Yelled at for MOF

[The Chairman]

It happens in all activities in which I have been involved,

Well, there's our problem. Let's kick John out and we won't have this problem!!!

 

[AfterDark]

SCUBA POLICE to the rescue!!!

"My first thought was that this was one of the students from the Rescue class and he has mistaken me for someone who is playing a part in a rescue scenario". That's funny right there!

My 1st thought would have been, WTF is wrong with this clown? But I'm different from most. You did the right thing. It was either that or speak your peace and leave.

Me, after 53 years of MOF, would have gone with option 2. But I'm different from most.

PS. Never in those 53 have I lost a mask from MOF also use my own spit for defog never fails and it doesn't burn..

 

[bumcikaz]

My brows are big enough to hold my mask , i always mof

 

[boulderjohn]

Well, there's our problem. Let's kick John out and we won't have this problem!!!

Maybe it is my fault. Of all my activities in which I have seen this sort of nonsense, scuba is not the worst. Craft beer brewing is full of inanities of this kind.

 

[WrmBluH2O]

Silly as it may sound, turning the mask around is a wee bit of a pain with my long ponytail/doo rag combination. But I do it every damn time. Heaven forbid I look any more the noob than I already do. And, more importantly, I do not want anyone thinking I’m in distress.

Sometimes I simply leave the mask on and see how long folks can gab/interact before my inner nose-bereather takes over and I fog my own mask to $hit...

 

[Saboteur]

First, let me say that I believe the antagonist (I being the protagonist) in the following story reads SB, so I am writing it aware that he might read it. But, my purpose it not to call him out. We talked after it was all over and cleared the air and are, I think, "good". MOF is a subject that has inspired many posts here on SB and is clearly somewhat contentious. So, I want to share my story of what happened to me, and what COULD happen to you, as a result of not belonging to the School Of MOF Means You're Going To Die.

Second, if you don't already know, MOF means Mask On Forehead. Some scuba instructors teach that you should never put your mask up on your forehead because that is a sign of distress.

Onward....

This past weekend, I got in a local pool with a buddy of mine to practice some tech sidemount skills. He arranged for us to get in a pool that I had not been to before, with a shop that I have never been to before. As I learned while there, the shop was running an OW class with half a dozen or so students and a Rescue class with some smaller number of students, plus (I believe) a refresher for a couple of other divers. We were all sharing the deep end of this pool.

My buddy had made most of the arrangements for us to be there. I just had to call a few days before, give them my credit card for the $25 fee to get in, and email them scans of a signed liability waiver and of my C card. When I got there, my buddy was already there and had the lay of the land. I only talked to him and nobody from the shop really talked to me. Nobody asked me my name or introduced themselves. When the waterobics class before us got out and the deep end was empty, I asked my buddy and he said we were clear to splash, so I did. Other folks were following suit shortly after.

We'd been in for a while and everyone was in and actually doing a reasonable job of staying out of each other's way. At least, they were doing a good job staying out of our way and I HOPE we were staying out of their way, too. I was trying, anyway.

We got to a point where we wanted to chat, so we made an ascent and were hanging on the side of the pool. I was holding onto the side with my left hand, facing him. The OW class was a ways away behind him. He was holding on with his right hand, facing me. The Rescue was doing something not too far behind me.

As we were talking, I head a voice yell in the distance. This natatorium was big and there were a lot of swimmers with coaches and whatnot in the rest of the pool area outside of the deep end that we were using. It was loud in there. I didn't react to the first yell I heard. Then I heard another yell and it was closer/louder. I looked around to see what was going on and I see a diver in the water swimming at full speed in my general direction. It was he that was yelling and yelled again. This time I realized he was coming towards me and yelling at me.

He yelled, "SIR, ARE YOU IN DISTRESS?"

I said back loudly, so he could hear, but not yelling, "no."

He continued to swim towards me. Now about 10' away. Still yelling, "YOUR MASK ON YOUR FOREHEAD MEANS YOU ARE IN DISTRESS!"

My first thought was that this was one of the students from the Rescue class and he has mistaken me for someone who is playing a part in a rescue scenario. A similar thing happened to me back when I was a Rescue student - except in that case, it was I who mistook one of the instructors. I mistakenly thought he was pretending to be non-responsive and then combative and I "rescued" him despite what turned out to be his actual, real attempts to get me to stop. His non-responsive behavior was simply him not realizing that I was trying to assess him and staring blankly back at my hand signals because he didn't realize what I was doing. But I digress...

I said back, again, loudly but not yelling, "no. It does not." I really did not care to get roped into playing along with a rescue scenario. I had things I wanted to get accomplished while we had the pool time and playing games was not one of them.

He has now swum close enough and stops and yells at me again. Seriously. Yelling. "AS AN INSTRUCTOR IN CHARGE OF THIS POOL, I'M TELLING YOU THAT YOUR MASK ON YOUR FOREHEAD MEANS YOUR ARE IN DISTRESS!!"

Oh. You're an instructor for the shop that has the pool right now? Well, why didn't you say so? I didn't say that. As I was taking my mask off my head, I just said, "Oh. No problem. It won't happen again. Your pool, your rules."

At the shop where I am currently a DM, we don't teach people that they can't put their mask on their forehead. We do tell them that some people may see that as a possible sign that they are in distress, so they should be aware of that. We also teach people (in the Rescue class) to look for that as a possible sign of distress in other divers. But, I have personally seen people lose their mask to the bottom of the quarry because they turned it around backwards then, as they swam on their back towards the shore, they didn't notice that their mask got knocked off by their 1st stage. So, I wouldn't ever tell someone NEVER put your mask on your forehead. I would be more inclined to tell people to be aware of how things can be interpreted, but do what works. And if you see someone with MOF, use your best judgment and common sense to determine if the MOF means they are in distress or not. Not everyone is trained the same way, when it comes to MOF, so don't assume anyone else has the same training as you.

If you are of the same mind as I am, please allow yourself to learn from my mistake. Otherwise, you could get yelled at by someone who sees a perfectly calm diver, hanging out and talking on the surface, as a diver in distress, because you have your mask on your forehead. Don't be like my former Rescue instructor and get yourself "rescued" (or even just yelled at) by someone who has misinterpreted your actions.

Sounds like a bit of a dork. Way back when I took my course (ACUC 1979), mask on forehead was not recommended simply as it could come off. For a joke and to chastize students who did it we were labelled "movie star"... as it was only actors who did that. When did the MOF ever become a symbol of distress.... what agency officially designated that?

 

[Youngandfree]

So the idiot instructor didn't pick up on the fact you were hanging on to the side and having a conversation with another person much closer than he was. I would have gone over to the class and mentioned to them that if your instructor can't discern a distressed person in that type of circumstance, they may want to find a different instructor.

 

[TrimixToo]

I learned to dive in 1972. Nobody cared about MOF. I still do not and I think the whole "in distress" thing is just plain silly.

I have never lost a mask. I have fallen off a dive boat ladder with reg out and MOF, and both were in back place before I was (briefly) under the water. The guy under me did not fare so well when my double 125s...just kidding; everyone was good about staying out from under the ladder. That's a good thing if I fall off, double 125s first. You can trust me on this.

Also, I carry a spare mask, and a necklaced secondary reg, so even if I lose both of them I know where to find replacements quickly. And my antifog is baby shampoo...no tears if some residual drops land in my eyes.

These days I often move the mask from my head to my forearm, where the computer keeps its strap retained, to prevent loss on return surface swims over deep water, but I still use MOF when I feel like it. It's my mask, after all. I can put it where I want.

My 2 PSI. Worth what you paid for them.

 

[Killercavecow]

Thank you for sharing this. As a new diver, I don't have the experience to warrant indignation, but now I have the knowledge of what might happen or what that might mean.

Thanks!

 

[BRT]

Maybe it is my fault. Of all my activities in which I have seen this sort of nonsense, scuba is not the worst. Craft beer brewing is full of inanities of this kind.

Everything has it. The "fact" used to be that if you left a car battery sitting on concrete it would go dead. I had a mechanic who ragged on me all the time about this. I finally left one sitting on the concrete all winter just to shut him up.