print. A recent article in the British Daily Mail newspaper highlighted the fact that a great majority of “cheap” insurance policies offered by insurers really aren't worth the paper they are printed on. We all know about the problems of excess payments and the fact that most insurers don't cover “hazardous activities” such as skiing, rock climbing and diving without you paying an extra premium, but few of us are probably aware that the swanky suited insurance salesmen also won't cover you for activities such as using a jet ski or going on one of those banana boat things. The article even pointed out that some policies were voided if you hurt yourself snorkelling.

Now many people consider snorkelling a sedate, unadventurous activity, that is fun for all the family. Some companies that offer snorkelling tours even suggest that because, in its most basic form, snorkelling only requires you to float on the surface, those undertaking the activity don't even have to be able to swim. So why wouldn't an insurance company cover you for bobbing about with your face in the water? Well one reason may be that, as we have pointed out before, snorkelling companies that say you don't need to be able to swim to be able to snorkel, are full of brown smelly stuff and shouldn't be trusted with their own safety let alone that of your children or elderly grandmother. Even at it's most sedentary, there are inherent dangers in snorkelling. You can suffer severe cuts from sharp coral and rocks, you can be bashed off the same coral and rocks by wave action and suffer bumps, bruises, broken bones and fractured skulls. A great number of seemingly innocuous marine life are armed with venomous spines and barbs. And. A great many more can tear huge lumps out of you. Then of course there are those uninsured jet skiers and fat people on banana boats speeding about the place with carefree abandon. Most of whom couldn't spot a terrible haircut from three feet (mainly there own) let alone a small head bobbing around in the waves. And it doesn't stop there. Snorkellers can suffer severe sunburn, they can develop hypothermia, get dragged out to sea by strong currents and finally, even if you can swim, you can still bloody well drown.

All of these are worst case scenarios of course, but that's what insurers work on. They are taking a gamble, albeit a calculated one, that you are a sensible person who isn't going to do anything silly and therefore put yourself and their livelihood at risk. Let's face it, if insurers just went on the idea that they would insure anyone to do anything then they'd have to charge premiums so high that no one could afford them and therefore go out of business 24 hours after they started. There is another reason though and that is that insurers are not only taking a calculated risk on you not doing anything silly whilst on holiday, they're also taking a calculated risk that you will be so thrilled by the cheap cost of your insurance that, even if you could find it, you won't bother to read or for that matter, understand the small print. They didn't get those swanky suits by paying claims now did they?

So what can the average snorkeller with an average pay packet do to ensure that they have insurance cover that allows them to partake in their sporting hobby? Well here are what we call the four Cs that we use to make sure our insurance is worth the paper it's printed on.

Cheap is cheap, it doesn't mean it's any good. No insurance provider would offer gold-plated insurance at bargain basement prices. So if it's cheap it's probably rubbish – we won't touch cheap insurance. That doesn't mean that you should go out and buy an insurance policy that comes in a 14-carat, diamond encrusted cover but you should make sure it is the best you can afford and provides reasonable cover. Try to avoid any policy that doesn't provide "no excess" cover as well. It's pretty pointless if your two-thousand pound camera gets stolen and you have to stump up the first thousand pounds before the insurer begrudgingly gives you the rest.

Comprehensive is best. Make sure the cover is comprehensive. In another words it covers you for most, if not all, eventualities that can go wrong on the trip from having your wallet stolen on the beach to covering medical costs if you should have an accident. Also check that in the event of a serious accident your policy covers transfer and repatriation costs otherwise you may find yourself facing a bill that would bankrupt a small country. Finally, make sure that if you are snorkelling, diving or bouncing about on a banana boat, that the insurance provides full cover or whether you have to pay an additional premium.

Check the small print. We know that insurance cover is boring and that policy documents sometimes seem to be written in a foreign language but we cannot stress the importance of checking the details. Insurers are in the business of selling you a policy that they hope you don't need and if you do need it, they have an army of legal eagles in the background whose job is to build in clauses to the policy to prevent payouts. For instance, if you are going scuba diving you might think that you have adequate insurance since the policy highlights diving as one of the activities covered. But a quick check of the detail might reveal that you are only covered to a certain depth (usually 30m), that you must hold a valid certificate of proficiency from a bona fide diving organisation for the dive being undertaken, that all the equipment you're using is adequate and in good order for the dive, or that you are under the direct supervision of qualified diving instructor. You might also find that no insurer will cover you if you dive within 24 hours of flying or vice versa. Some insurers will also refuse cover if you dive whilst suffering from a cold, flu or obstruction of the sinuses or ears. Some insurers will also not cover anyone under the age of 12 and all will void your cover if you dive whilst suffering from any medical condition that is likely to impair your fitness to dive. And that list of conditions is very long indeed. Most general insurance companies will also not cover you for diving below 50 metres, cave diving, night dives or diving solo.

Consider single activity insurance. Many people have annual multi-trip insurance or insurance that is provided by having a specific credit card or bank account. If this is the case, check that this insurance covers you for snorkelling or diving etc. If not, you might want to consider taking out activity specific insurance. This is insurance that covers only the specific activity such as snorkelling and is additional to the insurance you already have. A number of specialist insurers will provide pretty comprehensive cover for diving, snorkelling and freediving activities anywhere in the world. If you're a member of a snorkelling or diving club, check out your governing organisations advice on insurance as most, such as B.S.A.C, will be able to point you in the right direction.

There you go, we hope these four tips help. They certainly work for us but there is one last thing you should keep in mind when buying insurance. Swanky suited salespeople are just that, salespeople in swanky suits. They are there to sell you stuff and that stuff might not be what you want or in fact what you need. So buyer beware.

Spencer's Snorkelling Safari Tours. They Kill Tourists, Don't They?

Hanauma Bay

For some reason, Hawaii is fast becoming a watery graveyard for snorkellers. Although snorkellers drown with all too depressing frequency in Belize, Florida and on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, more people drown whilst snorkelling in Hawaii than anywhere else in the world. And a lot of people have become very concerned. In fact, not so long ago, spurred on by the sheer number of people dying in the ocean, one Hawaiian politician even proposed making it illegal for snorkels to be sold or hired without safety valves. The reason for this proposed law was the fact that some snorkellers who had drowned on the paradise island had aspirated water through their snorkels. A safety valve, common on most snorkels, would therefore prevent this and by consequence the snorkeller wouldn't drown. 

 

Cobblers! You might think, and you'd be right. The addition of a safety valve would certainly do no harm, but the idea that so many people were drowning because they were aspirating water through their snorkel was fanciful at best.

In fact we pointed this out at the time in our post“Purging The Danger Out Of Snorkelling”.

What? You didn't read it! Shame on you.

Anyway, recriminations aside, the point we made in that post was that making it illegal to sell or hire a snorkel without a safety valve was missing the point by a very, very long way. 

 

In order to explain why we think this we first have to introduce you to a few characters who sadly infect the world of snorkelling and diving. The first is a type of diving instructor/divemaster that we call Brad. Now regular readers, and at the moment that clearly doesn't include you, will know that we have a particularly strong hatred for Brad.

Brad is a moron that equates being a sport diver with being a member of an elite special forces unit. Brad likes to wear lots of badges, works out at the gym every day, shouts abuse at newbies and harangues his students for regularly not making the grade and if you have the misfortune to go diving with him, he will get you killed. In the world of snorkelling however, there are no Brads. Instead there are what we call Spencers'.

Spencer doesn't wear badges or shout a lot, he can't be bothered with all that. He likes to wear bright surfer style t-shirts and shorts, never bothers to wash his hair and is so laid back it's often difficult to ascertain if he's conscious. Just like Brad though, Spencer will get you killed. He won't mean too, it's just that he's an idiot and unfortunately for tourists everywhere, he's an idiot that runs a snorkelling tour company. So let's go and meet him.

Tourist: “Hello, I'd like to book a snorkelling tour, but I'm a little bit worried as I am not a very good swimmer.”

Spencer: “No problem Mate, it's only snorkelling. Anyone can snorkel.'

Tourist: “Right. So being a poor swimmer is not a problem then.”

Spencer: “Of course not, In fact you don't even have to be able to swim. It's snorkelling. Anyone can snorkel.”

Tourist: “That's great, the kids will be pleased. They're quite young you see and still can't swim.”

Spencer: “Bring 'em along mate. The more the merrier. I think I've got some kiddies masks out the back somewhere.”

Tourist: “What about my wife? She's paralysed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair. Will she be able to snorkel?”

Spencer: “Absolutely. Anyone can snorkel. Will just stick her in a life jacket. We've got some special snorkelling jackets somewhere, they'll keep her face down in the water rather than head up. That'll stop her head bobbing up see. She'll get to see more then.”

Tourist: “Oh great. I've got my parents with me as well. They're quite old and my father has a heart condition. Would they be okay to snorkel?”

Spencer: “Of course they would. It's only snorkelling. Anyone can snorkel, I mean it's not like diving. Now that's dangerous – do you want to try diving by the way.”

Tourist: “Errr... Didn't you just say that was dangerous?”

Spencer: “Well it's more dangerous that snorkelling I suppose. But I got a mate over at Ocean Commando Diving Tours. His name's Brad and he reckons he can teach anyone to dive in ten minutes – you don't even have to know how to snorkel.”

Tourist: “Err.. Maybe another time. I think I'll just stick to the snorkelling for now.”

Spencer: “Well fair enough. Your loss. Right here's some fins, a few masks and a couple of snorkels. That'll be three hundred bucks – for an extra twenty I'll throw in a six pack of beer and for an extra fifty I'll even come with you.”

And there you have it, in a short imaginary conversation with Spencer, you can see the real reason why so many people drown while snorkelling. It's easy. Anyone can do it. You don't even need to be able to swim. Pre-existing medical conditions don't matter either, after all it's just snorkelling. All you have to do is float on the surface and look down – how hard can that be?

What? You don't believe that snorkelling tour operators would take non-swimmers snorkelling? I'm afraid you'd be wrong about that. In fact most of that imaginary conservation was not that imaginary at all! We just perused the web pages of snorkelling tour companies based in Hawaii, Belize and Australia, looked at there FAQ's page and cobbled together some of their answers to some very basic questions. Have a look at the Q&A's below. All are taken from genuine snorkelling tour operator's websites. Note most of the sites are based in countries that use American spelling; so snorkelling becomes snorkeling.

Do you have to be able to swim to snorkel?

Actually you DO NOT NEED TO KNOW HOW TO SWIM in order to snorkel with us. Seriously! We offer floatation devices like snorkel belts that will keep you afloat without you even having to do anything. No swimming skills required!

I am a weak swimmer and have never snorkeled before... Can I still do a snorkeling tour?

Yes you can do a snorkeling tour with us. We’ve had non-swimmers and non-snorkellers become happy first time swimmers and first time snorkellers. We have life vest that a weak swimmer/non snorkeller can put on, around them and that will give them sufficient buoyancy to stay afloat and have an awesome snorkel experience. Be sure to inform us of this so we can speak to you and keep an extra eye on you when you are in the water.. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance… we are at your service.

I am not a strong swimmer and my wife doesn't swim at all. Is this something we can do?

Definitely! All you do to snorkel is float on the surface and look down at the beauty below. You might be surprised at how buoyant you are in salt water. It’s quite different than a lake or a pool. We also have plenty of flotation devices such as snorkel vests and foam pool noodles for extra floatation to put you at ease so that you can enjoy the view. Standing on the ladder is a great place to start. Once you feel comfortable, you can paddle off.

I have never snorkeled before. Can you teach me?

Our speciality! We are frequently recommended for beginners and non-swimmers as we specialize in small groups. Everyone on board gets lots of individual attention and help.

What if I can't swim?

Our tours are designed for non-swimmers up to experienced divers. For those who need a little extra help, no worries. Relax. We have taught thousands of people to snorkel including non swimmers, people who are afraid of the water, even paraplegics.

So there you have it. According to a lot of tour operators being a poor swimmer or not being able to swim at all are no barriers to snorkelling. Age, infirmity, heart problems? Yep they're no problem either. Anyone can snorkel. Surprisingly though, that advice flies in the face of the advice given by lifeguards, doctors and the emergency services. All of whom agree that being a strong swimmer and being comfortable in the water is a necessity if you are going to snorkel. Inexperience, an inability to swim, poor fitness or underlying medical conditions are common traits in drowning victims. Yet some snorkel tour operators still seem to ignore this. At the height of summer, with so many inexperienced snorkellers/non-swimmers in the water - fins thrashing, masks being knocked, selfie sticks prodding and poking everywhere – the risk of someone getting into difficulty and panicking are blatantly obvious. Is it any wonder then that so many people drown whilst snorkelling? 

 

Snorkelling is not as easy as you might think. It is a skill that needs to be learnt and practiced, you'll use muscles you've probably never used before, your breathing will be compromised by having to inhale and exhale via a tube. Waves and currents can drag you back and forth. Cold, fatigue and cardiac stress due to immersion in water can all have catastrophic effects. So if you are going to snorkel this summer do yourself and your family a favour, make sure you are fit enough, make sure you know how to clear your mask and can handle breathing through a snorkel and above everything else make sure you can swim. Oh and don't ever believe Spencer when he says anyone can snorkel because they can't but alas anyone can drown! 

Further reading

stand up or die Civil Beat / Hawaii's snorkelling deaths

How to not suck at snorkelling

A small selection of operators who offer snorkelling for non-swimmers, there are many more.

Caveman Snorkelling Tours

Sea Fun

Sea Quest

Four Winds

 

The Sport Diver Team Meet Brad And His Pressured Novices.

Mark Evans, if you didn’t know, is the editor of Sport Diver Magazine, the official PADI publication in the U.K and in December's issue he uses his Editor’s letter column to relate some disturbing incidents that he and his team witnessed whilst on a trip to Malta and Gozo. Here are the relevant (verbatim) bits from Mark’s missive.

Our trip was sadly marred by bad weather, namely strong winds which rendered many sites off limits, yet I was shocked that some independent groups of divers were still attempting to get in, or had got in, at sites that experienced centres had deemed unfit. At one location, I saw three well-known centres rock up in their vans; the instructors surveyed the conditions, and then called the dive, heading off to find more-suitable surroundings for their divers. Yet there were a group of obviously fairly inexperienced divers who were being badgered and cajoled by their group leader that “it was fine” and “this is what we are trained for”, Christ, these were pleasure divers, it wasn’t a Special Forces drill!

At another site, I saw a couple who were clearly novices, and they had a bit of a battle getting out of the water due to the swell washing up and down the ironshore. Their instructor was stood up above them on the shoreline helpfully telling them to hurry up but not offering them any assistance!

So please, whether you are diving in Malta and Gozo, right here in the U.K., or anywhere else for that matter, make your own mind up about the conditions and whether you want to dive. Do not feel pressured to get into the water – any instructor or dive leader worth their salt would not make you do anything you didn’t want to do. And remember if you do go in despite your reservations and it all goes horribly pear-shaped, the odds are that the person who ends up in serious trouble will be you, not your instructor. 

 

Hello, we're your dive leaders for today's pleasure trip - lock and load wimps!

Oh Mark, you’ve made us so happy we want to have your children! Finally someone associated with PADI has spotted what we, and many likes us, have been banging on about for what seems an eternity. Namely, that the world of diving is stuffed to the rafters with Brads; those moronic, badge wearing, hyper-egos who equate being a dive team leader/instructor with being a member of an elite commando unit and consequently tend to get people injured or killed due to their habit of being controlled by their testicles and not their brains.  And Mark, we are also delighted that you have brought to a wider audience our own little piece of advice that we have regularly exhorted on these pages, which is: your safety is, at the end of the day, your own responsibility. There are just a couple of things we like to raise however. We are not sure what you mean by “independent groups” but by the way you highlighted this we assume that they were not PADI registered which, again we assume, means that you are trying to distance the PADI organisation from such events. This would be unwise Mark and a little naive. Just take a peek around the web for diving deaths/incidents and you’ll find that, from Australia to Belize, an awful lot of divers who’ve lost their lives were in fact under the care of PADI registered centres/operations. Brad is everywhere Mark, everywhere!

Then there is something that we found rather disappointing, both your advice and our own requires the “novices” to do something that is often quite difficult, which is to challenge the diver leader/instructor. A lot of people Mark, don’t like confrontation and those who are very inexperienced have no reference point, they are being told to do something by someone who is covered in badges and is “supposed” to be experienced and subsequently “knows what they are doing”. Now we, and you Mark, know that isn’t always true but here’s a thing. You Mark are the editor of Sport Diver, you were with the Sport Diver team and yet you didn’t seem able to challenge those independent instructors either! Could you not have intervened Mark? Could you not have wandered over with your cohorts, flashed your own badges and told those novices that they didn’t have to do anything they didn’t want to? Because Mark, it is a very bad thing for those who are supposed to be the experts to lead those without experience into dangerous situations but it is just as bad, if not worse, for those who are experienced, those who realise that it is just a pleasure dive and not a Special Forces Drill as you say, to just stand there on the sidelines like a bunch of gormless rubberneckers at the scene of a car crash. We would have challenged Mark, we would have said something; in fact we would have ridiculed the instructor mercilessly and deflated their ego very quickly. We hope the next time you see something similar that you and all the other experienced divers out there will do the same. Because in truth Mark, the safety of novice divers is not just the instructors’ responsibility it’s everyone’s responsibility. So next time, don’t just stand there thinking this will make a good few column inches Mark - do something!

Oy! Mr Nudist. Stop Frowning At My Snorkel!

You’ve travelled for miles. Slogging up steep hills, along winding tracks and down slippery, rock-strewn goat paths. Backpack straps dig into your shoulders; rivulets of sweat burst from your forehead and cascade down your face, stinging eyes as they pass. Your feet ache, your legs ache, your very soul seems to ache. Finally though, as you near your destinations end and your eyes catch site of the suns rays dancing on the blue waters you know the suffering has all been worth it. Here on the far-flung corner of a northern shore you have found that desolate beach. Shingle crunches beneath feet as you make your way to the waters edge. Dropping your backpack you take a deep lungful of cool sea air and listen to the evocative sound of wave foaming over shore. No sand, no facilities, no tourists. This is a snorkellers paradise. Within a few minutes you’ve kitted up; mask on, snorkel ready, camera checked and you’re in the water.  Minutes become hours as you scan the rocky seabed, investigate caves, weave through plumes of seagrass and try your hand at being an underwater David Bailey. Finally though, as the cold water begins to numb the limbs, you decide that it’s time to head back to shore for a well-earned laze beneath the sun and it’s then that you spot them. A leg, then another and another still, a forest of human legs seems to have suddenly sprouted along the shoreline. You surface, scan the shore and realise to your horror that an entire tribe of tourists have invaded your personal Eden and even worse - they are all naked!

To compound things, as you come to terms with the unexpected sight of so many wobbly bits on public view, you notice that the owners of those wobbly bits are now frowning with displeasure at your sudden appearance or to be precise at the fact that you are carrying a camera. Nudists it seems are not keen on cameras and even less keen on cameras that can take pictures underwater. In less time than it takes to say, “strewth, there’s a fat bloke over there with no strides on”(best said in an Aussie accent), you’ve gone from an ordinary snorkeller to a perceived pervert. It’s no good smiling or waving either, as this tends to make things worse. It does seem to help if you have a female companion with you mind, but even this is no guarantee of avoiding those annoying disparaging looks and whispered comments. Now while we have no problems with people walking around in the buff, if that’s what takes their fancy, it seems the aforementioned buffers do have problems with non-nudists in wetsuits armed with cameras, and we have no idea why.

It's a snorkeller! Get Him!

Firstly, there are a great many nudist friendly beaches or even nudist only beaches in the Mediterranean but not every deserted, off the beaten track beach, you stumble across should be regarded as the personal domain for those who want to go "Au Naturel". Nudists should realise that such deserted locations tend to be ideal spots for marine life and as such are a big draw for snorkellers and divers. Secondly, snorkellers and divers tend to like photographing and filming said marine life which means they will have cameras that work underwater, but and this is a very important but, nudists should also realise that no snorkeller or diver is remotely interested in taking snapshots of their saggy bottoms or over exposed groins – in or out of the water. Thirdly, it does seem to be a bit odd to want to get naked in public and yet object to the idea that you might be photographed. In the UK for instance it is not actually illegal to be naked in public, but then again if you are in public (where no expectation of privacy exists) you also have no rights to prevent anyone from photographing or filming you and most other European countries have similar laws. Finally it seems to us to be odder still for a nudist to be standing on a beach, butt naked, sun cream dripping from their never region, and yet still imply by that annoyed look and angry murmur that those, who have their groins covered, are nasty voyeuristic perverts. They’re not naked in public - you are - and it was your choice!

So in a spirit of live and let live, here’s a plea to all those isolated-beach-loving-nudists everywhere. If you seek out those deserted coastlines, remember that others will too and not all of them will be interested in getting their tackle out, and if there are no signs saying “Nudists Only”, they have as much right to be there as you do. So get naked if you like, swim naked, snorkel naked, even barbecue naked if that’s your thing but please, please, if you suddenly see our snorkels hovering nearby don’t cast your holier-than-thou protests in our direction because it’s not only annoying it’s downright hypocritical. Snorkelling isn’t illegal, having an underwater camera isn’t illegal either, so give those of us who don’t want to get down with nature by stripping off the same courtesy and understanding that you demand from us. Oh and by the way, here’s one other thing, we were probably there before you anyway.

One last thing, If you do find yourself surrounded by nudists and you have a female member in your snorkelling group, it’s probably best not suggest that she get the "goods out" so as to blend in and dispel any nudisty grumbling.  She may well be hugely shocked by such a suggestion, but not as much as you might be if she happily complies and heads off to see if there are any sausages on the barbecue…particularly if you’re married to her!