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jesica14

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good day all

some years ago i tried my diving course, I have failed where one must clean the goggles under the water

I want to give it another go, but is their a way I can bypass this bit or dive with specisal goggles?

Regards
 
Welcome to the board.
By "clean the goggles" I assume you mean "clear your mask" or clear the water out of it. This is a critical skill and you must master it to be a safe diver, any instructor that would allow you to not master this skill is not doing his job and is setting you up for a dangerous accident.
It's the skill more new divers have trouble with than any other but I have yet to have a diver that could not do it after some instruction. Find a patient instructor with lots of experience and while it may take some persistance on your part, you can learn to do the skill. Don't settle for just barely getting by the skill, rather learn to do it easily and without stress. It is a skill you will use in real life and will use it to some extent on every dive.
 
What Herman said! It is indeed a critical skill and something you must be comfortable doing. A patient and good instructor will be key in helping you overcome this battle. If you browse through the threads or search for mask clearing issues, you'll find you're not alone. Lots of people have trouble with this at first and some are really put off by it. Once they get this skill dialed in, they become life-long LOVERS of this activity! Don't let it get you down and keep at it! Trust me, it's worth it :D
 
I agree, this skill must be accomplishable. If your mask strap breaks or gets kicked off or even loose, you have got to help yourself to see again. You can fill your mask with water and practice breathing thru your mouth at home to get the feel of it. Practice in the shallow end of a pool with mask removal, replacement and clearing. Its a basic skill that takes some getting used too.
 
I would find an instructor that is patient, and willing to take his time to make sure you master mask skills. This is probably the most common hurdle people have during their class. I have a game we play in the pool, and with a struggling student and by the end of the game they don't even realize that they cleared their mask 15 times.
 
Like stairman said "fill the mask with water" at home or you could try a technique used by swim instructors. Fill a large bowl with water a sit at the kitchen table and practice keeping your face underwater. Breathe to the side or better yet use a snorkel. Also while doffing your mask underwater if you tilt your head to the side the bubbles from your reg won't tickle your nose.
Good luck,
lee
 
I don't know the techniques involved in helping overcome this, but I'd also try breathing through the reg while underwater with NO mask on. Get used to how the bubbles hit your face, then when you put the mask back on, you're already comfortable with the water in there - next step is to just tilt your head back, hold the top part of the mask frame to your forehead, and breath out through your nose.
 
There are only a few things that go wrong with this particular skill. Many divers just get it (myself included), and for them, it is really difficult to figure out what to say to someone who is having trouble. I managed to learn a couple of things when helping my wife.

1. If the bubbles are coming out your regulator when you are trying to clear your mask, you need to learn to breath out your nose. This comes more easily if you spend some time swimming under water without plugging your nose. Eventually, you will naturally breath out your nose to keep the water from coming in.

2. You don't have to clear your entire mask in one breath. My wife was blowing so hard to clear her mask that she instinctively breathed back in through her nose when she was done. If the mask wasn't completely clear, she choked. The trick is to clear it in several smaller breaths. Take your time. A flooded mask is not an emergency situation, and you don't have to rectify it quickly. As my wife is a nose breather, when she started taking her time with the mask doff/don, she would have her mask clear before she officially started clearing it.
 
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