My knees a blown from running when I was younger and I was finding that swiming was a great way to excersie. The problem I ran into was I didn't have the style to breath properly while swimming and this reduced the amount of excercise I could do each day. When I received the snorkel I struggled when I tried to duplicate the method suggested. I have a big nose and found that I struggled breathing out through my nose. I bought some nose plugs and the next time I swam I increased the number of laps from 22 to 30 in a 60' pool. Two days later I did 44. I have cut back to 34 laps per day but now I have no problem getting swamped. The only negative I have is the tie wrap that was used to hold the mouth piece to the rest of the snorkel. It came off and I had to replace it.
It looks dorky, but it is very effective when working on balance.
I have used my FINIS Freestyle Snorkel only once. I read the first review on this page that said it takes 4 swims to get over the flooding. That was great news. I actually shaved 2 minutes off my mile the first time I used it. I did have trouble with the flooding but I have had that problem with other regular snorkels on first few uses. When I finished my mile I felt like I could swim another. I am 70 and taught myself to swim approximately 10 years ago. I have been using a snorkel for about 4 years due to neck and back problems. My last swim, the first with the FINIS snorkel, I swam a mile in 44.9 min, two minutes faster than my last mile of 46.9 min. This may sound like a commercial, but give me a pool, my Swimp3, and my Freestyle Snorkel and I could swim forever.....I will repost how I did today...off to the pool
I started out with the regular pink, purge valve snorkel recommended by Coach Emmett Hines of Fitness Swimming book & H2Ouston USMS. I felt like it was a waterboarding simulator because my swimming technique was so poor. Coach & others helped me get used to it so it became my addiction. Great for use with a tempo beeper to increase speed. Perfect for concentrating on form. I noticed all of the advanced swimmers had the freetsyle snorkel. I bought one. Similar learning curve. Forces proper head-down technique. It would be perfect (5*s) with a purge valve. Takes about 4 sessions to stop flooding. I love it & gave it to a swimmer friend. I went from 1.36 sec. strokes to 0.78 in 4 weeks. 40+ laps from just 20 every day:D
I use it for pull or kick swim and also for so called " mermaid" swim .
With the snorkel I can swim a mile in 45 minutes where it used to take an hour. I have improved my stoke and get a wonderful work out!
