Wife fear of mask clearing

[AZNetEng]

Sounds like she will be fine @homerdoc. Nice work being patient and working with her.

 

[TMHeimer]

homerdoc, how did she get on with round 2?

I experienced very similar feelings during and after my pool sessions, I had a mild panic the first time we did remove/replace and breathed in a nice amount of disgusting pool water. After that I had anxiety each time a mask skill came up. I had to breathe and breathe and breathe and remember it isn't a race, I have plenty of time to do the skill, I CAN breathe with my nostrils exposed to the water (that was a big learning curve for me, I wasn't able to separate it at the beginning) and reassure myself.

Little by slow I was able to get it. Then we got to open water and a hood and ridiculous gloves got added to the mix. Nice. More anxiety ensued. The very last skill of the very last checkout dive was remove/replace, and when they announced it, I thought I was going to cry. I took some deep breaths, and I have rarely felt the elation I felt when I got it back on, cleared it, and got my fist bump from the instructor!

Best of luck to your wife.

You solved the problem of airway control. If one hasn't ever breathed through the mouth with nose exposed to water I can (and have) see(n) how difficult this can be to overcome. And now you probably wonder why it was a problem.
I had to respond. Although I had no mask issues (having snorkeled 40 years), my situation was exactly the same in the end. Last OW checkout skill, mask clearing. Then "Congratulations you are an Open Water Diver". Seems like yesterday. Great moment.

 

[Aviyes]

Mask clearing and mask off drills in the pool was the worst for me. Chlorine combined with unbalanced pH irritates my eyes too much. Piece of cake in fresh and salt water.

 

[TMHeimer]

Mask clearing and mask off drills in the pool was the worst for me. Chlorine combined with unbalanced pH irritates my eyes too much. Piece of cake in fresh and salt water.

Did you have your eyes closed? If so, did the chlorine still irritate? I hate the stuff.

 

[Neilwood]

Mask clearing and mask off drills in the pool was the worst for me. Chlorine combined with unbalanced pH irritates my eyes too much. Piece of cake in fresh and salt water.

I am the same with clearing in a pool. The chlorine is too harsh and I end up with irritated eyes. This causes me more issues as once the skill is over I still can't see - my eyes will still be stinging about 5 minutes later.

I ended up doing the mask clear in the pool with eyes shut. As you say in open water (fresh and sea), I have no issues.

I did have an issue doing my initial clear in OW but that was temperature related - had practised in the pool (25C) and moving to sea water came as a bit of a shock (about 10C).

 

[Schwob]

Murky, I agree. You'd think anyone taking scuba would already have been underwater quite often with eyes open. You'd think.

Why?

 

[TMHeimer]

Why?

Honestly can't answer that--just makes sense to me, even if it happened by accident. Maybe because I did it a lot in salt water on purpose? Out of curiosity, I suppose?

 

[Schwob]

Honestly can't answer that--just makes sense to me, even if it happened by accident. Maybe because I did it a lot in salt water on purpose? Out of curiosity, I suppose?

From a common sense point of view I actually tend to agree.
Married to a former non swimmer now fighting to be a sort of swimmer.... and maybe a beginning diver some day (maybe August) it looks a little different.

Either way, I would think that if I was an instructor, I should not necessarily expect any more than the very minimum prerequisites required by my agency ... and that only if I made those clear to the prospective student and he / she understood and agreed. (Or whatever other differing prerequisites I might have laid out)

The reason I asked why is because some agencies seem quite lenient with their minimum requirements and I don't think UW comfort is spelled out that often (some minimal swiming and floating requirements, yes, some are "tougher")...
and as a family, we actually are hoping to benefit from this by having learning to dive be part of the process to truly get more comfortable (my wife) and keep going... We are working the aspects we can upfront in the meantime and understand this may or may not work out... but we'll work it. Just explaining why I was motivated to ask "why?". More truly curious. Not to be right about anything. And wanting to offer one data point on "why not".

 

[TMHeimer]

Schwaeble, All that you say makes sense. If I were an instructor I would expect only the agency's minimum standards for every student. Having seen quite a wide variety of "water comfort" in students, of course I have taken a look at minimum standards and developed some opinions.
One is asking what the purpose of the "swim" tests is. The "float" test has to do with body buoyancy (mostly). I guess a successful 10 minute float tells your instructor you'll be OK if you fall off the boat into fresh water with just your bathing suit and the boat then sinks. On the 200 meter swim we did the 300 with mask/fins/snorkel. I did great. But for the 400 meter DM timed swim I bombed out since my technique was off after 40 years of not swimming since HS swim team. So,
what does that mean? One could conclude I never knew how to swim my whole life, not that my (apparently pretty darn good) technique of 1970 just needed some re-tuning. If someone in OW course guts out 200 yards with an improper stroke (even dog paddle is allowed) and nearly dies, they pass--and I've seen it happen often.
But, I ramble on about this sort of stuff. And stuff like maybe a little snorkeling experience could be a pre-requisite.
I think we agree. It is what it is.

 

[Schwob]

Schwaeble, All that you say makes sense. If I were an instructor I would expect only the agency's minimum standards for every student. Having seen quite a wide variety of "water comfort" in students, of course I have taken a look at minimum standards and developed some opinions.
One is asking what the purpose of the "swim" tests is. The "float" test has to do with body buoyancy (mostly). I guess a successful 10 minute float tells your instructor you'll be OK if you fall off the boat into fresh water with just your bathing suit and the boat then sinks. On the 200 meter swim we did the 300 with mask/fins/snorkel. I did great. But for the 400 meter DM timed swim I bombed out since my technique was off after 40 years of not swimming since HS swim team. So,
what does that mean? One could conclude I never knew how to swim my whole life, not that my (apparently pretty darn good) technique of 1970 just needed some re-tuning. If someone in OW course guts out 200 yards with an improper stroke (even dog paddle is allowed) and nearly dies, they pass--and I've seen it happen often.
But, I ramble on about this sort of stuff. And stuff like maybe a little snorkeling experience could be a pre-requisite.
I think we agree. It is what it is.

Yep.