How do you keep your mask from flooding while wearing a hood?

[Mud&Rox]

I also wear my mask under my hood....I don the hood....pull it off my head and were it around my neck....don mask and put hood over head....then double check to make sure the hood isnt under the skirt......its saved my fron loosing my mask more then once....

also in the OP you say you tightened the mask strap down tight.....big mistake.... the mask strap is to keep you from loosing the mask when you equalize and clear....NOT to make the mask seal....anyone should be able to dive a mask with no strap at all and it not leak....most ppl that I know that complain about a leaky mask have the strap way to tight....

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I have used both the under the hood and over the hood arrangement. Each works fine. The key is to have the hood properly trimmed to "fit your mask" not your face. As far as the technique for being sure the mask skirt is under the hood, stream an old episode of "Sea Hunt" and watch Mike Nelson gear up!
DivemasterDennis

 

[EastEndDiver]

One of the advantages to wearing your mask under the hood (meaning hood is over both mask and strap) is that if the mask gets dislodged from your face you will not lose it ,the hood will keep the mask strap somewhat in place.This is an old trick used by us old wreck divers that was pretty much always used when penetrating .

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Why a hood? I mean it's weird. My friends will go skying in sub-zero weather with no head covering and bitch about the cold water (80 degrees) on their head. I don't get it.

80 degree water isn't cold, but since water conducts heat many times faster than air, 80 degree water can eventually make you cold ...

.. Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Blue Sparkle]

One other possibility (although I guess it must be rare since no-one else has mentioned it):

I got a hood and the first day I wore it with the mask strap on the outside. Instant bonus of no hair entanglement. Sweet! But, my wonderful, never-leaks mask was suddenly a leaker. Nooo! (I did make sure that no neoprene or hair wisps were interfering with the mask silicone seal.)

Next I tried with the mask strap under the hood. I thought, well, maybe the hood was making the strap angle slightly different (wider) and that was causing the leaking. But.... still leaked. Did my next few dives without the hood but that was really not a good solution.

Finally, I figured out what the problem was: On me, when I had the chin part of the hood over my chin (as it's designed to be), it changed the shape of my face and hence, mask leakage. If I pull the chin part of the hood down so it's under my chin instead: No or very minimal leakage. I've worn it that way for ~20 dives now. What I haven't done is try different hoods or different masks to see if I could find a combination that works without pulling the hood-chin down under my chin.

I figured I would toss this out as one other possibility for the cause of a mask leak with hood.

 

[eponym]

One other possibility (although I guess it must be rare since no-one else has mentioned it): [snip] On me, when I had the chin part of the hood over my chin (as it's designed to be), it changed the shape of my face and hence, mask leakage. If I pull the chin part of the hood down so it's under my chin instead: No or very minimal leakage. I've worn it that way for ~20 dives now. What I haven't done is try different hoods or different masks to see if I could find a combination that works without pulling the hood-chin down under my chin.
I figured I would toss this out as one other possibility for the cause of a mask leak with hood.

Blue just touched on what I was thinking while reading this thread. I've seen more than one diver whose new hood pushes the cheeks in and accentuates the nasal-labial folds, allowing water to run up into the mask. A hood with more give around the cheeks can (sometimes) fix this.

Your buddy (or a mirror) can let you know whether the hood is doing this, before you put on your mask.

Hope this helps,
Bryan

 

[TSandM]

Getting the mask skirt clear of the hood really is the key. And sometimes you actually need to LOOSEN the mask strap, if you are using a thick hood. A too-tight strap can deform the mask and cause an otherwise cooperative mask to leak.

I always test my mask before submerging, too. I push gently in on the mask and see if it "sucks" to my face. If it doesn't, I haven't gotten the hood completely clear of it. This has saved many dives from mask flooding on descent!

 

[boulderjohn]

Herman and TS&M both made important points that new divers should not miss: tightening the mask strap is NOT a solution.

One time while doing a pool session with students, I realized after a while that my mask strap had come loose and was sitting on top of my head. I don't know how long my mask was strapless--my students later told me they thought I was doing it intentionally to prove a point.

Another time I was in a local lake preparing for class, which included hauling platform gear out, which is a whole pile of paraphernalia. I was surface swimming the whole way, and it was a long way. When we got to our site and prepared to dive, I realized that my mask strap had broken when I was messing with all that junk, and we had both left our spares on shore. No problem--I did the entire 30 minute setup dive with no strap--and I was wearing a hood.

Once you have a good seal on your face, a properly fitting mask will stay on and not leak (or just slightly on occasion) just by the seal created by the slight difference in pressure between the outside and inside of the mask. (When you sniff in slightly.)

 

[TracyN]

Blue just touched on what I was thinking while reading this thread. I've seen more than one diver whose new hood pushes the cheeks in and accentuates the nasal-labial folds, allowing water to run up into the mask. A hood with more give around the cheeks can (sometimes) fix this.

Your buddy (or a mirror) can let you know whether the hood is doing this, before you put on your mask

Hope this helps
Bryan

Come to think of it, this might have been what was happening. The hood did seem to squeeze my cheeks quite a bit. However having never worn a hood before I have no idea how it should feel. The water filled the mask from the bottom and not the top. All I had to do was dip my head under water and it filled up. I will check this out. Thanks.

 

[fisheater]

Even a poor seal at the top will make it appear that a mask is filling from the bottom.

Always check all around the mask for sealing issues.