First confined water dive

[mhattenhauer]

Just finished my first pool session. We covered a lot of material, but I had a blast once I got over the initial jitters of breathing under water. The only issues I had was removing my mask and replacing, took a couple tries to get it. First time I sucked water up my nose and choked a little. The other was that I couldn't keep my mask from fogging up. All in all I enjoyed the class and look forward to the next one.

 

[NorCalDM]

Glad you enjoyed your class! For your mask if it is new make sure you clean the lens with something like sea buff or plain toothpaste it will get the residue from manufacturing off it, clean it a few times. The chlorine in the pool wil strip the defog from your mask as well so you will need to reapply several times during class or just keep letting some water in to clear it. Have fun!!

 

[azmodan50]

Congrats on your first pool session. I still remember how weird it was the first time breathing underwater 20 years ago. Removing and replacing your mask gets easier, especially once you master not breathing through your nose.

For the foggy mask, like NorCalDM said, let a little bit of water in your mask to clear the fog underwater. I let a very small amount in and move my head so the water gets to every part of the mask.

 

[mhattenhauer]

Thanks for the tips y'all. I cleaned the mask but not well apparently. I'll give it another good cleaning before the next session. I'm ready to get back in the water!

 

[tech_diver]

In all the years of being an instructor, I found the question I got asked from students the most was nothing about decompression theory, partial pressures or equipment configurations. It was, "How do I keep water from going up my nose?"

I never really had a procedural answer in terms of 'just do this.' I think the exercise that helped the most was snorkel breathing without a mask. Put your face in the water with no mask and breath through a snorkel. Eventually, you will become a scuba diving, mouth breather.

 

[mhattenhauer]

Thanks tech_diver. There were a couple of us that had a bit of trouble and that is what our instructor had us do except with regulator instead of snorkel. It took a few minutes to get the hang of it. Once getting use to it on the surface I was able to do it without a problem. On the upside I found out that coughing into a regulator is no big deal. Lol

 

[TSandM]

I have a couple of tips on the mask thing . . . first off, the instructions for clearing your mask usually say to tip your head back. This is quite true if you are lying down, but if you are sitting up and tip your head back, what you do is make gravity cause the water in the mask to run down the floor of your nasal passage into your throat. I don't believe that students should ever be sitting or kneeling during classes, but if that's the position you're in, if you tilt your face VERY slightly FORWARD, it will keep the water out of your nose.

If that wasn't the problem, an exercise on airway control might help, one that I got from somebody here on SB: As you are sitting at your computer, close your lips and blow your cheeks up like a chipmunk's. Now, relax and let the air in your mouth go out your nose. Practice inflating your cheeks and releasing through your nose until you can FEEL the change you make in your throat to do that. Once you can close off your nasopharynx effectively, you will no longer try to inhale water through your nose.

Foggy masks seem to be an almost universal issue on the first night in the pool. You really have to scrub the mask thoroughly and carefully with toothpaste to get rid of the coating it starts out with.

 

[RJP]

You really have to scrub the mask thoroughly and carefully with toothpaste to get rid of the coating it starts out with.

Note: you really need to use a WHITE tooth PASTE and not one of those colored gels.

Plain ol' Colgate works best in my experience.

The purpose of scrubbing with toothpaste is to clean the mask surface of impurities that will allow vapor to condense. The gels and such don't have as much "grit" to them.

 

[mhattenhauer]

Note: you really need to use a WHITE tooth PASTE and not one of those colored gels.

Plain ol' Colgate works best in my experience.

The purpose of scrubbing with toothpaste is to clean the mask surface of impurities that will allow vapor to condense. The gels and such don't have as much "grit" to them.

Note: you really need to use a WHITE tooth PASTE and not one of those colored gels.

Plain ol' Colgate works best in my experience.

The purpose of scrubbing with toothpaste is to clean the mask surface of impurities that will allow vapor to condense. The gels and such don't have as much "grit" to them.

Thanks for the tip! I will scrub the heck out of it before the next class. I can see the film on my mask. The whole breathing strictly through the mouth takes a lot of concentration, but I think it'll get easier with practice.

 

[stuartv]

Just FYI, some mask manufacturers specifically recommend to NOT use toothpaste or anything else even mildly abrasive.

I just got some new SeaVision masks and their directions forbid toothpaste. They say something like that it will strip the anti-fog coating that is on the lens. They recommend to just clean it very thoroughly with Sea Drops (which they include with the mask) or some other liquid soap prior to first use.