i have been in a few water crossings were i had the water coming up over my hood.

on more than one occasion i have simply replaced the k&n as it was not wroth taking the time to clean it after the amount of mud on it.
i have come close to hydro locking the engine but got lucky and it just ran extremly poor for about an hour.

mind you i also run a cone filter in place of the stock air box. so it is not nearly as protected.

but the snorkel and intake box i plan on will solve all of this.

the fact that it looks bad ass is just a bonus. but it definitely serves more function as most of the trail rides i do require water crossings and the such.