This is awesome. I've been snorkeling many times, with much enjoyment, but always thought that I was basically using the equivalent of a bamboo reed and some swimming goggles. I've never understood why this area has had virtually no innovation when the problem seems simple.

At the beginning of the video I assumed it would be prohibitively expensive but for around $54 'merican I will likely invest in one.

Everything old is new again... in one of the Gidget movies - I think it was Gidget Goes Hawaiian (or perhaps from the series with Sally Field) there is a scene where Gidge goes snorkeling with a full face mask covering eyes, nose and mouth, and has two snorkel tubes attached directly to the mask coming out the top, with U-bends and floating ball "seals" that block water when you take a dunk. Nothing new, just came around the sun again....

cool. I never snorkeled but I would love to try it with this thing. And it's pretty affordable.

With a full face mask though, it's difficult or impossible to equalize pressure, so you won't be able to dive more than a couple meters/yards down.

I'm also sceptic about how easy it really would be to breathe with this thing and if it really holds out water that well. It's also probably difficult to clean/maintain. Often simplicity wins over "innovation".

The reason snorkel tubes are so narrow is so they don't hold as much stale air when you breathe out.

The in/out respiration system is different around the mask, but it appears the tube works for both, so you'd be breathing a lot more stale air than you would with an ordinary snorkel.

Also, I've snorkelled a lot and never felt any lack of freedom with the ordinary system. Seems like they're trying to fix something that ain't broke.

I've been snorkeling loads of times, and while I don't really have any problems with the standard/basic equipment, this looks like a cool idea and definitely easier for first-timers.

I don't think it looks difficult to maintain -- with a normal mask, the secret that often goes untold due to sanitary reasons I suppose is that the best way to clean them and to prevent fog-up is to spit in there, rub it around, and then give it a quick saltwater rinse. If the anti-fogging mechanism of this works well, then you could just skip that step. If it doesn't work as advertised, well, I guess the spit technique would still hold up just fine.

As for maintaining/cleaning the breathing lines, I would imagine that they can be flushed with water. I don't think I've ever worried about that with a normal snorkel, I don't really see why this would be different.

The issue with increased difficulty in pressure equalization (since you can't plug your nose) is a problem, but I'd say the target audience for this product is newcomers to snorkeling, and they are probably not going to be the type to do much diving down past the 6-12 foot depth where that will be an important issue.

The only other thing that I can think of is that with a normal snorkel, clearing water from the tube is pretty easy with a big exhaled blow. If water gets into this thing, for whatever reason, I dunno if it is possible to clear it without surfacing and taking the whole thing off.