Black Eyes

[matchew]

I'm quite new to diving, I've done about 20 dives.
Every time I do a dive I come up with black eyes, they are like love bites round my eyes, lots of little red pimples. I've tried 3 different masks and they all fit perfectly, but its still happens.
Any ideas?

 

[Scottri]

Sounds like mask squeeze to me. You may try exhaling through your nose more often to equalize the air space in your mask.


Scott

 

[Ber Rabbit]

The red spots sound like ruptured capillaries. Is the white of your eye turning red too?

This condition is caused by the vacuum that is formed in your mask as you descend. It's a lot like a hickey, the mask is sucking on your face and pulling the blood to the surface. You won't necessarily feel it happening either although you may feel an uncomfortable constriction of your mask on your face.

Make sure your mask strap isn't too tight, have your LDS or an experienced diver help you with this if you haven't already done that. If the skirt of the mask is cranked down against your nostrils a slight exhalation may be ineffective at relieving the pressure of the mask. Now, as Scott said you need to remember to exhale through your nose OFTEN. While descending this can be as often as exhaling part of every breath through your nose. Once you reach your desired depth you can still exhale part of every breath into your mask although it's not necessary to do it that often if you're done descending.

Hope this helps! Keep us posted on what works for you!
Ber

 

[jbd]

what they said. Equalizing your mask is like equalizing your ears--do it early and often.

 

[KBeck]

The posts above have got the definition for you.

I'll just add that I sometimes find that I can't fix a mask squeeze just by blowing out with my nose, as they've suggested above.

There are times when I simply have to actually lift the mask off my face (just a tiny bit, not so I wind up with a flooded mask or anything) in order to relieve the squeeze. But I only do that if blowing out through my nose a few times doesn't do the job.

And, as jbd said, do it early and often. Once you feel the squeeze happening, it's usually too late. (I wind up with the red dots on my eyelids a lot).

 

[diverbrian]

I am an "experienced" diver who had the misfortune of changing masks on my first deep dives for a deco class. I ran into the same problems that you did.

My situation was solved immediately by shifting back to a high volume mask from the low volume that I was using that day. Yes, I did equalize by blowing out my nose that day. No, it didn't work like it has a million times before. Once the mask started squeezing, all I was doing was blowing air out the bottom of the nose of the mask as it was already stuck to my face.

My humble opinion, look into getting a new mask that gives you a little more leeway before collapsing into your eyes. Failing that, be prepared to equalize your mask very frequently.

Safe diving!