Is there a situation in which you would intentionally remove your mask?

[MaxBottomtime]

I guess I've been lucky. Free diving for a couple years, then scuba for 23 years and haven't taken a mask off in the water since my OW class.

 

[Tigerman]

I was on a dive once where one of my buddies had used a defog that was new to him. Partway through the dive, he rolled over on his back to look at the bottom of something, and got his eyes full of water with defog in it. He got an awful reaction -- his eyes stung horribly and turned bright red. He took the mask off, rubbed it and rinsed it repeatedly, but we had to call the dive and go in. We guided him, and he kept his mask off.

Hot diggity d**m. That dont exactly sound like fun..

 

[RikRaeder]

Defogging and photo ops are some times I might take mine off. Of course, I can see pretty well underwater without mine (and have a backup mask should I lose my primary while horsing around). Never seemed like a big deal to me.

 

[Hank49]

Itchy eye. It happens pretty often. I hate an itch that I can't scratch.

 

[Kilili]

I've actually had a contact become dislodged. Remove mask, carefully take out contact, very carefully put contact back in, replace mask, clear mask, continue dive.

As soon as I got back to the boat I took the lens out and thoroughly rinsed both the lens and my eye (you never know)

I must say, that's impressive.

 

[mathauck0814]

I must say, that's impressive.

No - it's just lucky. Best case scenario, it works. Worst case scenario, you botch it up and thumb the dive (e.g., right back where you started).

 

[Tigerman]

I must say, that's impressive.

Indeed, I have a bit of a hard time handling my contacts on LAND. Then again, I dont use them daily, so I dont get regular "practice" with them

 

[TMHeimer]

I have never even thought of intentionally removing my mask other than doing it as a skill (no-mask swimming is of course one of the skills, though I personally never considered the ability to breathe only through one's mouth to be a skill -- like chewing gum while walking?). I like the one about taking it off to blow your nose--but I never have to do that as I avoid diving with a cold and outgrew all my bad allergies in my 30s.

 

[Kilili]

I've removed on occasion to clean a really fogged up mask, or to reset one not properly in place. No big deal. Wear contacts, and rather not though.

 

[Herb-alaska]

I had one time that nothing would stop that mask from flooding. I must have had some hair or a portion of my hood in the wrong place so after several attempts to check the mask skirt and purge it just would not stay dry so I just took it off and started over and sure enough what ever the issue was it was solved. lesson learned was that sometimes it is better just to stop and start over rather than fight the issue.