Mask clearing problems.........

[boulderjohn]

I think that one of the biggest problems students have with mask clearing is that the "official" instructions for how to do it are not really appropriate to the way it is traditionally taught.

By this I am referring especially to the instructions to tilt your head back. The idea is that a diver who is diving in a normal horizontal position needs to tilt the head back to get it to a vertical position so that the water will run out the bottom of the mask--the lowest point. If a diver who is diving in a normal horizontal position does not tip the head back, the inside of the mask will be the lowest point, and water will stay trapped in it.

Unfortunately, these skills are usually introduced to divers who are kneeling in a vertical position. That means that the head is already in a vertical position, with the bottom of the mask the lowest point. Tipping the head back is unnecessary. In fact, tipping the head back to an extreme can be very counterproductive. Teaching mask clearing in a kneeling position allows the diver to clear the mask with poor technique, and it is harmful to learning good technique.

I saw this clearly when I stopped teaching any skills on the knees and instead had students in a horizontal position, lightly buoyant, on the pool floor. When you see how dramatically different skills are when done in a true diving position, you can never go back to instructing on the knees.

 

[boulderjohn]

Thal...something I don't understand here. How does blowing out thru your mouth then your nose help with mask clearing. I will be going thru this soon and I am not following you on this exercise.

Thanks,
Rollin

I think I can speak for Thal. He is not saying you need to blow out your mouth to clear the mask. He is providing an exercise to help you learn to breathe through either the nose or the mouth at your discretion. Many students have trouble clearing the mask because they really can't control which one they are using. I have seen many students blowing out their regulator 100% again and again while trying to clear the mask, unable to tell that they are not breathing out their nose. Conversely, I have seen students breathe continuously out their nose, not realizing they were not exhaling through the regulator.

 

[LowDrag]

I think that one of the biggest problems students have with mask clearing is that the "official" instructions for how to do it are not really appropriate to the way it is traditionally taught.

By this I am referring especially to the instructions to tilt your head back. The idea is that a diver who is diving in a normal horizontal position needs to tilt the head back to get it to a vertical position so that the water will run out the bottom of the mask--the lowest point. If a diver who is diving in a normal horizontal position does not tip the head back, the inside of the mask will be the lowest point, and water will stay trapped in it.

Unfortunately, these skills are usually introduced to divers who are kneeling in a vertical position. That means that the head is already in a vertical position, with the bottom of the mask the lowest point. Tipping the head back is unnecessary. In fact, tipping the head back to an extreme can be very counterproductive. Teaching mask clearing in a kneeling position allows the diver to clear the mask with poor technique, and it is harmful to learning good technique.

I saw this clearly when I stopped teaching any skills on the knees and instead had students in a horizontal position, lightly buoyant, on the pool floor. When you see how dramatically different skills are when done in a true diving position, you can never go back to instructing on the knees.

That is a really interesting point. I am going to keep that in the back of my head when I go in for my cert.

Thanks,
Rollin

 

[tadawson]

Just so there is a low side, it will clear. When swimming horizontally, I typically just look hard left or right to get the side edge low, and clear that way.

All you really need is for one edge of the skirt to be low for water to drain - it doesn't matter which . . . heck, standing on your head would probably work too . . .

- Tim

 

[temet vince]

This has probably already been mentioned, but all I do is press my hand against the top of my mask and apply pressure. Then blow out air slowly. Forget all this head tilting stuff.

Tada!

 

[boulderjohn]

This has probably already been mentioned, but all I do is press my hand against the top of my mask and apply pressure. Then blow out air slowly. Forget all this head tilting stuff.

Tada!

Except you really do need to tilt the head if you are swimming in proper trim. If you want to swim around mostly vertically the whole time, you are just fine like that.

 

[temet vince]

Except you really do need to tilt the head if you are swimming in proper trim. If you want to swim around mostly vertically the whole time, you are just fine like that.

True. I guess I was mostly talking about when doing the drills in the pool. Sorry I didn't clarify!

Although, oddly, I'm usually relatively upright when I take the time to clear underwater. I'm probably just an odd duck. Or I just fail at swimming and clearing simultaneously. Chewing gum and walking anyone?

 

[boulderjohn]

True. I guess I was mostly talking about when doing the drills in the pool. Sorry I didn't clarify!

Although, oddly, I'm usually relatively upright when I take the time to clear underwater. I'm probably just an odd duck. Or I just fail at swimming and clearing simultaneously. Chewing gum and walking anyone?

Having never seen you dive, I can't say for sure, but I will hazard a guess based on what I have seen.

Because almost all instruction is done on the knees, divers don't really ever learn to do it while swimming in good horizontal trim. They instinctively revert to what they have been trained to do in the pool.

On a dive in Hawaii a couple of years ago, I saw a diver with hundreds of dives and otherwise fine skills kneel on the coral to clear his mask.

In an introduction to Tech class, the student--a Master Instructor with thousands of dives--was asked to clear her mask. She instinctively knelt and did it vertically, just has had demonstrated for students thousands of times. The problem is taht in tech diving that is jsut not allowed--you have to be able to do it while hovering in perfect horizontal trim inches from the bottom. (If you are inches from the bottom of a silty cave, going vertical can cause a life-threatening silt-out.) She knew that, but her reflexes got the better of her.

 

[LowDrag]

That sounds like a good thing to practice. Hovering horizontal and clearing my mask that is. This is a great thread. Thanks everyone. :cool2:

 

[darren_uk]

In Reply to your post [post=6105876]Mask clearing problems.........[/post]

Hi, I am very new to diving and struggling with the mask clearing thing. Whenever I try to do it I get water up my nose and have now got a cold. I am practicing weekly in a pool with an instructor but am really struggling with this. Any advice would be great.....................

Hey


You've had a lot of advice in the forum so this is just another breakdown for you - something, somewhere in this thread will help you. Sorry you live in Staffordshire and not Surrey otherwise I'd invite you to a pool session as I love helping people.


So this is how I demonstrate Mask Clearing (I'm an instructor)


1. Kneel on the bottom and empty your BCD - you want to be pinned on the bottom of the pool.

2. Stop, breathe, think, calm yourself for as long as you want - e.g. count to 5 in your head.

3. With your two index fingers, insert them ever-so-slightly into the top of your mask seal just enough to let the water trickle in. Poke more to make the hole a little bigger to let the water flow in quicker, or retract your finger to let the hole a little smaller to slow the flow. This way *YOU* choose how much water to put into the mask. (this is an excellent technique when doing mask removal in a cold open lake because then the face doesn't get hit suddenly with sudden flood, but you let it in slowly to get used to the cold water against the skin that until now has been relatively warm inside your mask)

4. Now you have water in your mask, pause. This is a natural state and some divers tolerate water, or even desire it to swish around their lenses if they get steamed up.


MASK CLEARING

5. Until now you're facing straight ahead - your nose is pointing straight ahead, or even slightly downwards. There is an air bubble in your nose which is why the water's not going up your nose despite water surrounding your nose and nostrils.


6. A common mistake at this point is to tilt the head back and the little bit of air at your nostrils blips out, you tip a little bit of water in your mask down your nose, and there you have it. You either swallow it, or if you hate it you give up and head for the surface.


7. So here it is: Keep your nose pointing straight ahead / slightly down.


8. Steps 1, 2 and 3.


8.1 Place your fingers (one or both hands) against the top of your mask to keep the seal because you're about to gently release air, through your nose, into the mask thus increasing the size of the bubble contained by your mask and driving the water out - but you seal the top to try to help the air stay in: there will be a bit of a fight between the air coming in and the water already in; the air coming in will want to bubble out the top of the mask and the water in the mask will want to resist being pushed out the bottom of the mask. So press the seal at the top of the mask against your forehead so that the water loses. Air rises so it will always stay above the water line, so you'll be inserting air and driving the water line down - the excess water will be pushed out the bottom of the mask.


8.2 CRITICAL STEP: Take a breath of air in from your regulator because you're going to gently push this air back out through your nose. Continue to face straight ahead and slowly release air through your nostrils into your mask - this will already drive the water line down and the water will be pushed out of the bottom of the mask; HOWEVER, for Skills Mastery, you 3rd step will be to show you how to get rid of that little bit that's left around your nose that's trapped by your nose pocket and the bottom of the lens pockets; this needs to be tipped towards the exit point (e.g. the mask seal, or a purge valve if your mask has a purge valve) - so as you tip the little bit of water that's remaining towards the exist, *DO NOT STOP GENTLY RELEASING THE AIR THROUGH YOUR NOSE* - it's a common mistake to stop releasing air throughout. Whilst continuing to exhale air gently through the nostrils (and it doesn't take much - have a look at how big an airspace your mask can hold: not much, and your lungs can hold a lot more) do the next step.


8.3 This last step is optional, but it's taught for your Skills Mastery, and it's to remove that last little bit of water that'll linger around your nose: you literally need to pour this last little bit out of the bottom of your mask as you're gently feeding air into your mask; SO WHILST CONTINUING TO BLIP, BLIP, BLIP AIR THROUGH YOUR NOSE, gently lift and lower your chin (if the only place the remaining water can exit the mask is through the lower part of the mask seal) or if you have a purge valve in your mask then the water will need to be tilted there. So the exhale through your nose continues throughout the rise and fall of your chin and this will prevent any water from entering your nose, as well as continuing filling the mask with air and forcing that last little bit out of the bottom.
- It is a common mistake to stop the exhaling at the end of the exercise which the student perceives is at the end of the chin lift / look up; and there's where that last drop trickles into your nostril and you get all uncomfortable. TIP: exhale gently and continuously throughout the chin lift and lower and only stop the exhale when you're facing front again.

PRACTICAL


In real life, divers tolerate a little bit of water in their masks.


I've been diving and I am happy to swim with a partially filled mask; we all have leaky masks, I do, and but only when it threatens to cover my eyes (which means I can't see because we cannot focus through water) do I just look ahead (because we dive horizontally, probably looking downwards, so I want my mask pointing straight ahead) and blow through my nose - that's enough to push the water out back to the lower level. I personally don't bother lifting my chin / looking up because I'm not bothered about the that last bit of water sloshing around my nose. But the reason you do the look-up chin-lift is to show you how to get rid of that last bit if you choose to.


Hope this helps.