helping fellow diving with not breathing through nose

[TMHeimer]

RJP's soup and candle thing is great stuff and Colliam7 spells out the basics. Breathe in one, out the same one. In one, out the other. Reverse. Try in water now. Breathe through mouth with mask on (only option...). Now mask off. Mask in water, mask off in water. There are probably a lot of things you can do to get proper airway control. But it must be done.

 

[hedgehog47]

Tonight we were met with success ! Thank you RJP ! really I can't thank you enough for the wonderful suggestion !

 

[Itsacon]

On breathing out through the nose: With a good-fitting mask, this shouldn't be a problem

I breath out through my nose nearly constantly, as it helps me to clear my ears (the slight back-pressure from the mask builds up enough pressure to force air into the correct spaces without the need to pinch my nose). As long as you do it calmly, you won't get water in your mask.

Breathing in is obviously a bad idea

 

[hedgehog47]

for anyone interested, the first success video !

GOPR0693 - YouTube

 

[Skittl1321]

On breathing out through the nose: With a good-fitting mask, this shouldn't be a problem

I breath out through my nose nearly constantly, as it helps me to clear my ears (the slight back-pressure from the mask builds up enough pressure to force air into the correct spaces without the need to pinch my nose). As long as you do it calmly, you won't get water in your mask.

Breathing in is obviously a bad idea

I do too- for me, as a nose-breather, scuba is about INHALING through the mouth. You can exhale however you want. (And should remember to exhale through the nose at least once or twice to prevent mask squeeze.) And when my mask is off, I find it much better to exhale through my nose- I can't keep water out otherwise.

 

[TotDoc]

for anyone interested, the first success video !

GOPR0693 - YouTube

BRAVO! :banana:

 

[ican]

I too am a nose exhaler. It's actually a lot backwards for me being a sax player, I'm used to breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth when playing... However, I've also been a swimmer and swim instructor for more than half my life, so I trained myself to inhale through my mouth and exhale through my nose when swimming a long time ago. When diving, it's a natural thing for me to exhale from my nose, and like others have said, it helps with preventing face squeeze and clearing any little bits of water sitting around my nose because of my mustache and beard getting in the way of a complete seal on the mask. If she continues to insist on exhaling through her nose, make sure she defogs before every dive, and maybe even get one of those magnetic mask squeegee things to clear fog on deep, cold dives...

 

[hedgehog47]

she wont be on cold deep dives but thank you

 

[TMHeimer]

I do too- for me, as a nose-breather, scuba is about INHALING through the mouth. You can exhale however you want. (And should remember to exhale through the nose at least once or twice to prevent mask squeeze.) And when my mask is off, I find it much better to exhale through my nose- I can't keep water out otherwise.

Question: When your mask is off and you're obviously inhaling with your mouth, are you exhaling at the same time through your nose? This would be a reversal of what some wind musicians do--"circular (continuous to some degree) breathing". If you're not inhaling with your nose in that situation, how do you then keep the water out of your nose? Of course what I'm suggesting is that at some point you are inhaling with the mouth and not exhaling with the nose, yet water is not going in your nose (other than in the nostrils, of course). This would mean you are capable of blocking your nose airway without exhaling through the nose.

 

[Texasguy]

I think the problem that a lot of people who cannot swim well venture into scuba diving without much of the surface swimming skills. If your friend would be a good swimmer, then the friend would already be conditioned into breathing only through a mouth upon entering water.

Since your friend does not have that reflex, I'd say that your friend is a bad swimmer. No swimmer that can swim somewhat fast will breath through a nose.

My advice would be for your friend to take swimming lessons. Seriously.

PS: What is up with scuba students not knowing how to swim?