How to expell water from your mask.

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namerg

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Hello all, I have been reading the PADI OW Dive manual and they state all the time that never ever hold my breath.

So, if you are in constant and slowly breathing (In and Out) through your mouth/regulator and something happened and your mask fills of water.

Do I breath in through my mouth/regulator then forcefully expel the air through my nose to take the water out? and continue breathing with the regulator/mouth ?

Thanks thank for your help,
G
 
Namerg - when are you taking your OW class? This will all be covered in class. Yes but it does not need to be forceful...
 
Namerg - when are you taking your OW class? This will all be covered in class. Yes but it does not need to be forceful...
I am taking it on Nov 22nd but obviously while watching the DVD and the never ever hold your breath and the water in mask...made me think...you know

I guess would be little difficult to practice that in a pool with a mask and snorkel, right ?
 
Take the class(es) then ask the questions.....--it'll all wind up being very simple, that even a 10 YO can understand..........good luck in your future diving endeavors....

EDIT:..your return post to a response(#3) just showed up to me after I posted my response......This is the way I think of the holding your breath thingy-------how often in a day do you go around holding your breath(except on purpose)???........Probably never...kinda the same in SCUBA ie it's all a natural thing as far as I'm concerned......again, good luck in your upcoming classes......
 
Holding your breath doesn't mean what you think it means. Your epiglottis, the flap that switches your throat from esophagus to trachea is stronger than your lungs. Meaning if you hold your breath, which for most people means closing your epiglottis, it can cause a lung overexpansion injury if you ascent over too large of a pressure gradient. I.e. take a full breath on scuba to where you can't fit any more air in, hold it in with your epiglottis closed and ascent from about 7-10 feet, your lungs will explode *literally explode, your lungs can't take much pressure, which is why there are a whole lot of dangers about positive pressure regulators and no breathing victims, which if you ever take an O2 delivery course for CPR/First Aid etc, they will explain all of that* and you will die, game over.

Don't do that. That doesn't mean you have to have a constant inhale exhale, just means don't close your throat. If you are sitting down, start to exhale and then stop the exhale, most people will raise the back of their tongue a bit, and it will feel like the beginning of a cough, which means your epiglottis is closed. Now, inhale, and stop inhaling, if you move a little bit air will either come in or go out naturally with your bodies motion, your epiglottis is open and life is good. This is the feeling you want to maintain on scuba.

For mask exhalations, you inhale normally, tip your head back, crack the bottom of the mask ever so slightly and exhale quite slowly from your nose. If you do it with any sort of force it will just blow the water around and not purge it, this is why you don't want to open the bottom of the mask too much, bad news bears. Think of a hose with pressure trying to fill a bucket, splashes around everywhere, but if the hose is turned down in pressure, then it just fills the bucket nice and easy.

With our students we make them watch the water lever in their mask go down quite slowly, takes lots of practice to learn to do right. The other fun exhalation drill is making them with masks off exhale so slowly that one bubble comes out of one nostril, then the next bubble comes out of the other one and it goes back and forth. Disclaimer to that, university class, so we have a lot more time to make them good at skills like that.


Disclaimer: no actual medical advice given, but really, don't hold your breath
 
I guess would be little difficult to practice that in a pool with a mask and snorkel, right ?

Tbone is correct you will get it...

That said you could try it with a snorkel if you are so inclined but I generally hold the top of my mask and blow through my nose - the water will go down - you could try that but I am not sure that you need to be perfect prior to the class.
Breathing with a regulator and clearing a mask is easier in my opinion than to try it with a snorkel. Why? Because I am generally head down (eyes looking down) with a snorkel and head up (eyes looking straight ahead) on scuba. So the water may not get all expelled on a snorkel but you will get the idea.
Hope that helps.
 
I wondered about that before the OW course as well. Tried it in the ocean while snorkelling, but couldn't get it to go. The biggest problem I've seen is some will exhale some through the mouth at the same time instead of just the nose (they are "mouth" breathers).
 
Sometimes I wonder how we who got certified before the Internet existed ever managed to do so without the ability to ask questions before we showed up to our first day of class.
 
Well, thank you, thank you very much. I will let you know how it goes.
 
I am taking it on Nov 22nd but obviously while watching the DVD and the never ever hold your breath and the water in mask...made me think...you know

I guess would be little difficult to practice that in a pool with a mask and snorkel, right ?

Actually it is not. Before I can put students on scuba they have to toss their mask in the deep end of the pool. Swim 40 ft underwater to it with fins on and put the mask on. After they do this they need to have the mask clear and the snorkel breathable when their head breaks the surface. This is also an exercise in my snorkeling and skin diving sessions for kids. I have 8 yr olds doing it. Due to their smaller lungs I do cut the distance though to 25 feet.
The trick is to keep moving and clear the mask first and use the remaining air to clear the snorkel on the way up. I learned to do this on my own as a kid. Guess I was about 9 or 10 at the time.
 
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