Mask won't clear...What's wrong with me?

[UserNameBella]

Hi Everyone. This is my first post and I am a fairly new diver (10 dives done in total), so please be kind. Sorry for the long tale, I just want to get the best information I can....

I completed my OW pool sessions and classes in Canada and then came here to the DR to do my open water certifications. While I was doing my pool sessions I did the drills and cleared my mask no problems. I removed my mask with no problems and put it back on and cleared it. It took some time to do the mask drill, but I got it on the first "attempt" although I had to do it twice because I got all tangled in my hair. Other than the tangles, no problems.

Fast forward, I get here to do my open water for my certification. The instructor is a friend of mine. We did a quick review/demonstration of skills in my pool (it's only six feet deep) Everything went well, except that when I replaced the mask I couldn't clear the darn thing until I did it multiple times. Finally I got it clear enough to satisfy the instructor and we did our open water dives without incident. While diving I could clear the mask from a partial flood, but the fact that I couldn't replace the mask and do a full clear still nagged at me.

I went ahead and did my Advanced open water. And I learned a lot. On my last semi-deep dive (80 ft) my mask started to slip off my hair while I was ascending, and thank God I was ascending! I got it back on, but never fully cleared it, the mask would only clear an inch or so. My husband was right beside me and I only had five feet or so to go, so I just squinted ( I wear contact lenses) and went for the surface at a normal rate. Cleared the mask at the surface and swam for the boat. But it had me worried.

The other day I rented some tanks to practice some skills with a friend of mine in my pool. I wanted especially to work on this darn mask. I read every thread I could find on here on mask clearing ect. I gave it my all for about an hour, and I had to give up. I'm comfortable taking it off, my friend watched so I would know if the seals were bent up. All I got was a chlorine headache from hell.

Today I spent an hour with another instructor trying to do it. If anything I am so worked up by it that I am doing worse and worse.

So now my dive shop wisely, won't let me do any dives past twenty feet until I get over it, get past it and figure my damn mask out.

I've practiced with my snorkel, no go that way either. I can do a partial clear under the water at any depth no problem. In fact I do as soon as any water gets in, because I don't know if I can handle a full flood (okay I've proven I can't do it)

So..... Could it be my mask? I used a different mask for my pool sessions in Canada. Would one with a purge (never tried one) be easier for me? Is there any other way to get this working?
It seems like the nose part is really close to my nose, so I have to breath hard to clear or lift the actual mask unless I am at depth. I try just breathing into it and no water leaves. But if I breath hard, I get more water than I had before, so I know that isn't working.

Any advice or help is appreciated!

 

[Dive Right In Scuba 2]

First step: try a different mask. Masks are considered personal fitted equipment. Take some time and try a few different masks until you find what works for you.

 

[scubadude223]

Hey,

I dive in Canada as well and have had problems with my mask

Sometimes it was a hair that was causing the problem.

Anyways Just try a different one.

A low volume mask might be the best thing.

 

[Diver0001]

Hi Everyone. This is my first post and I am a fairly new diver (10 dives done in total), so please be kind. Sorry for the long tale, I just want to get the best information I can....

I completed my OW pool sessions and classes in Canada and then came here to the DR to do my open water certifications. While I was doing my pool sessions I did the drills and cleared my mask no problems. I removed my mask with no problems and put it back on and cleared it. It took some time to do the mask drill, but I got it on the first "attempt" although I had to do it twice because I got all tangled in my hair. Other than the tangles, no problems.

Fast forward, I get here to do my open water for my certification. The instructor is a friend of mine. We did a quick review/demonstration of skills in my pool (it's only six feet deep) Everything went well, except that when I replaced the mask I couldn't clear the darn thing until I did it multiple times. Finally I got it clear enough to satisfy the instructor and we did our open water dives without incident. While diving I could clear the mask from a partial flood, but the fact that I couldn't replace the mask and do a full clear still nagged at me.

I went ahead and did my Advanced open water. And I learned a lot. On my last semi-deep dive (80 ft) my mask started to slip off my hair while I was ascending, and thank God I was ascending! I got it back on, but never fully cleared it, the mask would only clear an inch or so. My husband was right beside me and I only had five feet or so to go, so I just squinted ( I wear contact lenses) and went for the surface at a normal rate. Cleared the mask at the surface and swam for the boat. But it had me worried.

The other day I rented some tanks to practice some skills with a friend of mine in my pool. I wanted especially to work on this darn mask. I read every thread I could find on here on mask clearing ect. I gave it my all for about an hour, and I had to give up. I'm comfortable taking it off, my friend watched so I would know if the seals were bent up. All I got was a chlorine headache from hell.

Today I spent an hour with another instructor trying to do it. If anything I am so worked up by it that I am doing worse and worse.

So now my dive shop wisely, won't let me do any dives past twenty feet until I get over it, get past it and figure my damn mask out.

I've practiced with my snorkel, no go that way either. I can do a partial clear under the water at any depth no problem. In fact I do as soon as any water gets in, because I don't know if I can handle a full flood (okay I've proven I can't do it)

So..... Could it be my mask? I used a different mask for my pool sessions in Canada. Would one with a purge (never tried one) be easier for me? Is there any other way to get this working?
It seems like the nose part is really close to my nose, so I have to breath hard to clear or lift the actual mask unless I am at depth. I try just breathing into it and no water leaves. But if I breath hard, I get more water than I had before, so I know that isn't working.

Any advice or help is appreciated!

Well....Bella,

What I'm reading in your story is very encouraging and I can tell you from experience that this is just sounds like a question of minor adjustments.

The encouraging part of this is :

- you don't mind the mask skill
- you can tolerate having your nose submerged without it causing undue stress.

It sounds like it's more of an "irritation" to you because you don't know what you're doing wrong than a "problem" in the sense that water in the mask is causing you to react with any kind of panic response.

That's the good news and means to me that you can nail this. I'm 100% convinced of that.

That leaves the question of what's wrong. What I'm about to say assumes that the mask fits right!

Obviously I haven't seen you in the water but I've been teaching diving for quite a while so I'm going to make a couple of educated guesses based on what you said.

guess #1: you are actually LIFTING the mask off of your face in order to clear it.
guess #2: you are forcefully expelling air from your nose to try to clear the mask before replacing it on your face.

If I'm right about those two things then I know exactly how you can solve this problem. If I'm right, you've been taught an inefficient technique for clearing a mask.

Next time you practice try this.

#1 VERY IMPORTANT: do NOT lift the mask off of your face. At ALL. You might be thinking,.... but how will the water get out? Well, just like when you put a straw in water and blow into it, the pressure of the air forces the water out of the straw until bubble come out. right? clearing a mask works the same way. If you exhale via your nose into the mask then the air will FORCE the water out of the mask EVEN if you don't lift it from your face. The advantage to this is that because you didn't lift the mask, no *extra* water can get back in again after you stop exhaling.

So how DO you hold the mask? simply use your hand to *lightly* hold the mask against your face. That's it. that's ALL of it.

#2 exhale *slowly* and for a *long* time. You do not have to force the water our of your mask. The air does that. All you need to do is exhale and the air does the rest. Let the air do it's work and just make sure that YOU get as MUCH air into the mask as possible in one breath.

#3 look up slightly. Even if you're swimming you can do this and as you clear the mask look up toward the surface so the mask sort of fills up like an upside down bucket. With some masks that have tear drop shaped "lobes" near your nose, like the "Cressi big eyes" then you may also have to move your head from side to side to get a little more air into the bottom of the lobes as you exhale.

That's it. It's a technique you probably haven't tried yet. I'd put 10 bucks on the bet that if you try it exactly as I described it that you'll get it right on the first or second try and you'll have it nailed with 10 minutes of practice.

R..

 

[UserNameBella]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Diver0001- It only clears when I lift the mask or blow forcefully, but it doesn't fully clear that way.

I'm going to rent another tank tomorrow and try every mask I have at my disposal. Oh yes, I do have a panic response after the tenth try and the frustration sets in and I take a nose full of water after the fifteenth blow. But, Panic underwater while deep? Never. Something about the bubbles soothes my soul....

Wish me luck in the pool tomorrow! At the very least the maintenance guy thinks my pool diving is awesome.

 

[Diver0001]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Diver0001- It only clears when I lift the mask or blow forcefully, but it doesn't fully clear that way.

If I were your instructor THIS is EXACTLY what I would fix.

Now I'm more convinced of it than I was before. Your problem is that you haven't been taught an efficient technique.

Promise me that you'll at least *try* what I suggested. If you can't get it to work, fine. But it may also give you you're "Eureka" moment.

R..

 

[Keith.M]

Listen to Diver0001 and give it a shot.

You definitely do NOT want to blow hard! Even if everything is right, the mask fits, no hair and you are not pulling the mask off of your face, the forceful blow from your nose can just force the air right out your nose and out the lower portion of the mask under your nose.

By blowing slowly the air does not sneak out the bottom and instead goes to the inside top of the mask. The more you blow, that air volume increases and pushes the water out below.

You should be able to hold the top center of the mask with the touch of one finger, slowly blow from your nose and then tilt your head back to get all the water cleared.

Some people can do this so efficiently that they can stop at the moment that all water is cleared and not a bubble of air escapes from the mask while clearing a fully flooded mask.

 

[UserNameBella]

I will take retorners advice and give it a go. Hopefully I get a tank for some pool time tomorrow.

 

[jcaplins]

Would you say your mask leaks a lot?

If it leaks a lot and requires a very forceful blast of air out your nose to clear it, then I would think your mask strap is too tight. It shouldn't be tight at all, but barely snug.

I would try Diver0001's advise, and try it without using the mask strap. You will need to very gently hold the mask to your face while exhaling through your nose.
Good luck.

 

[UserNameBella]

Would you say your mask leaks a lot?

If it leaks a lot and requires a very forceful blast of air out your nose to clear it, then I would think your mask strap is too tight. It shouldn't be tight at all, but barely snug.

I would try Diver0001's advise, and try it without using the mask strap. You will need to very gently hold the mask to your face while exhaling through your nose.
Good luck.

This particular mask never leaks. I might get a little water in my nose area which clears easily. What I need to be able to do is a fully flooded mask clear after removing and replacing the mask.

Update- I found my old mask which I used for all my pool sessions in Canada. The nose area is definitely larger...maybe the mask I am using has too small of a nose area? I have a bigger nose, but not huge. It might be it, because when I do blow into the mask it just makes the water inside it bubble, not leave (which actually sucks, it goes up my nose!)

The mask I used in Canada for the pool work is the exact same with a larger nose area....I am going to try it tomorrow in the pool. I'm a perfectionist in a way so not being able to do the removal and replacement of a mask is bugging me big time, plus I don't think it's a safe way to dive.

Wish me luck!