It's a do-it-yourself sport, really. You can purchase the snorkel, fins and mask for about NIS 150, or rent them from a number of tourist places on the coastline. The fins give your feet extra kicking power, the mask covers your eyes and nose, and the snorkel - a 30-cm.-long tube which fits into your mouth and extends out of the water - allows you to breathe while your face and body are submerged a few centimeters beneath the surface.

Climbing down the ladder off the dock, you soon forget the cold shock of the water as your eyes adjust to the clear, sun-lit sea and all the activity a few meters beneath you. A school of small orange fish swim under your stomach, oblivious to your presence. A long, silver sword- like fish comes straight toward you in pursuit of the school. A heart-shaped purple polka-dotted fish - like something straight out of a comic book - shimmies so close to your mask that you can see its kiss-like breathing.

There are so many outrageous-looking fish - from a square, gray creature to a puffy, yellow blob - that you don't know where to look and you almost can't keep from laughing. You shouldn't laugh though - not because you don't want to embarrass the fish, but because smiling gives the snorkel an aperture which will let salt water in. (If water enters your snorkel by way of your mouthpiece, or if you've sunk too deep and the top of the snorkel gets submerged, you can give a hefty blow to clear it or emerge from the water and clean it.)