On the surface, where do you like your mask?

[Diver Dennis]

Leaving it on your face is the safest place for the diver. Paniced divers tend to put their mask on their foreheads. I would only take it off or raise it up if it fogs on me.

Actually, panicked divers tend to rip it off during the flailing and screaming stage...

 

[curmie]

On my forehead where it belongs. N

My instructor told us never to wear in on your forehead in the water.....you might lose it??
So in the water it's on my face, if i go out of the water it might be around my neck....you to be safe not to lose it....

 

[Diver Dennis]

There is a thread here that started a loooong time ago about mask placement called MOF/NMOF. This question produced the longest running thread ever on SB and it's still going.

The participants, including me at the beginning, forgot what the question was at the start of the thread but it's about a bazillion posts long...

 

[Diver Dennis]

Oh, and frankly you will hear many wives tales about mask placement but always check Snopes.com before you believe any of them...

 

[DiveDiva_Ashley]

The answer for me depends on how long I am on the surface. If I'm just up for a few moments, there is not usually a reason for me to take it off so I just leave it in place. However if we've surfaced after a dive and are just floating around talking, I put it backwards around my forehead (lens in the back, mask strap in the front). I usually dive with my instructor (we're good friends) and am used to being drilled if I slip and just pull it up on my forehead without pulling it around so the mask strap is on my forehead. He says that when the mask strap is on the back of your head and you've just pulled the mask up away from your eyes, it's a sign of a diver in distress.

 

[NancyLynn]

Where do I like it is different from where I wear it.

Where I like it is on my forehead. Where I wear it is in place until I get out of the water. Until a few years ago I didn't need glasses at all. Now that I need reading glasses, I still can't stand looking through a piece of glass/plastic. I'd prefer to get the darn thing out of my line of sight - but it is not comfortable around my neck and wearing it on my forehead makes other divers ask me if I'm ok.

I really wish no one had started the old wives' tale that mask on forehead = panic.

Paniced divers tend to put their mask on their foreheads.

I agree with Diver Dennis - this is what really happens when divers panic.

Actually, panicked divers tend to rip it off during the flailing and screaming stage...

Placing it on one's forehead is (generally) a deliberate act which requires much more control than a panicked diver could muster.

(I know there are other reasons not to place it on your forehead - like accidentally knocking it off and losing it - but it is the reaction of other divers that prompts me to leave it uncomfortably in place on the surface.)

 

[SteveAD]

If it's not on my face it is in my drysuit thigh pocket.

 

[Sas]

I really wish no one had started the old wives' tale that mask on forehead = panic.

Haha I agree! Why did that actually start?? I've seen people panic before (though not whilst diving luckily) and yea, I can't imagine them being in control enough to put it on their forehead. Anyway, I have been told off on boats for wearing it on my forehead, and was fined many beers during OW training for wearing at that way . It is much more comfortable to me there than around my neck, though I see the argument about why you should keep it in place or at least around your neck when in the water, as it is more easily knocked off on your forehead.

 

[nannymouse]

Around my nechk when preparing, on my face in the water, don't take it off until I'm high and dry.

 

[irishsquid]

If i'm in choppy/rough water, then I leave it on my face. If the water is calm, it's usually on my forehead. It's my mask and my head, so I put where I want. If I'm in a panic, I'll probably scream like a B***H and flail like the Lost in Space robot!
"DANGER Will Robinson, DANGER"