Carrying a Spare Mask. Do you or Don't you?

[DevonDiver]

The stock answer is: "Yes, for tech, no for rec".

In 20 years of diving, I've never needed one (during a dive)... so my personal assessment is that the risk (for tech) doesn't warrant the pocket space it'd require.

I don't believe in redundancy, for the sake of redundancy. Such decision need to be made on the basis of risk, relevance and repercussion.

 

[Tfast78]

One cool sounding military trick, as yet I haven't tried it, but i will, is to create an air bubble in your eye socket with your head facing down. Looking through this you can read your instruments.

I think the shape of your head would have a lot to do with whether this would work.

That is so crazy that I'm gonna try it in the bath tub today!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

You never heard of bubble goggles? You just face down, and then curl your index fingers around your eyebrows, then exhale some air out the mouth or nose and catch them in the eye area... the wait.... you have to wait until the bottom of the captured air bubble stops moving and is perfectly calm and then you can see straight down.

The only hard part is getting your fingers to cup your face so they are not leaking air and disturbing the bottom of the bubble. It only allows you to look straight down and you have to be ultra still.

Not sure it is a military trick, I think I discovered this as an 8 yr old playing in the pool.

 

[drbill]

Diving my soft harness and wing and in a wetsuit with no pocket, there is no place to carry one. I do keep a spare in my dive bag. The only time I've had a mask strap break while diving, I simply pushed my video camera housing up against the mask to keep it on me and continued filming. By the way, I keep my mask strap inside my hood so if it breaks, the mask doesn't come off.

 

[scubafanatic]

That is so crazy that I'm gonna try it in the bath tub today!

Please let me know if it actually works, I'm gettin' so tired of carrying a back up mask when I'm in the tub.

 

[lowviz]

...//...The only hard part is getting your fingers to cup your face so they are not leaking air and disturbing the bottom of the bubble. It only allows you to look straight down ...//...

True. Tfast78, try putting your index and middle finger on your thumb to make a "goggle". If you look through this, the point where your fingers and thumb meet will be on the bridge of your nose. Hard part: now rotate your "goggle" counter clockwise 180 degrees so that your thumb/fingers are now on the outside of your eye. -easier for me to make a seal this way. Have fun, if it doesn't work yell at DD -he told how to do this years ago.

...//... It only allows you to look straight down ...//...

Which is why I wear my BT on my left arm.

---------- Post added May 21st, 2012 at 07:26 PM ----------

Just noticed that I left out something:

after rotating 180, straighten out your last three fingers. So now your goggle is just a finger and thumb with the other three fingers acting as a guide for your exhalations to replenish the mask bubble. DD is right, look straight down or it just won't work. -not really that hard once you get the hang of it...

 

[halocline]

A slightly modified version of the bubble goggles is to carry a small set of swimming goggles, which take up almost no space. You can clear them with a 2nd stage, a neat trick that awap showed me. It doesn't work out so well for going deeper, but it can get you some visibility to get to the surface.

 

[tyrerubber]

My drysuit thigh pocket fits a spare mask fairly easily. I started carrying an extra one when we started playing with the sealions. I don't really know why but it seemed prudent at the time. Months later I was getting to the "why bother" stage when I loaned it to a buddy. We had made a long surface swim out, and when we went to descend his mask flooded instantly...his mask frame was cracked. The extra mask in my pocket saved him from a long swim back and a long hike up to the truck. So for the time being I think I'll keep carrying it in my pocket.

 

[rha600]

Depending on where your mask failed, couldn't you just do the bubble trick using the mask? If possible, knock out the lens and facing down, use the body of the mask to catch the air bubble. It would probably hold it better than your fingers.


Of course if the body of the mask is what failed, or you lost the mask, well then back to the fingers I guess.

 

[Capt Doug]

Always carry an extra in the dive bag.