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Snorkelling Gear for Beginners: Have a Great Excursion

December 13, 2022 by Chelsea Findling Leave a Comment

Knowing the right snorkelling gear for beginners is essential to having a great excursion whether you’re close to home or heading to a tropical destination. Bringing your mask and snorkel will make the experience more enjoyable. It’s always possible to rent, but who wants to rent a mouthpiece? The thought of that is gross to me, but it is an option if you only snorkel a short time during your holiday. The cost of purchasing a personal snorkel is a small price to pay and if you love the activity, you should make use of it enough times to make it worthwhile. Fins are handy to have to make snorkelling more efficient; renting those makes sense as they are heavy and bulky to transport. A swimsuit will be required, and a Lycra shirt to wear on top will help to keep you warm when you’re out in the ocean for an hour. Last, but not least, you’ll need an underwater camera to capture gorgeous pictures of animals and plants on your snorkelling adventure.

Table of Contents

  • Snorkel and Mask
  • Snorkelling Gear for Beginners: Fins
  • Underwater Camera
  • Lycra Swimshirt
  • Swimsuit
  • Sense of Adventure
    • Fear of the Unknown
    • Sunset Experience
    • Sunrise Hike
  • Ability to Swim
  • Boat to Explore
  • Final Thoughts

Snorkel and Mask

Snorkelling gear for beginners includes a mask and snorkel. Kris is in a yellow and black Lycra shirt on the left and I'm wearing a pink Lycra shirt.
Kris and I snorkelling at Jemeluk Beach underwater temple in Bali, Indonesia.

The snorkel and mask are essential when going for a snorkelling excursion. The mask enables you to look at the fish and coral in the ocean below, while the snorkel allows you to breath as the tube pokes out of the water. The snorkel and mask, range from $40 to $90 at MEC. You can choose to buy them together or separately. They will be more cost efficient if bought together. You can also buy fins as part of a package if you’d like (more on that below).

Tip: Rubbing spit inside the mask and then rinsing it with salt water will help it from fogging up.

The mask and snorkel come in different colours and shapes. Some cover the whole face. You’ll have to check out your options, and see what you prefer. The picture above shows what you’ll look like underwater with your mask and snorkel. Regardless of which option you get, it’s important snorkelling gear for beginners.

Snorkelling Gear for Beginners: Fins

Kris snorkeling deep down in the ocean to a temple with his fins.
Kris diving down with his snorkel and mask to see the underwater temple at Jemeluk Beach in Bali, Indonesia.

We brought our mask and snorkel with us to Bali. Keep in mind that if you choose to bring your fins, they take up a lot of space in your suitcase. Individually, fins typically cost $49 or the entire package costs around $159.

Tip: Bring the snorkel and mask in your checked luggage and rent fins when travelling abroad. You can rent all of the equipment if you don’t want to bring it but the thought of renting a sanitized snorkel doesn’t sound pleasant.

If you can hold your breath long enough, you can dive down to the underwater temples like Kris did and take close-up pictures. Once you rise to the surface, you can blow out your tube full of water and continue to snorkel. It’s a bit tricky to get the hang of it initially but once you master it, it’s cool to be able to dive without needing diving equipment.

Fins allow you to swim with ease at the surface and underwater. You’ll notice how much easier it is to navigate the water and swim in a specific direction with fins on your feet, especially in strong currents.

Underwater Camera

Snorkeling gear for beginners is an underwater camera to catch those awesome pictures.
This Fujifilm FinePix XP140 Waterproof Digital Camera is what I use to take my underwater pictures.

This Fujifilm FinePix XP140 Waterproof Digital Camera will allow you to focus on what matters in life and take awesome underwater pictures. An underwater camera is essential snorkelling gear for beginners. If you’re like me, you’ll be mesmerized at the ocean colours, gorgeous coloured coral and the variety of fish. It’s incredible the world that exists below the water’s surface especially on a reef! In Bali, we also had the opportunity to do a shallow dive with our snorkel and mask to see underwater temples, which was spectacular.

There are a variety of locations to snorkel. Australia has gorgeous colourful reefs with different fish of a variety of sizes. When we went, my mom had the opportunity to see an octopus! You never know what you’ll see but know that it will be an adventure! The Galapagos Islands offer possibilities of snorkelling with penguins, turtles, and sharks. You will encounter a variety of different animals to snorkel with depending on where you choose to go.

Lycra Swimshirt

Snorkeling gear for beginners is a lycra shirt to help keep you warm in the water after a long period of snorkeling
Kris and I swimming off an island in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Kris and I took a catamaran experience to a gorgeous island as part of the Top 10 Activities from Majestic Resorts. We took a boat to the beach, ate a wonderful lunch and then took a catamaran back to the shore. It was a spectacular day! They offered snorkelling for those interested. Our hotel also offers kayaking for those who like it. Check out the Ultimate Majestic Mirage Guide for all the information you need to travel to this resort in Punta Cana. The water is so clear and warm making it a comfortable place to swim.

Tip: Wear a Lycra shirt when going snorkeling. If you stay in the water for around one hour, even if the temperature of the water is fairly warm, you’ll likely get cold quickly if all you have on is your swimsuit. If you go deeper in the water, while doing a short dive with your snorkel and mask, you will notice that the water temperature drops. The Lycra shirt is essential snorkelling gear for beginners.

The Lycra shirt can also help avoid getting a sunburn. The strong sunlight rays can quickly turn Canadians into lobsters.

Swimsuit

A picture of me in my turquoise bikini ready to go snorkeling.
Wearing my turquoise swimsuit in Punta Cana.

It’s important to wear a swimsuit that fits when snorkelling. You’ll be moving around a lot. It will get annoying if you constantly have to readjust your swimsuit if it doesn’t stay in place. Like I mentioned above, after being in the water for an extended period of time, you’ll likely get cold so wearing a Lycra shirt layer will make you warmer on your adventure.

Sense of Adventure

A selfie of Kris and I on the boat on our way to snorkel and see the sunset in Bali. The boat is essential snorkeling gear for beginners to bring us to an excellent location.
Kris and I on a Jukung (traditional Balinese boat) in Bali, Indonesia.

Fear of the Unknown

One of the biggest obstacles to getting out snorkelling is the wonder of what lives in the ocean? If you’ve never been snorkelling, it can be a bit intimidating. Your willingness to explore will hopefully over power your nervousness and get you out there to discover a new place.

Sunset Experience

We met a guy on the beach by our hotel in Amed and he asked us show up that same afternoon at 3 p.m. for a sunset snorkel. We decided sure, why not? Kris and I hoped the guy would show up when he said he would and bring us to the destination he promised.

Travel tip: Sometimes, you have to go with the flow. It definitely isn’t our western world’s way of doing things, where we pay upfront and know there will be a licensed guy showing us the way. We decided to be open-minded not to miss out on what sounded like a stunning experience. The prices will vary depending on where you’re getting picked up and which company or fisherman you pick.

It was an amazing experience! We enjoyed travelling on a Jukung (traditional Balinese boat) to our destination. The views along the way were breathtaking. We landed at Jemeluk Beach in Bali, Indonesia where we were dropped off to snorkel to the underwater temple. It was still quite intact and great for picture taking and to see the many colourful fish swimming around us. We went back to the boat, waited for sunset and then travelled quickly back to where we departed just before it was pitch black (going back very fast was a bit crazy but all part of the adventure)!

Tip: We had water splash all over us, after being dry and now the sun was setting. Bring an additional layer and a towel to keep dry on the way back to prevent potentially getting chilled by water spraying all over you.

Sunrise Hike

If you like the idea of sunsets or sunrises, you’ll like this. We had the opportunity later in our trip to hike up a volcano. For more details, check out Mount Batur Sunrise Hiking Guide. Bali had many places to go on adventures whether it was close to the water or inland. Your sense of adventure has the potential to take you to many fun areas!

Ability to Swim

The ability to swim makes snorkelling much more enjoyable and will help you feel confident in the water. If you are timid in the ocean or not a confident swimmer, a life jacket is important snorkelling gear for beginners. You won’t be able to dive deep down, but chances are you are not comfortable with that idea anyway. The life jacket will keep you afloat while allowing you to peak your head underwater to see the different types of fish and colourful coral. If you feel you can’t breath, you can poke your head up and rely on your life jacket to keep you from sinking.

Tip: If you’re feeling nauseous on the boat, the best way to get rid of the sensation is to go swimming in the water. Even if you’re nervous, try swimming with a life jacket in the ocean to get rid of the sick feeling. Even if fish seem like they are close to you, every time I’ve gone to grab one, it moves away very quickly. Fish don’t typically want to be to close to humans anyway.

Boat to Explore

Kris helping our driver to push the boat out into the ocean to go snorkeling and see the sunset.
Kris and the driver working hard to push the boat up and forward to get it out into the ocean.

Many different boats can be taken to go snorkelling. We’ve taken speed boats, a catamaran, Jukung, traditional Balinese boat (picture above). If you take a boat as opposed to snorkelling from shore, you tend to be able to see a larger variety of fish and coral. Spending the money is usually worth it.

With the low and high tides, the Jukung that we took in Bali needed to be pushed out by hand to get it up and over the coral. Kris was kind enough to help the driver push it out. I did my job and took pictures!

Tip: Be open-minded and have fun! You don’t need an expensive organized trip to go snorkelling. An offer from a guy on the shore that drives the boat works just as well and most likely will be a much more enjoyable experience, like we had. We didn’t have to compete with other tourists as we had our own private boat and the driver was happy to leave when we were done snorkelling, at the end of our experience. We went in the later part of the afternoon for sunset, Kris and I didn’t have to compete with the tourists that go over the course of the day. A few people were around, but nothing to complain about. We all exchanged how cool of an experience this really was!

Final Thoughts

Snorkelling is an awesome experience in my mind! There’s a whole world to see down there; who knew? It’s so easy to miss when you spent time above water or swimming away from a reef. To ensure you have a great excursion for your first time out or as you gain more experience, I have explained the essential snorkelling gear for beginners. There are many different places around the world to snorkel for special sightings of turtles, penguins, sharks, octopus, fish and colourful coral! What are you waiting for? Grab your camera, swimsuit, Lycra shirt, snorkel, mask, fins and your sense of adventure and book a flight to go on a snorkelling trip! Or maybe you’re lucky enough to live in a hot climate and you can snorkel in your backyard! Whatever the case may be, go enjoy yourself and have a great time. Let me know where you went and what you saw! I’d love to hear about it!

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Hello! I'm Chelsea Findling. I grew up in an outdoorsy family and love spending time in the outdoors near and far from home. I created this blog to help you plan your next couple adventure in Alberta and British Columbia with camping recipes, reviews, tips and new adventures.

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