Leaking Mask

[spectrum]

I have been diving for 3 years. I now have an issue with a leaking mask. I am now on my third new mask and they all leak at the same place, right at the crack of my nose and cheek. Any tricks? Maybe a little caulk from HD??

banna,

Has anything else changed?

Perhaps a new hood? A thicker or thinner hood can have a surprising effect on the circumference of you head and thus mask fit. You would have probably adjusted around this in 3 masks but it's worth staring there.

Next, still on the new hood theme is the hood encroaching on the mask with the face seal? Some are meant to be trimmed and cannot be work effectively off the rack. Usually the result is a downward pressure on the mask and trouble right where you describe it.

One last hood thought is venting, is your hood filling up with air? That can raise havoc with mask performance. If needed add a few vent hole in the crown.

Remember that more mask fit problems have been solved by loosening the strap than tightening it. Smushing the the seal all over your laugh lines will do nothing to help the situation and may make it a lot worse.

Last but not least, try more masks. A friend had this problem and after trying several dozen masks at a good shop found her solution.

Keep seeking near perfection, or better It's problems like this that can add up in a stressful time and make a bad situation worse.

Pete

 

[banna]

Thanks for the help. I am going to keep trying new masks until the issue is resloved. I see you are from Maine.. I left 12 years ago for the warmth of Florida. Way too cold for me to dive there..

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I have thousands of dives, with and without mustache, and I have never found a mask that seals. Every now and then I have to clear, no bigie. The fogging issue is probably more about the age of the mask than the every 5 min clearing, plus if there's water in your mask just swish it around

A new reg could have changed the position of your mouth, or age may have turned the laugh lines into laugh canyons. The fogging issue could probably be helped with some/more softscrub-ing. With a teflon safe scrubbie sponge vigerously scrub the mask and repeat until fogging subsides. Plenty of divers have leaky masks, clearing often, and many of us do not have fogging issues

Of course the water is fairly warm here and your lack of profile makes guessing a large part of our answers

 

[DENNISDIVES]

It's possible that you have unknowingly changed your exhalation pattern and are now exhaling through your nose. As you exhale through your nose small oprnings may happen at the bottom of you mask. Could also explain the fogging problem

 

[Benny-c]

Try lower or raise the mask strap behind your head, this may be a simple solution-it always works for me. If my mask is leaking it is always the fact that I have positioned the strap 'too high' at the rear of my head.

Benny

 

[banna]

I think that might be it. I have found myself exhaling through my nose more than I normally do, not sure why. I am diving on Saturday and will make an effort to exhale through my reg...

 

[TimAZ]

A few divers with similar problems have said good things to me about the Mares Liquid Skin mask.

 

[DoubleDDiver]

maybe your face is shrinking.... tee hee!

 

[friscuba]

Fitting masks can be somewhat of an art. Even a lot of stores will use the snort and see if it sticks method and that just doesn't really cut it most of the time. I had a manager at a shop I worked at show me in two minutes how to fit a mask and my returns went from fairly frequent to almost nil.

Basic gist is there's lots of skirts out there, if you gently touch a mask to your face and stop the moment it first touches any part of your face:

If it touches below the nose and on the forehead but not elsewhere, it's too wide. If it touches on the sides on your cheeks or temple, but not below the nose and on the forehead at the same time, it's too narrow. In an ideal world it'll touch everywhere at the exact same time without pressure, then you look at the smile lines, cheek and temple dimples, the spot at the back of the orbits of your eye sockets, etc for gaps, looking to make sure there are none, and you should be able to improve the chances it'll not leak underwater. Remember, don't press it on to your face and don't inhale through your nose when you are checking, you are checking to see if the skirt matches the shape of your face. You can also try looking straight upward and see if the weight of the mask alone, do not press down, creates a seal with the tiniest of inhalations. You may have to try a heck of a lot of masks before you find the right one. If it's the smile lines that are a problem, some masks have skirts that drop more downward than others and cover the cheekbones better.

Moustaches can be problematic, but for most people, if you try enough masks you can find one that has the skirt for your face, and even with a moustache leakage will be reduced over an ill fitting mask. Worse comes to worse, you could just learn to tolerate an inch of water in your mask - I did that for a number of years before learning how to look for a good fitting mask.

Good luck.

 

[BuoyantC]

DENNISDIVES is on to something. The fogging is a good hint that you are breathing through your nose. The warm moist breath fogs the lens, and the exhausting bubbles allow in water. Try paying attention to your breathing next dive before you invest in liquid nails, goop, new masks or whatever.

Also if you have facial hair, just make sure you don't leave stubble. If you trim around your beard or mustache, stubble is hard to seal against.

Dennis