Epilepsy and Full Face Mask

[John C. Ratliff]

Antattack, 'sounds like you have a great buddy. One thought I have is that if he elects not to wear the FFM, that he use a fairly tight neck strap on his mouthpiece. Vintage divers used these for years, and they work pretty well. Fred Roberts, who wrote the book Basic Scuba, wore one when he was testing a regulator in 1955. Fred took a DESCO double hose regulator to 380 feet, and he stated:

...I took one other precaution. I attached a strap to the mouthpiece to make sure that in case of "blackout" it could not be lost. The thought of passing out and drowning in the closedtank before they could open the hatch was not pleasant. Later you will note that this was not a wasted effort...

...It is surprising how fast one can get into trouble in this business. Only eight and a half minutes from the time I left the surface I had reached 380 feet and was completely unconscious from nitrogen narcosis. But that is ahead of the story. Here is the actual account written shortly after the completion of this deep compressed air simulated dive...

SeaRat