Open Water Training - Water in mask/mask off drill

[LavaSurfer]

Ross,

You’re doing the right things. You’re asking questions and being cautious.
The reason you are in a pool and not in the open ocean is to make these mistakes in a safe environment and learn from them.
I won’t touch on the AGE nor the BC issue as its all been covered rather nicely.

I will touch on the water in the nose and face issue.
My wife had a horrible time with this. She truly believed that she would never master the mask off under water and saw this as some sort of defect because every time water hit her nose she started to panic and filled her nostrils full of water. This is a natural reaction to water on the face. It’s the brains way of telling us we are no longer fish and can’t breath under water. There are a few tricks to unlearning this natural reaction.

First, just good old practice. In time you will overcome the uncomfortable feelings.

Second, head positioning is critical in the beginning. To clear your mask you need to be looking up at about 10-15 degrees to get a good clear. The problem with that is that looking up allows the air trapped in your nose to escape and be replaced with water. The minute the water enters, your brain goes into reaction. I tell students I work with in the pool to lower themselves in the water with their nose openings as level to the water as possible and then slowly breath out. I have a hard time with this so I hum. Humming seems to work 99% of the time. Use a snorkel and breathe in your mouth and then hum out your nose. Once you get the process down then add to that a head tilt while you are humming out your nose. Before you run out of air, reposition your nose so that it is level again. This action keeps the air bubbles in your nose until you are ready to hum again. After some practice you will master the mechanics of this and be able to add the skill of donning your mask and clearing it while humming. I wish I could demonstrate this to you but it does work. If I wasn’t clear enough, let me know and I will try again.

Scooter

 

[Walter]

This is usually easily solved. Go to this post for details.

 

[TSandM]

Ross, as someone has already said, mask issues are really common, and you can work through them. You've got a bunch of good information already on how to do it.

Buoyancy, at least for me, was NOT trivial to learn. Getting the hang of the tiny adjustments you need to make in order not to go shooting to the surface took quite a long time. And it's hardest in the pool . . . remember, you're in that surface-to-thirty-feet bubble where the proportional changes in pressure are the greatest with any given change in depth, so you really have to ANTICIPATE what's going on, and in the beginning, you just can't do that. You haven't learned to feel the cues. One tip -- when you add a little bit of air to the BC, the change in buoyancy will be GRADUAL. Do not fall into the trap of adding some, not seeing an immediate change, and adding a bunch more -- or doing the same with venting, either. You really have to be patient and wait a few seconds to see if you are now sinking or rising. And it definitely takes practice, which is why you start in the pool.

You might get a chuckle (and some moral support) out of reading my journal of my OW class. I had a bunch of the same problems.

 

[RossT]

This is usually easily solved. Go to this post for details.

Hey Walter. GREAT explaination. I might not have time to do this between now and my next pool session tonight,but i think i might just jump in the shallow end before the session and try it out for 30 mintues prior to class or something. Thank you so much for writing that for Jennifer and linking for me

Best wishes,
Ross

 

[Walter]

You're welcome.

 

[DandyDon]

Hey, Ross - it sounds like you have some healthy fears, which can be tuned into good cautions. Should make you into a careful diver. And you're getting some great advice here, especially from the Insts.

Any advice? Also i had a mishap with pushing the BCD inflator button at like 15 ft... went straight to the top. We are practicing in a 20 foot pool (shallow end for the mask stuff). Reading all the PADI book has me scared of DCS and stuff like that -- please reassure me nothing can happen in a 20 ft pool as long as i keep breathing??

I think we all have gotten the inflator button and the deflator button confused and done our cork impressions. This is why I never use the deflator button unless I have already used the dump - trying to get just a little more air out of the BC. I guess there is good reason for teaching newbies to use the deflator rather than the dump, but even with minor releases of air for buoyancy adjustment, I prefer small dumps.

I don't think you have any risk at all for the bends from a 20 ft deep pool and very little for embolisms as long as your breathing and not holding your breath. Don't look for new worries.

 

[RossT]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you all for the help!! I finally did it today. I practiced by breathing through the regulator and dunking my head, pending at the torso first, then went on to going straight down vertically into the water with NO mask on. I did those drills with no mask to get used to the bubbles around my eyes and nose and the feel for it all. Then I went down with a mask full of water and cleared it!!! I could do it!! Then i went down with a clear mask and filled it with water and I could clear that. Then, then ultimate, going down with a clear mask, then taking it all the way off, replacing it, and clearing it. Perfect!!! My instructor, who knew i was having problems with it, came over in the end and ripped my mask off in the deep end "at depth" to test me, i didn't panic, i took a few breaths actually before replacing the mask, cleared it twice to get all the water out and it was perfect.

My whole class was proud of me for completing everything, and I was especially proud of myself for doing everything.

I really want to thank everyone on the forum who took their time to help me through this. It was a huge help and I don't think I would have gotten through it without you, seriously.

Thank you,
Ross

 

[DandyDon]

:medal: Way to go...!!

Been wondering about you and this. Glad it worked out, but with your determination, it was only a matter of time and practice. Good job!

 

[spectrum]

Bravo!
I love happy endings!
Pete

 

[Walter]

Congratulations! Don't forget to practice this skill often as long as you dive. It's not a skill you want to have to relearn. It's the hardest skill most divers ever learn, everything else is a snap.