Dear Kapitol Reef,

My wife and I have been very curious about your new snorkel ever since we saw your ad in a dive magazine some months ago.  I called last week because I could not stand it any longer. it arrived last Friday and I could not contain myself.  I put on my swimsuit, grabbed a pair of fins along with a conventional self draining snorkel and my new Kapitol Reef.  I spent the first 5 minutes in the pool developing a baseline on how dry/wet the old snorkel was in a series of snorkeling and skin diving positions and maneuvers.  Then I put the new Kapitol Reef snorkel through the same paces.  Here is what I discovered:

1. The Kapitol Reef was drier in all swim and skin dive modes.
2. As stated in the manual, if I exhale first, my first  inhalation will be dry, no matter how hard I exhaled.
3. Clearing the snorkel is a little different than my  traditional “blast” clear technique.  I found that if I started a gentle exhalation on ascent that it would clear the snorkel with little effort. The decrease in water pressure allows my exhaled bubble to expand and clear the snorkel easily.  Although this displacement technique of clearing a snorkel is used by many skin divers, you still typically need to be cautious with that first breath. Not so with the Kapitol Reef!

My hat is off to you and your company for a true innovation in the diving industry.

We will be taking our new snorkel on a dive trip to Mexico next month.  The only problem will be how often I will be allowed to use it.  I know that we will be ordering one in her color when we return!

Wayne LeCompte
PADI Master Instructor