Mask skills

[cmarkham5]

Hello all! I am not yet certified but rather in training. I have a question about my mask skills. Well, rather hoping someone may have a tip that might help me out.

First of all, i am a nose breather. LOL I read alot of women have trouble with this very skill when they are.

So I practiced in the bathtub with my snorkel and finally overcame my toughest challenge. Breathing without my mask. I did it! i can breathe underwater without my mask, I can swim without my mask and breathe on my reg, i can put my mask ON underwater. But for some dumb reason when i try to take my mask OFF underwater i get water up my nose! I try to blow bubbles out of my nose. That didnt really help. I tried flooding my mask entirely before taking it off, no go. I think it has something to do with the suction pushing water up my nose and i just cant figure out how to make it not do that!

Does anyone have a trick for that? Has anyone else had or heard of that problem? I feel like such a noob! I can do everything else BUT that.

Thanks in advance!
Chris

 

[TMHeimer]

I'm not a fan of keeping water out by blowing air out the nose--or by "not looking up" while maskless. These things can work, but not the best solutions IMO. There are quite a few threads on mask skills, which seem to be the most difficult ones for a lot of people. Your problem as I see it is you aren't closing off the passage that leads into the nose. I believe it's called the glottis (maybe that's the one in the throat, but it's all connected anyway). Someone recently posted a method--you blow air into your cheeks, hold it there (puffed out cheeks), then let it out only through the nose (just that air from the cheeks, not other air already in your lungs). This will alert you to where the "glottis" thing is. Once you can control opening and shutting that, you can completely seal off water from entering the nose passages when removing a mask, or at any time. Of course water will always be in the nostrils when you are maskless, but that does nothing--same thing as when just swimming. Another idea is just play around with all the airways-breathe in nose, out mouth, vice versa, mix it up. Airway control is the big thing. Good luck with it.

 

[pdhenry]

One thing I noticed is that when I'm breathing from a regulator the incoming air has higher pressure than when I'm breathing through a snorkel. This helps keep the air from coming in my nose as I inhale through the regulator. There's also a bit of resistance when I exhale through the regulator and that helps keep water from coming up my nose.

Frankly the first time I tried to breathe without a mask I felt like I had to hold my nose to keep from inhaling water, and the in-through-the-regulator, out-through-the-nose breathing method didn't help (if I got flustered I'd forget not to breathe in through my nose after exhaling through my nose).

As someone just going through the same lessons (maybe a week or two ahead of you) my advice is to focus on the skills in the water with a regulator since they'll be different enough from a snorkel (you can really feel the difference when you switch between regulator breathing and snorkel breathing with your head in the water)

 

[Akimbo]

Do you have any trouble getting water up your nose when you swim underwater without any gear? Do you feel like you are an confident swimmer?

 

[PatW]

I understand that many new divers do not like getting their faces wet. Also, many have exactly the problem you mention.

I come from a swimming background, so keeping water from going up my nose was something I learned years and years ago. I was taught to stand in waist deep water. Put my face into the water and blow bubbles. After awhile, you learn how to put just the right amount of air pressure in your nose. What that does, is you are not breathing out but you have enough pressure to keep water from coming in.

Learning mask clearing and taking the mask on and off underwater are critical skills. A surprising number of certified divers never really master this skill. They just do well enough to skirt by getting certified.

The skill is not that hard to pick up. It is really something that every diver should have mastered.

 

[AfterDark]

Try breaking the seal at the top of the mask so the water flows from the top down not the bottom up....up your nose.

 

[NorthernLights]

I had a similar problem in my OW training. I absolutely could not master the mask clearing step. I can snorkel, swim, do anything else, but when my mask would start to fill with water I would become terrified under water. It was psychological, and fortunately I had a patient DM who worked with me over and over until I finally got it. For me I just had to convince myself that I could rely on the regulator and not my nose. Once I came to realize that, it finally clicked. Maybe to begin with you should try nose plugs until you get comfortable.

 

[cmarkham5]

i am an excellent swimmer however have never been able to swim without holding, plugging or wearing nose plugs. i have and i dont remember what its called but one side of my nose is wide open not like the other where there's a "shelf" to pass by blocking part way. i have never been able to keep water out of my nose. i did the rest of the skills just fine i just dont get what taking the mask OFF is doing to mess me up. lol

i am practicing with my regulator, the only thing i used my snorkel for was to learn to breathe without getting a nose full of water.

it does not scare me... it just shoots up my nose when i pull my mask off. i tried breaking the seal at the top and flooding the mask, then pulling it off too. lol that didnt work either.

i can put it ON just fine under water and clear it. its just the off part that chokes me up the nose. lol it's driving me batty. i am going to go back to the pool to practice. i just hopped others had similar experience or tips that might work.

 

[RJP]

Have you tried going ULTRA slow? Mask skills are not a timed exercise. So many student attempt to break the record for fastest removal/replacement, when there's no need. Fill the mask with water, take as many breaths as you need to get comfortable with the water in your mask, then remove it slowly. Painfully slowly, if you must. No need to "pull it off" really. Slide it up your face little by little if you want.

 

[Akimbo]

i am an excellent swimmer however have never been able to swim without holding, plugging or wearing nose plugs. i have and i dont remember what its called but one side of my nose is wide open not like the other where there's a "shelf" to pass by blocking part way. i have never been able to keep water out of my nose. ...

Interesting, that human variant is new to me. Just brainstorming: How about wearing a light nose clip? One that just pinches your nose hard enough to keep water out but not enough to prevent blowing air out with light pressure? You might need an old-school high-volume mask without a nose-pocket to make it fit though.

It might be worth researching the name of your variant and Google it and “diving”. Somebody out there has a solution.