Mask Filling

[lorien]

(Referring to Daryl's response):

Hello !!?? Is this thing on ??? Hello ??

LOL, I think so
Anyway, I think if a person is freaking out over the fact that their mask flooded they are probably not too likely to calmly think of pinching off their nose before bolting for the surface. It would certainly be better to pinch off ones nose and take a breath or 2 to calm down then clear ones mask than to bolt. However, if they are that freaked out they probably just will not be thinking clearly enough to consider it. Yes they should be trained to clear their mask, yes they should be comfortable with it, sadly in the real world sometimes people freak out & panic sets in regardless.

 

[Mick_O]

Yes they should be trained to clear their mask, yes they should be comfortable with it, sadly in the real world sometimes people freak out & panic sets in regardless.

Absolutely Actually, my experience comes from a somewhat chilly dive I did in Sweden many many years ago. The OW cert dive was done in a lake with ~5' viz, and the water was a balmy 36F. Of course, we had to do our mandatory mask fills, mask removal, and let me tell you - although the rest of your face is pretty good and numb by the time you hit 20' (drysuit, hood, gloves), having that FREEZING water hit the rest of your face - well, it made me gasp, and think to myself "Why am I doing this again?" However, once that was done, we did a swimabout for 15-20 minutes or so, and then it all made sense again!

 

[downdeep]

Funny Alex - I held my nose when I read your joke. YUK YUK YUK.

come on sink the stink.

 

[Daryl Morse]

(Referring to Daryl's response):

Hello !!?? Is this thing on ??? Hello ??

Feeling like a bit of a Smart Alec, huh?

What can I say, I guess I just don't see the point behind holding your nose rather than just tending to the problem. YMMV.

 

[Lead_carrier]

Hold on, guys, I agree. I realize there's procedures for dealing with a leaky or filling mask. That's not what I'm asking though. What I'm asking is technically whether there's a physical reason why you can't hold your nose during the dive.

I'm also suggesting that as an immediate measure, if someone's mask starts filling, holding their nose might give them time to gain their composure so that they don't immediately freak and bolt for the surface. Of course they should be comfortable with breathing with a filled mask, but obviously some folks still freak.

Holding your nose for the entire dive is totally UNpractical, but everyone doesn't dive the same. There is no rules that says you can't. And no scubapolice to enforce it if there was a rule against it, the same as many other rules that are consistently broken.

IF grabbing your nose to regain your composure after your mask floods keeps you calm, as far as I'm concerned, DO IT. I'm sure I'll catch all sorts of flak about it but so be it. If anyone can show me where that breaks a rule or goes against agency standards I'd love to see it.

 

[mccabejc]

Daryl, the original question (holding one's nose for an entire dive) was a hypothetical. An intellectual exercise. A question for discussion, not necessarily for application.

It arose because I'm the kind of guy who thinks about dive contingencies a lot, how I would handle them, and what my limitations would be in each situation. And I also know that what people say they would do in a certain situation, and their actual response when faced with the situation, can be VERY different.

It's easy for someone to say "anyone who can't handle a leaky mask shouldn't have a C card", but I guarantee you that there are a significant number of divers out there (maybe even some of us...) who have not practiced their response to a suddenly leaky mask since they got certified. And I guarantee that some of those divers would panic and bolt if it actually happened.

When I got my certification, I had an incident while doing my first mask clearing where I got a slug of water up my nose, and I freaked. Luckily I was in a shallow pool. But since then I've practiced and practiced in my swimming pool so that it's no longer an issue. I had to get my mind to accept that you can be underwater, with your nose exposed, and your brain automatically ensures that you don't breathe thru your nose and suck in a slug of water. But it's not a natural instinct. In fact it's counter-instinctive. So for a lot of people, when you see the water level in your mask coming up to your eyes, it's pretty easy to instinctively assume that the automatic valving in your throat won't work this one time, and your next breath will be thru your nose.

So I was thinking that if I plan beforehand, just in case, to have an immediate response to the situation which would give me some time to calm down if I was to freak, then that would be a good thing. Can't hurt, and possibly could help a lot. Dive safety is all about planning and being prepared for stuff that will probably never happen. In my view, just having considered the contingency and developing a plan to address it goes a very long way towards preventing a freak.

So I have added this to my long list of "if X happens, immediately do Y" scuba diving contingencies. And the logical extension of this line of reasoning is to figure out the limitations of this procedure. Hence my the intellectual exercise of wondering how long you could keep it up.

After all, a man has got to know his limitations.