Just wondering , what is the point of all the mask off drill in Tech Training. Right now im only taking Naui Masterdiver with a tech instructer and he really cant even answer it , neither could the instructers who he took courses thru (Gue , Naui ) Normally a tech team carries extra masks on a dive right , common would be at least one per 3 man team if everybody didnt have an extra in their cargo pocket. So basically for a real world mask off situation , you would have to lose 1 to 3 masks before someone had to finish without one. I just dont see that happening , why train so much for it.
Mask off drills
- Thread starter terrasmak
- Start date
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I think its so you can maintain that business as usual approach during the period between when the primary gets dislodged and the backup is deployed. It wouldn't do to lose all situational awareness and realize once you've got your backup mask in place that you have blown through your mid-water stops.
A couple of reasons. It challenges your comfort level while performing other skills, and it causes you to rely on feel and muscle memory. I am sure every time the mask came off you were doing other skills correct? The mask off is not the primary skill it is just to increase the difficulty.
matt_unique
Guest
terrasmak:
Most people do not practice it at all and if it really happened mid-dive they would be totally unprepared to deal with it. It's not a huge deal in warm water but in cold water it's very challenging.
--Matt
Spectre
Contributor
terrasmak:
I was about 40 feet into a fairly silty area of a wreck when we ran into a dead end and had to turn around. I turned around and told my buddy to. He turned around and started heading out. One kick and my reg went flying. I grabbed my reg before it hit the silt, got it into my mouth and cleared right as the next fin came and took my mask off. I managed to catch the mask as it was coming off my head, stick it back on and clear it, all within a foot of the silt, all without disturbing any of it.
It's all about being comfortable without it. I'm not sure I would have liked the situation if I hadn't had so much mask off time. Instead it just became an on-the-boat dope slap with some gentle razzing for months after
matt_unique
Guest
Spectre:I was about 40 feet into a fairly silty area of a wreck when we ran into a dead end and had to turn around. I turned around and told my buddy to. He turned around and started heading out. One kick and my reg went flying. I grabbed my reg before it hit the silt, got it into my mouth and cleared right as the next fin came and took my mask off. I managed to catch the mask as it was coming off my head, stick it back on and clear it, all within a foot of the silt, all without disturbing any of it.
It's all about being comfortable without it. I'm not sure I would have liked the situation if I hadn't had so much mask off time. Instead it just became an on-the-boat dope slap with some gentle razzing for months after
Excellent example of the benefits of practice.
--Matt
Mark Vlahos
Contributor
I really don't like having my mask off, I find it to be... well, lets just call it unpleasant. Having said that, it is extremely important that having a mask removed, lost, or flooded is just an annoyance. There are other skills that still need to be done, other problems that sitll need to be managed with the mask off. Spectre has given an excellent example of multiple problems all at once with the mask being pretty low on the list.
Mask off drills are necessary to emphasize that it is but a simple annoyance, other things like bouyancy, buddy awareness, and general situational awareness can have a larger impact on safety if left unmanaged in the time it takes to replace a lost mask. If you have a spare mask in your pocket it will still take several seconds to retrieve it, place it on your head, and clear it. If in this time you have hit the bottom and silted the area causing you to loose your buddy, you have caused a cascade of problems that are more serious than having a fuzzy world.
I need to be more vigilant to spend some time on every dive without my mask.
Mark Vlahos
Mask off drills are necessary to emphasize that it is but a simple annoyance, other things like bouyancy, buddy awareness, and general situational awareness can have a larger impact on safety if left unmanaged in the time it takes to replace a lost mask. If you have a spare mask in your pocket it will still take several seconds to retrieve it, place it on your head, and clear it. If in this time you have hit the bottom and silted the area causing you to loose your buddy, you have caused a cascade of problems that are more serious than having a fuzzy world.
I need to be more vigilant to spend some time on every dive without my mask.
Mark Vlahos
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