Opening mouth underwater

[Charlie99]

Most of the divers I see with mouths open and no reg are either talking, screaming or blowing air rings. In all cases air is being expelled and no water enters.
The rest are drowning.

If you look a bit closer at either divers, or just someone swimming underwater in a pool, you will see that you can open your mouth and negligible water will enter as long as your mouth is pointed down.

You DON'T have to be constantly expelling air to keep water from entering.

Don't take my word for it. Like Rick suggested, just go try it out in a pool.

 

[jepuskar]

JBD,

Well, I would have to say the nasal passages, into the mask and if the mask already has enough volume...into the water.

Miketsp, the specific situation I would be referring to is when people open their mouthes underwater to try and have cleaner shrimp clean their mouth. In that case, they are not exhaling, inhaling, but their mouth is wide open and they maintain the position in the water, by usually laying on the sea floor.

 

[jepuskar]

I will be trying it in a pool in a couple hours....I'll write a trip report when I get back...HA

 

[miketsp]

JBD,

Well, I would have to say the nasal passages, into the mask and if the mask already has enough volume...into the water.

Miketsp, the specific situation I would be referring to is when people open their mouthes underwater to try and have cleaner shrimp clean their mouth. In that case, they are not exhaling, inhaling, but their mouth is wide open and they maintain the position in the water, by usually laying on the sea floor.

I don't see any problem with that. You can allow your mouth to fill with water without swallowing it or breathing it in. Many times while snorkelling I breathed in a full mouthfull of water thinking I was at the surface and then had to hold it until I really was at the surface and could expel it. Old type simple snorkle with no drain valve.

Just not sure I would like something crawling around inside my mouth.

 

[ScubaTexan]

If my mouth gets really dry inside (which it often does, breathing compressed air), I take my regulator out, let some water in, swish it around (note, I DO NOT swallow), spit it out and replace my regulator. No biggie....

 

[skeet]

Ditto what Scubatexan said

 

[jbd]

Well, I would have to say the nasal passages, into the mask...

Correct

Water in the mouth, air in the nasal passages and all is well. Time to find a cleaning station!!

 

[radinator]

Sometimes you gotta keep your mouth open, so the cleaning shrimp can get at that piece of corn kernel between your molars...

 

[jepuskar]

Ok, I did the whole mouth open in the water thing a few hours ago...it was no biggie....im surprised it was never brought up or tried by myself a while ago....

Actually had some fun with it. The sensation I get is that my entire mouth does not fill up with water...like when you drink too much...it was actually quite easy to get the water out too, didnt even have to exhale to do it.

Is it a useful learned skill? well, maybe like ScubaTexan said, to temporary help a dry mouth, but I doubt I will be doing this alot or at all...but it helps to know and I'm happy I asked in the end.....

 

[jbd]

...but I doubt I will be doing this alot or at all...

Nope, not acceptable. You are required to find a cleaning station and let the cleaners do their thing and we want pictures!!!