text: length of snorkels? why does a snorkel have to be exactly 12 inches long (not 14, not 9, exactly 12!) i found a few websites that offer snorkels longer than 12 inches, but one in particular had this to say...  "the length of a snorkel is only about 12 inches long. so why not just make longer and longer snorkels? if you tried to breathe through a garden hose while on the bottom of a swimming pool, you would find that you couldn't. the pressure pushing in on your chest and lung muscles is too great to allow you to take a breath."  i imagine that's why 12 inches is the optimum length...unless you have really big lungs.