helping fellow diving with not breathing through nose

[ican]

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?

Being a swimming instructor for 17 years, this phenomenon is not new to me and it is extremely frustrating... I've had a couple of students - one troublesome child in particular - that somehow got open water certified, yet couldn't even swim front crawl without a snorkel because no one ever taught them how to pick their head up to breathe, or more importantly rotary breathe... This one kid would actually choke on water every time he started to swim face down, because he was trying to breathe with his face IN the water as if he had a snorkel. I eventually went to his parents, told them he needed to be in a lower level swim class (this was level 5 red cross) and learn the basics of swimming... The mother's argument was that he could scuba dive and snorkel, to which I replied, "you can't use an air tank in competitive swimming" which is where he was hoping to go once he got to high school. I saw that kid once more in a lower level class with another instructor, and she was equally frustrated with his insistence of trying to breathe underwater. Sadly, he never returned for another class after that... I hope his lack of swimming ability doesn't get him killed one day in his scuba kit.

 

[hedgehog47]

we are both pretty good at swimming

 

[Texasguy]

we are both pretty good at swimming

Please answer this for your friend, granted there is no inflatable in use of any kind:

1) What style of swimming?
2) How fast can your friend swim (relative to walking)?
3) For how long can your friend swim without stopping?
4) How long can your friend float totally motionless without touching anything but water?

 

[hedgehog47]

We both escaped alcatraz back in 1963 and our raft deflated shortly after we left the shore, and we had to swim in the dark, at night with only four stolen fully inflated birthday baloons between the two of us.


But if anyone asks, I'm making this up.

---------- Post added October 17th, 2014 at 05:25 PM ----------

It was one and half miles but it felt like more. But nothing tastes quite like a freedom.

'Murica

 

[Texasguy]

There you go. Some people escape, some perish. Swimming is a bitch.

 

[Skittl1321]

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.

If I was upside down, I'd probably get water in my nose; so far it just hasn't been an issue, because my head is generally roughly vertical, and gravity must help a bit. I'm not doing anything consciously to help keep water out. I will say that if I just held my nose sitting here typing, I would be very with the breathing. It's not just water that brings up nose breathing issues. I had problems with my snorkel mask on the couch.

I am a good swimmer (but was never a swim team person- but answering the Texas guy questions- I can do a decent freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and some hybrids of those together; for short distances I probably swim at the same speed as I walk, long distances, slower; I can "swim" for more than an hour without "stopping" if stopping means having to touch something, but if stopping means to take a break to tread, only about 300 yards- however I recently did a 200 yd + 45 minute tread test, with no break between the parts, and the test was no problem at all; I can float indefinitely without having to touch something. In a pool, I could almost certainly take a nap while floating without issue.); but I do not breathe through my mouth when swimming laps. I do this weird thing with my lip that actually COVERS my nose so that water cannot get in it while I'm swimming. Because of this, I never understood why people would hold their nose when they jumped in the water; it's a non-issue for me, but I've now seen that it actually put me a bit backwards

 

[kmarks]

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.

This would be physiologically impossible for most people. The reason a musician can practice circular breathing is because they use the tongue to close off the back of the throat, puff up their cheeks, and blow through the instrument using the mouth like a bagpipe bladder while inhaling through the nose. You can't do the reverse of this, closing off just your nose (unless you have a genetic mutation that lets you cover your nose with your lips ).

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?

I consider myself to be very good and fast swimmer. But I can't breathe off of a snorkel without blocking my nose. If I'm deep and I remove my mask, I've found that I have to hold my nose for just a second to prevent water from going up it, but then I can breathe off the regulator without a problem.

 

[Skittl1321]

I consider myself to be very good and fast swimmer. But I can't breathe off of a snorkel without blocking my nose. If I'm deep and I remove my mask, I've found that I have to hold my nose for just a second to prevent water from going up it, but then I can breathe off the regulator without a problem.

But you do breathe through your mouth when swimming. At the very least, I know you exhale out of it.



However, for scuba purposes, I don't consider "fast swimmer" to have anything to do with "good swimmer". It isn't about trying out for swim team.
I don't think the fact that I hold my breath under water and then exhale/inhale out of my nose when I turn my head to take a breath (I do not stop the stroke to come up to breathe), rather than exhale while I do the stroke, and only inhale on the head turn to mean I'm a bad swimmer. Texasguy seems to be implying that to be the case.