text: I found a few websites that offer snorkels longer than 12 inches, but one in particular had this to say...\n\n"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."\n\nI imagine that's why 12 inches is the optimum length...unless you have really big lungs.