snot...

[101recon]

Now my dive buds know why after surfacing,I always turn my back to them and spit after removing my mask.
I also get that industrial strength slobber that can stretch to amazing lengths when removing my reg.....Oh well,at least the fish like me.

 

[fnfalman]

Sorry... no polite way to put this... Only done 4 dives, but after every time I come back up and get my mask off, I have to immediately <...sorry...> hork up the biggest "nasal loogie". Now, in order to do this (as most of you will know) I have to forcefully inhale through my nose to draw it from my sinuses and spit it out. Sounds pretty much impossible to do with a mask on at depth, yes???

A) Is it possible to eliminate this, or is it just the nature of having to mouth breathe for half an hour?

B) Is it possible to "hork and spit" at depth in order to regain a sense of comfort?

** God, I can't believe I'm actually posting this here...

~m

Hey, get it out now (no pun intended) before you get a reverse block.

I got snot build-up in the beginning of my dive hobby as well, and a few times I even got the reverse block. Blowing your nose underwater is not all that great. Sometimes the loogie floated back into your mask and get in your eyes and stuff. Nasty.

And yes, I do try to blow my nose and make sure that my nasal passage is clean before the dive, yet I kept getting snot build-up.

One day, I started to breath in a bit of water while on the surface to rinse my face adn nose. Lo and behold, lots of snot came out!!! After the dive, I was snot free. I've been doing that ever since.

 

[TSandM]

This is a natural and unavoidable phenomenon related to gas expansion. As you dive, your sinuses equalize with the ambient pressure. As you ascend, that gas expands, and pushes the normal mucus that is in the sinuses out into the nasopharynx. I do what has already been desribed, which is to take my mask off while I'm still in the water, and discreetly blow my nose and rinse it in the sea.

 

[bygolly]

Sorry... no polite way to put this... Only done 4 dives, but after every time I come back up and get my mask off, I have to immediately <...sorry...> hork up the biggest "nasal loogie". Now, in order to do this (as most of you will know) I have to forcefully inhale through my nose to draw it from my sinuses and spit it out. Sounds pretty much impossible to do with a mask on at depth, yes???

A) Is it possible to eliminate this, or is it just the nature of having to mouth breathe for half an hour?

B) Is it possible to "hork and spit" at depth in order to regain a sense of comfort?

** God, I can't believe I'm actually posting this here...

~m

An important post actually....I do believe that sporting a nudi on your cheek while wandering about a dive boat is a variable of the "rule six" violation.

 

[eponym]

Diver's Pearls is what I call 'em.

I take my reg out of my mouth just before surfacing so I can snort'n'spit. I even do this in pool sessions, just because it's now an ingrained habit. But I have never had to take my mask off before surfacing to deal with it. Maybe I'm not as well-hydrated or as well-sinused as others.

-Bryan

 

[MisterPG]

14 replies in 2 hours ... on this topic... wow!
Ok, so while most of these responses have literally kept me laughing out loud and the rest are genuine "pearls" of wisdom (pun intended), I guess maybe I wasn't spot-on clear in my original inquiry... It's not so much my nose that fills up, but rather it gather WAAAY in the back/top of the throat/sinus are and it really does require inhaling through the nose to draw it down... Which, as I originally assumed, is pretty much impossible without a full-face mask...

But you guys and your booger/loogie/diver pearl/nudi stories have had me in stitches...

TSandM.. thanks for the A&P/biology lesson

~m

 

[davetowz]

Good topic and everyone has stayed on topic! I have evolved in my comfort enough to do the underwater loogie toss, just remove mask pinch one and blow, repeat, remask and clear. and true diving ethics state that one must quietly tell a bud to "clear stache" when leakers are observed!

 

[ScubaNinja]

They're often referred to a "mask oysters."

Diver's Pearls is what I call 'em.

Snot rockets. They do leave behind a trail...

 

[Randy43068]

snot happens!

I'm always snotty after EVERY dive. I don't know the mechanics of why, but I don't know a diver who doesn't snot at some level after every dive. I hog it up, spit it out as discretely as I can. But I don't worry about it much, because it's part of diving and every diver knows it.

When my buddy is snotty I simply point to the bottom of my nose, and they understand. IF they don't, I simply say "you have snot under your knows (or wherever on his or her face it is)," we're all on the same page. It happens..

 

[Aqua-Andy]

For me snot is one of the best things about diving. I have always been plagued by sinus infections, until I started diving. I have tried and used all sorts of decongestants to no avail I would always get four or five sinus infections a year. I started diving four years ago and stopped taking sinus medication for the past three years, My head has never been so clear! I have had one infection in this time, I was out of the water for three months due to other commitments and wham-o all clogged up again. My health insurance has paid for all sorts of drugs for my sinuses, I wounder if they would accept a prescription for two dives a day three times a week? Hell this would not even cost them anything I just need the note for the wife.