Ascent without a mask

SCUBASailor · Dec 26, 2009

As a new rec diver, I can easily remove my mask, drop it, and retrieve it. It burns, but is perfectly do-able. On a dive, deep or shallow, could you do an ascent without a mask at all, or does the salt have a cumulative discomforting effect on the eyes?

Walter · Dec 26, 2009

Dive for a few minutes on each dive without your mask. It won't be too long before the sea water stops burning your eyes. My eyes used to burn when I took off my mask, but that stopped long ago.

Garrobo · Dec 26, 2009

What Walter said.

Jax · Dec 26, 2009

No cumulative effect. Masks are so you can see things in the water because your eyes evolved looking through air. Might want to be concerned about biological contaminents -- could get an infection.

tfsails · Dec 26, 2009

My worst fear is that one or both of my contacts might float away, but that's not a big fear. I had a mask come off at about 100' off Hatteras one time and both lenses stayed in. I was really surprised at that. Got the mask reinstalled and it worked just fine. Very little residual burning from saltwater immersion.

SCUBASailor · Dec 26, 2009

Jax:
No cumulative effect. Masks are so you can see things in the water because your eyes evolved looking through air. Might want to be concerned about biological contaminents -- could get an infection.

Yes, when I see the plankton floating by, I wonder what's getting into my eyes that I can't see.

CamG · Dec 26, 2009

Greetings SCUBAsailor and like the others have mentioned your eyes will become accustomed to water but your vision will be blurry at best. I have tried to master the hand cup technique, you trap some expelled air in a cupped hand to look through so to speak. This technique is the third option only if "both" of your masks are lost or broken.
Your primary and back-up and it your buddies back up is not available to borrow. It is important to communicate to your buddy and know where each others back up masks are and practice deployment. If you are on your own or not close to your buddy you need to be able to control your ascents, this would merit some focused training and mastery. I am glad for your post because it encourages me to continue and focus my training skills. Good luck and great question.
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!

ZapDiver · Dec 26, 2009

I love to take out my mask underwater so I appear more "like me" in the pictures someone take me. At the beggining it burned a little, but now I feel no discomfort at all, I gess your eye get used to it little by little, so it would be a good idea to do as Walter said, an d in case you ever need to complete a dive without your mask you'll be more confortable and stress free.

TSandM · Dec 26, 2009

I find my eyes rapidly adapt to both the temperature and the salinity. And doing an ascent without a mask is really quite easy if you have a good buddy to give you signals as to where to slow down and stop, or to go up or down.

dkktsunami · Dec 26, 2009

tfsails:
My worst fear is that one or both of my contacts might float away, but that's not a big fear. I had a mask come off at about 100' off Hatteras one time and both lenses stayed in. I was really surprised at that. Got the mask reinstalled and it worked just fine. Very little residual burning from saltwater immersion.

I had a mask lense fall out when I equalized - I was about 30' below the unmoored dive boat. My first reaction was to close my eyes to save my contact lenses. It didn't take too long to realize that swimming blindly wasn't gonna work very well. Lost one contact, dm gave me a spare mask, did the dive anyway.

Ascent without a mask

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SCUBASailor

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Walter

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Garrobo

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Jax

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tfsails

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SCUBASailor

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CamG

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ZapDiver

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TSandM

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dkktsunami

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