Help with mask clear in cold water

[SwimAway]

This might be ridiculous, but maybe try this:

Sitting in your chair, at home, just as comfortable as possible: Breath through your nose, and then stop it.

Can you do that? If so, start experimenting with how you are stopping/starting your ability to breath through your nose until you have a strong sense of what is going on and can control it in a comfortable setting.

The idea is that, if this is mental, then you are doing something. If you can learn to do it on demand, you can then learn to feel what is happening and control it better.

It is a bit like wiggling your ears. Everyone has the muscles to do it, but almost nobody has the muscle control to do it, but you can teach it to yourself.

Anyway, it is just an idea. Hope it helps.

 

[jakemaddox]

This might be ridiculous, but maybe try this:

Sitting in your chair, at home, just as comfortable as possible: Breath through your nose, and then stop it.

Can you do that? If so, start experimenting with how you are stopping/starting your ability to breath through your nose until you have a strong sense of what is going on and can control it in a comfortable setting.

The idea is that, if this is mental, then you are doing something. If you can learn to do it on demand, you can then learn to feel what is happening and control it better.

It is a bit like wiggling your ears. Everyone has the muscles to do it, but almost nobody has the muscle control to do it, but you can teach it to yourself.

Anyway, it is just an idea. Hope it helps.

Hey mate! I tried this and it does seem to have helped. I dived at the weekend and was able to do a fair amount of full flood clears, not the cleanest ones, but was without shooting up once.
I’m currently diving every week, so I’m going to make it a must to practise at the end of every dive.
Thanks for this tip!

 

[lexvil]

Sounds like it is mental.

I remember my dad teaching us children how to blow your nose. He just placed his hand firmly over the child"s mouth, denied them the ability to breath, and soon the snot came flying out. I haven't thought about that in years, it sounds a little brutal now, but I presume he used it on me and saw him do it to my younger siblings. LOL

Sort of like learning to swim…the hard part is getting out of the weighted sack.

 

[swan_diver]

i'm still a very new diver but have had a similar experience unable to clear my mask at first, kinda in warm water but not in cold. it helped a LOT to breathe with reg/snorkel underwater no mask (in warm pool), def anxiety inducing at first (yup mental) but I got up to few minutes calmly. just getting used to the water about 1/2" up my nostrils which I hated the feeling but it got better thankfully. Then last week tried to practice doing this in very cold pool water, could breathe through mouth ok, but with flooded mask (to practice for open water in winter in socal) I couldn't blow out my nose continuously, due to cold making me kind of choke. enough so that I needed 2-3 breaths to clear the mask and this inevitably would confuse my brain and I'd end up waterboarding myself when I tilted my head back. I'm going to try all these suggestions, plus use a lower volume freediving mask which I think may help me get it in one breath. thanks all for this great advice, love this forum and the search ability!

 

[Edward3c]

i'm still a very new diver but have had a similar experience unable to clear my mask at first, kinda in warm water but not in cold. it helped a LOT to breathe with reg/snorkel underwater no mask (in warm pool), def anxiety inducing at first (yup mental) but I got up to few minutes calmly. just getting used to the water about 1/2" up my nostrils which I hated the feeling but it got better thankfully. Then last week tried to practice doing this in very cold pool water, could breathe through mouth ok, but with flooded mask (to practice for open water in winter in socal) I couldn't blow out my nose continuously, due to cold making me kind of choke. enough so that I needed 2-3 breaths to clear the mask and this inevitably would confuse my brain and I'd end up waterboarding myself when I tilted my head back. I'm going to try all these suggestions, plus use a lower volume freediving mask which I think may help me get it in one breath. thanks all for this great advice, love this forum and the search ability!

Two things come to mind:

1. Mask clearing in water below 10’C is challenging, I always demonstrate first. Below 5’C I normally miss this drill, but note it for completion when warmer.
2. You don’t have to clear in a single breath.

 

[Boarderguy]

i'm still a very new diver but have had a similar experience unable to clear my mask at first, kinda in warm water but not in cold. it helped a LOT to breathe with reg/snorkel underwater no mask (in warm pool), def anxiety inducing at first (yup mental) but I got up to few minutes calmly. just getting used to the water about 1/2" up my nostrils which I hated the feeling but it got better thankfully. Then last week tried to practice doing this in very cold pool water, could breathe through mouth ok, but with flooded mask (to practice for open water in winter in socal) I couldn't blow out my nose continuously, due to cold making me kind of choke. enough so that I needed 2-3 breaths to clear the mask and this inevitably would confuse my brain and I'd end up waterboarding myself when I tilted my head back. I'm going to try all these suggestions, plus use a lower volume freediving mask which I think may help me get it in one breath. thanks all for this great advice, love this forum and the search ability!

You might need a better fitting mask if you're getting that much water in it... full beard and untrimmed mustache here and I get a slow seepage on most dives that I purge via my occasional nose exhale. I only "clear" if I've jostled my mask or I have a gaping hole somewhere causing water to get in faster and in more volume than I like. For water to be in your nose that means you're head up or the mask is very full and you've waited too long to clear. An occasional press and nose exhale should take care of most water ingress before it becomes a problem.