mask remove/replace technique - newbie-itis revealed

[g1138]

You actually have to close off your Soft Palate, which is the passageway between your nose and throat. This will keep you from inhaling water down your nose. Closing the Soft Palate will effectively make your only airway through your mouth.

The Epiglottis is the valve in your throat that is responsible for holding your breath. Often times, people naturally make the habit of linking these two valves in their voluntary muscle movements. Kinda like people who can't raise one eyebrow independently.

There's a technique to gain independent control of each.
Cover your mouth with your hand and breath out only through your mouth. Your cheeks should puff up and you should not have any air coming from your nose. Release your hand and without pause, air should escape from your mouth.

Repeat this but now swap to your nose. You should feel a jolt behind your uvula, the dangly thing in the back of your throat. If there's no jolt, then you held your breath before making the swap. (meaning you stopped and simultaneously opened both your soft palate and epiglottis).
You're looking for that jolt.

Go back and swap between releasing from your mouth and nose. Speed up as you get the hang of it and eventually you should be able independently control each. You can then apply that for when you take off your mask.

 

[Ricky B]

Go back and swap between releasing from your mouth and nose.

Swap what exactly? I'm having trouble understanding (and getting the jolt).

 

[Steve_C]

When swimming say a crawl, you inhale to the side and exhale into the water with your nose in the water. No water should go up your nose.

I know that this will raise all sorts of flack but I have a purge mix. If it fogs a bit I just let in a little water and exhale through the nose to clear it. Has the advantage I do not have to lift the head etc when cruising along looking down for stuff.

Anyway, the point is you can practice with your mask on at first. Just exhale through the nose. Once that is natural do it with the mask off.

 

[TSandM]

The exercise is inhaling and holding your breath while allowing the pressure to puff out your cheeks. Then you suddenly let the air out through your nose. You feel a change in the back of your throat -- it is the rerouting of the air between your mouth and your nose. This is opposed to holding your breath and relaxing WITHOUT puffing out your cheeks, which is the closure of the glottis. You feel that much deeper in your throat.

To the OP: You don't need to exhale through your nose if your face is not tilted back behind the vertical plane. The problem is that mask skills are often taught kneeling, and students are taught to tilt the head back. Tilting the head back is NECESSARY if you are horizontal and looking down at the sea floor, but it is a recipe for choking when you are kneeling on the bottom of the pool. The lesson is not to exhale through the nose. The lesson is NOT TO KNEEL WHILE DIVING!

 

[TMHeimer]

Swap what exactly? I'm having trouble understanding (and getting the jolt).

You're switching blocking your nose area passage with blocking your mouth/throat area passage. g1138 describes it better than I could. It may help to think: You can sort of "feel the mechanism" blocking your nose off by starting to exhale through the nose then suddenly stopping it by going "Hymph". With the mouth/throat you start exhaling then stop it by going "hock' with open mouth. You have closed them off. This can be done both together or separately. These internal things are hard to explain, but once you get it it becomes natural. Much like equalizing your ears without blowing, jaw moving, swallowing, etc.

Another related exercise is to just alternate breathing- inhale nose, exhale mouth...inhale mouth, exhale nose. Simpler, and doesn't block off anything, but good practice for airway control.

 

[DukeAMO]

If you swim around on the surface, with no mask on, breathing through the snorkel, it's the same skill. No scuba gear required. I actually learned how to block off my nose with a snorkel in my kitchen sink between pool sessions. I'm a nose breather, so I have a mantra: there is no nose. Breathing through it is not an option!

Yes, you will probably get water in your nose if you look up too far, whether you're doing mask-off or mask-clearing skills. You would look up from a mask-down position to clear your mask, but don't look up past vertical until your mask is on and the water's out of your mask.

 

[g1138]

Swap what exactly? I'm having trouble understanding (and getting the jolt).

Swap your airway passages.

Notice in this picture. There are two main valves controlling airway out your oral-nasal passages. Your soft palate closes off above your mouth. Your epiglottis closes out below your mouth. When you're breathing out your mouth, your soft palate naturally closes to force all air out it's intended vector.
When you are breathing out of your mouth only, like blowing soup or candles out, your soft palate is closed.

If you're real proficient in controlling your soft palate, you can actually blow out of your nose and mouth at the same time. There is a very noticeable difference in how hard air comes out of your mouth when you do this.

It's one of those things you don't realize, which is why I'm sure you're confused.

Forgetting about my previous instructions. Look at a mirror and open your mouth. Blow out your mouth, you'll see your tongue is pressed down and your throat is open.
Now blow out your nose, with your mouth still open. Chances are your tongue will be pressed to the roof, blocking your throat.
Behind the scenes, your soft palate is working too. But you cannot feel it

Now step two. Keep your mouth open, try to blow out your mouth but hold your breath in your throat. Nothing should come out, you should feel pressure in your throat. Try again but this time out your nose.

As before keep your mouth open, your back of the tongue pressed up, but hold your breath in your throat. Still you should feel pressure in your throat. That is your epiglottis working to keep itself shut.

I say to do this only as a demonstration that, yes there are two factors that control your airways out your nose or mouth.
Back to my original skill which is what you actually want to practice if you want independent control between those two airways.
The jolt you're feeling is your soft palate opening in reverse of the airflow.
Your soft palate opens down, and down only. It is also very soft and flexible compared to your epiglottis. So when you open it against airflow, you get a jolt a it flutters. And that is unfortunately the only way you can ever feel it moving, unlike your epiglottis. So because of that, like in your case, I'm sure you never knew it existed, unless you took an anatomy class.

Keep trying, it takes a while sometimes.

 

[TMHeimer]

g1138, Thanks again for the info. and pictures. Now I know exactly what I've been doing all those years and why. I had a student once who couldn't clear her mask fully because she always also exhaled some from her mouth at the same time. She said she was a "mouth breather". I told her that wasn't a bad thing as that's how you breath on scuba. Is there actually such thing as people who normally breath only with their mouth on land? I have noticed that I tend to breathe with the nose, but do at times breathe with the mouth, at times both at once--a "both breather"..Is this really the norm?

 

[g1138]

g1138, Thanks again for the info. and pictures. Now I know exactly what I've been doing all those years and why. I had a student once who couldn't clear her mask fully because she always also exhaled some from her mouth at the same time. She said she was a "mouth breather". I told her that wasn't a bad thing as that's how you breath on scuba. Is there actually such thing as people who normally breath only with their mouth on land? I have noticed that I tend to breathe with the nose, but do at times breathe with the mouth, at times both at once--a "both breather"..Is this really the norm?

Well norm is a relative term. If you really want to get into it, if I remember my high school class correctly:
Normally everyone has enough muscle structure that the soft palate lies in a half-way position between open and closed.

When you breath with your mouth closed, it naturally flexes to accommodate a more open airway. Breath out your mouth subconsciously, and it is still in a halfway mark, so you are losing air out both your nose and mouth.
You can voluntarily flex the soft palate to forcefully let more air in/out either passageway. Some people don't have enough force behind this action and some only have enough force for one action but not the opposite. This is where in scuba, you get those mask clearing/nose-breathing/mouth-breathing problems. Reason they don't have enough force can range from anatomy to just not having practiced enough to have a strong neural pathway. Same reason not everyone can raise one eyebrow, spread their toes, or flare their nostrils on command. Some people physically can't, some just can't mentally make it happen.

So for ease of discussion I usually don't refer to the halfway point at all and just keep it simple with open and closed.

Don't really have a straightforward answer to your question. There's so many people in the world, that I'm sure there's an anomaly somewhere in the world. Either by mental habituation or physical anatomy.

---------- Post added May 25th, 2014 at 12:56 PM ----------

Great example of all this, is languages. English is a nasal language. Which is why when you're congested you sound weird and sometimes can't even formulate proper vowels. With English, you will naturally have air coming from your nose when you talk. Otherwise you sound like a weirdo.

Take other languages for instance, and it's not an issue if you're fully stuffed up with sickness, simply because you talk fully from your mouth for most of their sounds.
And it ranges all across the board for different languages.

 

[pjhansman]

Incidently I have two words to build into your pre dive with the kids--SLOW DOWN
Use it every time you dive with kids and itll extend your bottom tiime about 10 minutes.

I have to tell my kids that every time.....only because it annoys me that they rabbit all over the place and don't seems to use any freakin' air at all