trouble recovering bc from pool bottom

[brrrandi]

You will likely never need to do this again. If it actually happens, let your buddy get the gear.

You have a really, really nice buddy.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

You will likely never need to do this again. If it actually happens, let your buddy get the gear.

I ditched mask lenses and switched to soft contact lenses, which will stay put if you squint, but they will absorb water and the ocean is hardly sterile. Best to avoid this situation. If someone asks you to do mask removal, tell them you have contact lenses and am concerned about eye infection, a legitimate issue.

Being somewhat paranoid, I had laser surgery done on one eye. Otherwise, If I lost my mask and lenses, I wouldn't be able to see anything on the surface, except maybe a shark 3 ft away.

Wear your hood over your mask strap, and the mask will stay put even if kicked in the head. It can happen when oblivious divers are in the water.

The only time I've actually had my mask off in the water is when I removed it to rinse off lens fogging.

If you REALLY want to do this, go for the bc, find the reg and insert. If there's a weight belt involved, get it in the crook of your arm or some such so you can easily stay down.
Then Get your BC squared away. Go for either your mask or fins. The mask will let you see better, but the fins will give you greater mobility. Decide which works best for you. Then, get the other.

If you happen to encounter the mask in the process, loop it over your arm until you are ready for it. Don't bother putting it on. Touch is good enough.

Even better, have a loop on your mask strap, and clip it to your BC after removing.

My fins would drift to the surface, so I could actually put them on before going down for the gear, not that I have any interest in doing such.

I wear contact lenses, and do mask off drills all the time; It really isn't a problem at all. It is worth the time and effort to become comfortable with your mask off.

Cheers,
Mitch

 

[CamG]

We did not have this skill till DM training.
But it was rather fun for us because we were always swapping gear around in the pool my buddy and I anyway.
I agree this drill is to increase comfort in the water.
The key element is to RELAX!
In my OW class the voice of my instructor saying you do not need your mask to dive all you need is a functioning reg IN YOUR MOUTH!

No mask swims, mask skills are a must.
Relax work on these and your comfort will increase as it does so will your confidence.
Keep your breathing under control learn to breath past a bit of water in a wet reg.
Just relax and keep trying it will become easier and do not let the failures derail you but allow them to drive you on into mastery of skills.
You can do it, be committed and positive!

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

 

[windapp]

Out of curiosity, were you allowed to use fins. This would be a relatively easy skill for someone like me who sinks like a rock, but absolutely impossible for my wife who, without fins, cannot reach the bottom of a 12 ft pool.

 

[g1138]

Keep your eyes squinted. You'll see exactly how you would see if they were wide open, so keeping them squinted keeps the harsh water from burning your eyes.

When you get down to your BC, wrap your knees around the tank and get yourself back into a comfortable orientation. If you're floaty, try to control your breathing; don't breath in a full breath so rapidly. Grab your mask, put your thumb into the nose pocket. Orientate your mask correctly, then trace out your mask strap nice and neat, making sure your snorkel is also neat.
Put your mask on your face (lens first), clear, THEN with two hands, pull your mask strap neatly over your head.

Make each movement slow and deliberate. Often times when I see new divers doing this skill, they mess up because their hands are a flurry mess of uncoordinated panicked activity.

Also I don't know if you clip your things into your BC or not, every instructor's directions are different. But if you have trouble finding your clips and such, place your hands higher or lower than where you're aiming, then trace-feel along your straps to find your clips. It beats tapping your body repeatedly trying to find your clips.

Goodluck on your next try!

 

[Primalchrome]

We had this drill in our OW pool sessions as well (SSI). Kind of like the mask recovery drill, this one was presented as an unrealistic scenario geared toward building diver confidence. Gas = Safe. Get the reg in your mouth and all your other problems become individual challenges that you can tackle with the time the gas gives you. You may be blind, but with a full tank at 14 feet, you can go zen and spend all the time you need to get your mask right and don your gear.

Kind of helps put your priorities in perspective.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

This is also a required SEI skill. The doff and don is a task loading exercise in several disciplines. Skin diving, buoyancy control, gear familarity, problem solving, and self control. The way I teach it is to get the reg, then balllast, then you can worry about seeing. It requires you to think of the most logical solution. First of course is air. Then you need to stay down. Following that you can try to locate the mask. I have my students find the reg, put the weight belt on, then the BC, then the mask, followed by the fins. It is also a great confidence builder. Working up to it I have them do a number of no mask swims.

 

[redacted]

You will be a more confident, comfortable, and safer diver when you can function UW without a mask. When the lack (loss) of a mask leads to panic, there should be a serious safety concern.

 

[261311]

The idea of mask and gear drills is to make you feel like losing the item is merely an inconvenience and opportunity to either stop, and fix the situation or call the dive safely while still keeping a situation controlled. The lack of comfort is expected, even if you're never really "comfortable" so to speak without your gear, it's important that without it you're able to keep your wits in check.

 

[PeterNBiddle]

At least, SSI also encourages to the instructor and SSI Training Facility to add skills and drills that are not contrary to the SSI philisophy. The SSI Dive school where I took all my courses (and I'm in the beginning of my Instructor career there), still teachs this skill.

Mine as well (SSI for OW). IIRC we did them with the lights dimmed. I loved those drills, I wanted to do more. They helped me feel comfortable with my surroundings and get better at dealing with stress and focusing on doing the right things in the right order.

I can't see diving (at all) if flooding or diving with no mask at all was a scary or threatening thing to me. Picking up a mask off the bottom of a pool ought to be about as hard as closing your eyes and finding one of your shoes under the bed.