Clearing mask with Purge Valve

[Bibendum]

Hi All -

At my 1st OW pool session last night I had significant trouble clearing my mask. Now, I have done mask clearing before, without any problems at all. I was using a new mask last night, which has a purge vlave and I had significant difficulty getting my mask cleared correctly - took something like 5 attempts at clearing to get all the water out. The 5 times prior to that, I kept having water entering my mouth through my nose. Given that I can do the exercise of breathing underwater with no mask and snorkel or reg. only without inhaling water through my nose, I am quite perplexed at the problem I was having.

Should I go tback to a non-purge mask? Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Sideband]

Hi All -

At my 1st OW pool session last night I had significant trouble clearing my mask. Now, I have done mask clearing before, without any problems at all. I was using a new mask last night, which has a purge vlave and I had significant difficulty getting my mask cleared correctly - took something like 5 attempts at clearing to get all the water out. The 5 times prior to that, I kept having water entering my mouth through my nose. Given that I can do the exercise of breathing underwater with no mask and snorkel or reg. only without inhaling water through my nose, I am quite perplexed at the problem I was having.

Should I go tback to a non-purge mask? Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Tilt your head forward with a purge mask, not backwards like you are used to.
Joe

 

[ScubaFreak]

Sideband hit it in one,

You gotta do the opposite with a purge mask than with a non-purge, otherwise the water will just bubble around your mask

SF

 

[pipedope]

Just to add some of the reason why this is true.

When clearing the mask you want the lowest point to be where the water goes out. With a non-purge mask this is usually right at your upper lip so you look up.
With a purge mask the drain (purge) is in the nose pocket so you want that to be the lowest point, i.e. nearly horizontal. It will feel like you are looking down.

Experiment to find the best angle as it will vary a little from mask to mask.

 

[scubamate]

You may also want to turn your head from side to side as your looking down also. This will help get the water from the eye (or lens) pockets the the nose.

 

[Sideband]

Just to add some of the reason why this is true.

Thanks. I was posting from work and had to be brief. Management is such a pain. ;-)

Joe

 

[ScubaSarus]

What type of purge mask do you have. And overall do you like it as opposed to non-purge masks. I was under the impression they dont make high quality purge masks.

 

[pipedope]

I dove a US Divers tri-window mask with purge for 20 years.
Seemed to be prety high quality to me.

These days I use a Cressi Big Eyes that does not have a purge and is very low volume. I find it likes a specific angle best for clearing and it is looking up just a little.


I am self employed so my boss is not so bad, he is just not too bright.

 

[spectrum]

What type of purge mask do you have. And overall do you like it as opposed to non-purge masks. I was under the impression they dont make high quality purge masks.

Many quality masks come in both flavors. Last year my wife and I each got the EDGE. She got it with a purge valve, I saw it as a failure point and passed. As we are going from skindiving to SCUBA she decided that having a valve embeded in the same silicone componect that she was squeezing to clear her ears was an invitation to tear and eventually fail. She replaced it one like mine however it's a different brand. Sheel have the old one for skidiving and as a backup. If you look carefully you will see some masks that are common to multiple brands with different model names.

I'm not saying that if you have a purge mask you will die.

Frankly looking at some of my older gear I don't know that there's much difference between some of the $25. department store masks and dive shop offerings for 2-3 times the money.

Silicone doube skirt, tempered lenses and a decent buckes are key, beyond that it's fit, fit, fit.

Pete

 

[Bibendum]

What type of purge mask do you have. And overall do you like it as opposed to non-purge masks. I was under the impression they dont make high quality purge masks.

I will have to check the brand and get back to you (just bought it and the brand is escaping me...as are my brain cells apparently). I have only used it once, but...I did notice that it made reducing mask squeeze more difficult and I found that the purge function works a little too easily for my liking. Long story short, I am thinking of returning it for something else (or just buying a new one).

I was having such a difficult time with the mask clearing that my instructor finally had me stop trying and said we'd revisit it next week as he wanted to make sure I had time to just swim around the pool getting comfy in all the equipment with everyone else. Fortunately, I had my old non-purge mask and I switched to that half-way through class.