Introducing land snorkelling: our latest Vitamin Sea activity

We know what you’re thinking… What on earth is land snorkelling? 

For those of you picturing bog snorkelling, don’t worry. Land snorkelling is really a mindful walking technique. 

Despite its name, land snorkelling doesn’t require you to get wet. You don’t need a mask or snorkel either. The aim is to be present, look closely at your environment and experience it using all your senses. 

Kat, our Dorset lead volunteer, took inspiration for these sessions from the time she spends snorkelling where she’s present in nature. No agenda. No route to follow. No need to “achieve” anything. Just time to see, hear, feel and sense the world around her. 

Land snorkelling brings that experience onto land and makes it accessible to all.

Think of your land snorkelling adventure as a journey without a specific destination. The aim is not to go far, or reach a particular location, but to walk slowly and mindfully. What can you see, hear, smell and sense around you? 

In fact, you don’t even have to walk. You could simply sit in your garden, local park or at the beach.

Land snorkelling is for anyone! One of the reasons we’ve developed this land-based activity is to provide an accessible way for you to create ocean connections. 

You don’t need a guide, but having one for your first land snorkelling experience can be nice. They can teach you about the natural environment, the ocean and even some local history to help you connect to where you are and build your connection to the oceans. 

One of our favourite parts of land snorkelling is that you can do it on your own just as easily as with a group or your family. 

We ran a trial session as part of our volunteer weekend and everyone took something different from the time we spent land snorkelling. Some used it as a time for quiet contemplation, others explored rockpools looking for weird and wonderful sea creatures, Denyse even wrote a poem.

 

We’re rolling out land snorkelling sessions as part of our Vitamin Sea project. We’ve already piloted land snorkelling with a group of refugees in Devon, where the session was a great success. 

We’ll also be running our first land snorkelling pilot sessions with young carers in the Bournemouth and Poole area to start creating ocean connections and opportunities for mindfulness. 

Plus this is a wonderful activity for all of our lead volunteers to have available to them in the event that on-water sessions need to be changed due to unsuitable weather conditions. 

We’ve created resources you can use if you’re leading a session, including a simple sheet to guide your preparation as well as our Land snorkelling Bingo Cards, which provide some additional direction and are great fun. 

You can find all the land snorkelling resources on our website, and we’ve created a helpful YouTube video where Kat talks you through land snorkelling and how you can go on your own land snorkelling adventures. 

 

Photos by Gabe Hearnshaw