My wife and I are going to Hawaii this summer and would like to bring some snorkel gear. Fins, mask, tube and floatation vest? We have snorkeled before in Mexico and loved it but we went with a guide out to a reef. Are there any name brands to avoid or look for? Anything else we need for our trip?

Buy if you'd like, we just rented a set while there for the week for 15 or 20 bucks, less to pack in bags. The flippers we rented were a bit hard on the heels(we snorkeled a lot) so we just bought a set and used them on a different trip. I think they were Tusa brand. Bit of advice, on the mask, some of the kits have a mask with the eyes separated by the nose piece and others without the separation, you want the one without the separation. If you do buy some, watch the you tube videos on cleaning the stuff off of a new mask with a lighter, it works well. Enjoy!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p...FxPY2AgZtedou=s500-pd-e365-rw-pc0xffffff

My wife and I have these. They sure work good and we both like them. Check them out on youtube.


We just snorkled behind are resort. There was a corral reef and seen 100's of fish everyday. I would go to Walgreens and buy bread and squeeze it into balls and then swim out and pull it off in little pieces and feed the fish. I would have 100 fish right next to me eating out of my hand.

We were in Maui and stayed in Lahaina. Very nice and you will love it.

Check out: divers supply
divers-supply.com

I've never done the traveling snorkel thing but have had friends do it often.. They've said you can get some kind of nasty equipment sometimes renting, as you don't know who used it last, how old or how it was cleaned. The ones that do it a lot have their own so they mainly get the fit they want and know how it was cleaned. But you do have the pack it with you thing depending on where your going. With your own you know you have it don't have to go looking to rent??

As a diver I know a lot about how things fit though. If you buy your own make sure you go to a dive shop and try things on. Even if you buy it later on line you can buy brand and model you tried, as different brands fit different. My self I've always tried to stay with US Divers equipment because it is found all over country.been around for ever.. But over the years I've ended up with a mix on some things. For fins if your just going to snorkel you should probably go with a full foot fin. Regular dive fins with just a strap around your heel you should wear boots with. If not boots at least some type heavy sock so they don't tear your feet up. Good boots are nice though if you do walk in sites a lot or go in on rocky spot..
I've have to say I never seen the cleaning a new mask lens with a lighter? Have to check that out.
I've mostly scrubbed new mask lens with tooth paste to clean them. Along that same line. Rinsing a rental mask and snorkel with some mouth wash goes a long way too. Not only gives you a bit of piece of mind about other peoples crud on those two items. I personally like the minty fresh smell or what ever mouth wash ya like. I've used mouth wash on my dive regulator mouth piece and snorkel for years.

Mac