Planning for year-round snorkel adventures

Photo: Blackstone Reef (© Emma and Gordon Taylor)

Andy Torbet is something of a stickler when it comes to planning his diving and snorkelling missions. Here are his tips.

Although I advocate year-round snorkelling, I understand that for most of us the season tends to run from spring to autumn. So, if you’re reading this on publication, your thoughts are probably turning to what snorkelling adventures 2025 could have in store for you. But since these will not arrive unbidden at our doorstep it’ll be up to us to create the year we want.

I’ll always open the year by deciding what I’d like to achieve. It can be as simple as ‘have fun’ or as ambitious as ‘I want to snorkel and wild camp the length of Loch Ness’. Specificity will help with honing what you need to do to reach your goals. So, if you’re searching for inspiration start simple, by asking yourself… what do I enjoy? If you hate being cold, avoid winter lakes; but if you love summer walks in the woods, maybe a river snorkel in June should be on the list, assuming you can find clean water. Think about tying in other sports you love or would love to try, perhaps sea kayaking, wild camping, hill walking or stand-up paddleboarding. They all offer suitable transportation to get you to an old favourite or brand-new snorkel-site. 

You can also consider the ‘when’ factor. That woodland river snorkel may be most beautiful in autumn, a snorkel off West Wales might be saved for summer when the basking sharks pass through and your chances of encountering a leatherback turtle are, although extremely unlikely, at least a possibility. That ice cold lake you are avoiding in winter might be perfect in Spring as the waters warm, but before the algal bloom of summer arrives. The landscape and wildlife, both above and below the waters change through the years.

Emma and Gordon Taylor

Once you have created your bucket list, you need to consider if you are up to the task. If the answer is no that’s no reason to turn away from the challenge but motivation to work at improving those areas that need the work. Like diving, we should not assume we can start at the same level as we left off after a winter of snorkel-hibernation. So, planning a gentle shakedown exercise in the spring is always sensible. You need to find out where you are to work out how far you need to go, and how to get there. 

But it is not just ourselves that need at least a once-over to check their operability. Your equipment may also have sat dormant for a few months. Hopefully you stored everything wisely in safe, dry locations rather than in some leaky shed, bedecked in icicles, and crushed into a bag still wet from that final autumn snorkel. Use the first snorkel to make doubly sure everything works, but check it before you go. Let’s try and not waste the first snorkel of 2025.

Emma and Gordon Taylor

Plans change. The weather, our schedule, that of our buddies are all effected by factors beyond our control. Even a cold can cancel out dive plans. However, I have always found it productive to have a plan. It ensures we are in good order, both ourselves and our kit, to make the most of our time even if the exact details of our schemes shift. Not for nothing has the unofficial motto of BSAC been ‘Plan the dive, dive the plan’.

Article ‘The Masterplan: 2025 by Tube’ by Andy Torbet first published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 153 March 2025. Images in this online version may have been substituted from the original images in SCUBA magazine due to usage rights.