Struggling to clear my mask during Scuba training.

[Perryed]

You can practice in a pool all you want. Just do it where you can stand up and get your head out of the water if needs be. And like people have said, keep exhaling slowly through your nose.

 

[PatW]

From what I hear, mask clearing is one of the biggest obstacles in getting certified. People often get upset when their faces get wet and more so if they get water up their nose.

Here is a drill. I was taught this one over 60 years ago when I learned how to swim. Yeah, trilobites were still around. You stand in the shallow end of the pool. Bend at the waist until your face is just over and parallel to the water’s surface. Take a breath and lower your face into the water but not your whole head. As you do this very slowly exhale. Keep your face in the water as you slowly blow bubbles. By the way, remove your face from the water before you need to breathe.

The skill you want to learn is how to keep a positive pressure of air in your airway without blowing bubbles. If you do this, water cannot get up your nose. Doing the drill and other like it will give you confidence in being underwater without getting water in your airway.

 

[JackD342]

Lol, at first I thought you meant to not break the seal at the top as I'm letting water in, but no. I don't let water in through the top as I'm exhaling, He did teach us to hold down the top rim of the mask as we tilted out head upwards.
He also suggested I inhale a little beforehand so I have enough air in my lungs to exhale.

I will definitely try to exhale slightly before I tilt my head up.

My one concern about practicing on my own is the article I read mentioned this.. "Remember, new skills should never be attempted without the supervision of a qualified scuba instructor, and you should only practice on your own after entry level certification."

Are they implying I shouldn't practice this until I'm already OW certified?

My concern is with students practicing "emergency and mishap" skills when my attention is elsewhere. Especially in mask skills, they are done while I am gripping part of the BCD so I can brake anyone bolting to the surface in a panic. If it's not your turn, I am not in the same position to react.

 

[dmaziuk]

The only way I can describe it I have a slight feeling of panic of water going up my nose the moment I tilt my head upward with water in my mask. I know I'm safe, but when I try to exhale, through my nose, it does nothing to the water in my mask.

"Doctor it hurts when I do this"
"So don't do it, then"

So don't tilt your head up. Start exhaling looking down, only tilt back to clear the last bit. And you only really need the bottom seal to be at the lowest point, so just off vertical is enough, no need to go face up.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Lots of good tips here. I'd also suggest waiting a moment after you've flooded your mask and taking a couple of slow breaths before clearing. I've found that helps nervous students compose themselves. Either way, once you've cracked it, it'll be a breeze.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I did find this article, which seems to go through a few different methods I may have to try.

Techniques and Tips For Mastering Scuba Mask Clearing

The problem with this article is that it describes how to perform the skill on the knees. You should never be on your knees in any class. Not in the pool. Not in the open water.

 

[JackD342]

My "other" #1 piece of guidance for my students when replacing the mask: Slow down, don't hurry. You have already been controlling your airway with no mask, don't rush once it is back on. Adjust it, feel around the seals, check for a twisted strap, hair under the seal, etc. Now, calmly take another breath and clear it.

 

[BlueTuna]

The problem with this article is that it describes how to perform the skill on the knees. You should never be on your knees in any class. Not in the pool. Not in the open water.

Why not? I'm usually on my knees while doing the exercises in Scuba class.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Why not? I'm usually on my knees while doing the exercises in Scuba class.

That's unfortunate. Being on the knees requires overweighting (Why overweighting is such a problem, especially for open water students | Facebook) and creates bad habits. You want to perform skills as you would while diving: in a horizontal position, floating in the water column.

Even though a number of SB members wrote this article 8 years ago, http://utahscubadiver.com/wp-content/uploads/USJ2Q11.pdf, the industry has been super slow to adopt teaching open water neutrally buoyant and trim. SNSI and RAID are the only WRSTC members to mandate courses to be taught this way. When I first started teaching, I was admittedly a bad instructor. I didn't know any better, and I put students on their knees as that is how I was taught to teach. Since then (thank God for social media, and it started for me on scubaboard), I learned to never place students on their knees and have them perform all skills neutrally buoyant and trim. The difference in results are dramatic. My retention rate flipped. My students became more proficient in less time.

Simply put, placing students on their knees does them a huge disservice. I'd like to see every single instructor who teaches this way to stop. Either learn to teach neutrally buoyant/trim or stop teaching all together.

 

[BlueTuna]

That's unfortunate. Being on the knees requires overweighting (Why overweighting is such a problem, especially for open water students | Facebook) and creates bad habits. You want to perform skills as you would while diving: in a horizontal position, floating in the water column.

Even though a number of SB members wrote this article 8 years ago, http://utahscubadiver.com/wp-content/uploads/USJ2Q11.pdf, the industry has been super slow to adopt teaching open water neutrally buoyant and trim. SNSI and RAID are the only WRSTC members to mandate courses to be taught this way. When I first started teaching, I was admittedly a bad instructor. I didn't know any better, and I put students on their knees as that is how I was taught to teach. Since then (thank God for social media, and it started for me on scubaboard), I learned to never place students on their knees and have them perform all skills neutrally buoyant and trim. The difference in results are dramatic. My retention rate flipped. My students became more proficient in less time.

Simply put, placing students on their knees does them a huge disservice. I'd like to see every single instructor who teaches this way to stop. Either learn to teach neutrally buoyant/trim or stop teaching all together.

What about being in a seated position? For every exercise that we spend submerged in the pool, we are always seated or on our knees (same for the instructor). Keep in mind, this is a 5 ft deep pool.
The instructor has mentioned how you want to be neutrally buoyant and encouraged us to do so while swimming around the pool, but we haven't really reviewed in depth on how to stay Neutral buoyant/Trim. He has mentioned that we need to practice using our natural breathing to control our buoyancy, but he's never had us try to stay trim or horizontal while performing exercises.