4. This is the mask. It goes over your eyes and nose. It should
fit onto your face perfectly, so you want to make sure that
you get your hair away from your face area when you wear it.
If there's hair on your face, the water's going to get into
your mask. You want a nice seal between the mask and your
skin. That seal is going to stop the water getting in. The mask
has a strap, and that goes over the back of your head, not too
low down. You don't want to make your strap too tight. The
strap is there just to stop your mask falling away from your
face. Tighten it just enough so that it's secure and not going
anywhere.
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5. If it's too tight, it's going to actually work against you, and it
will pop that seal, and it will allow the water to come in. If you
do get some water into your mask, don't worry. All you have
to do is just press the top of your mask against your face,
like this, and then blow out through your nose. If you blow air
through your nose, that'll push the water out of the bottom
of the mask. And here we have the snorkel. It fits on the side
of your mask and the end goes in your mouth. The basic rule
of thumb when breathing through a snorkel is breathe in nice
and slow - a nice, slow, long inhale, and then breathe out with
a quick, forceful exhale.
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6. The reason for that being that if you get water in the snorkel, OK,
breathing out hard and fast will clear the snorkel of the water, but if
you have any last, little bits of water in that snorkel, by slowly breathing
in, you're not going to inhale that water into your throat and lungs. Then
you can get air in and you can give another quick exhale to get rid of the
rest of the water. When you're snorkelling, breathing is the easiest
part. Just breathe in and out - slowly, gently and just take your time.
Everything about snorkelling is about slowing it down. Slowing your
breathing down will keep you calm –slowing your movements down - your
kicking, your swimming – will allow the fish to get used to you, and you'll
see more. If you're swimming through there like you're swimming. .. a
race, all the fish are gonna hide and you'll swim right past them. So slow
everything down, including your breathing.
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7. And these are your fins. Fins are important because they help
propel you through the water. You need to keep them surface of
the water. When we get out of the boat and get in, it's going to be
deep, but once we get over to that coral, some of it almost touches
the surface of the water. And if you start dropping your feet
down and kicking, you're going to kick the surface of the coral.
The coral is a living organism and it's very sensitive. If you kick it,
you're going to kill it. So please, please, I can't stress it enough,
keep your fins at the surface of the water. Before we head out,
there are some general safety rules you have to follow. First, stay
with other people. We always swim in pairs. Don't ever go off on
your own because, if you get into trouble, or get lost, there's no
one to help.
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8. And you must use sunscreen. You don't realise it when
you're in the water, but if you don't use sunscreen, your
back is gonna get really sunburnt, and that's gonna spoil
your day and ruin the rest of your holiday, so you have to
wear some really good sunscreen before you can head out.
If you don't have any, we have some available here.
Finally, remember, when you're in the water, never touch
the coral. So, really simple, guys -- breathe in and out, go
slow and keep horizontal, stay close together, don't touch
the coral. And relax - it's just snorkelling. It's just
breathing and hanging out in the water.
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