Tips needed - Difficulty breathing without mask on.....
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Littlerayray
Contributor
Try breathing with snorkel and mask but cracking bottom of mask at first till comfortable then with strap in place hold mask away from face a few mm and go from there
pepperbelly
Contributor
Some people do have a problem breathing without a mask. For some it is simply the bubbles from the exhaust coning up into the nose.
Try holding your nose for a few breaths then try without.
The tips above from the DM are probably the best to try.
Mainly keep trying different things until you find something that works. You will find something.
Try holding your nose for a few breaths then try without.
The tips above from the DM are probably the best to try.
Mainly keep trying different things until you find something that works. You will find something.
I had my kids practice swimming around the pool snorkel only no mask. this forces you to not use your nose. If need be get a nose plug to help. It worked for them....
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All good approaches. My simplest one may or may not help. Practise on land breathing in and out with the nose, and then with the mouth (or vice versa). Make sure the airway for the one your not breathing from is completely closed shut. Then practise in one way and out the other & reverse. Get an exact feeling of how that works. Then proceed to snorkel/other stuff in water. I'm not a fan of pinching nose or nose plugs (since you probably won't do these in real situations), but that may work for some.
This may sound crazy, but it worked for one of my grandkids. Wear the mask and use the snorkel around the house for an hour or so while doing something relaxing. Within an hour, he forgot all about exhaling through his nose, and then we transitioned to snorkeling in the pool with no issues.
I had this exact issue with a pair of students this weekend in the pool. One would constantly exhale through his nose (which seems to be the opposite of your concern), and I worried that he would always have a leaky mask from breaking the seal with his exhaled nasal breath. He had no problem breathing with the mask off, as I constantly saw exhaled bubbles from his nose after inhaling through the regulator with his mask off.
My other student of the pair seemed to experience exactly what you describe. He had no problem breathing through the regulator, but when it came to clearing a flooded mask or breathing without one, he would take four or five breaths to accomplish it, as only a tiny spurt of air would come out his nose as he attempted to clear.
What we started with was on land: just a repetitive cycle of inhaling ONLY through the mouth (like sucking through a straw) and exhaling ONLY through the nose (like blowing into a tissue when you have a cold). Over and over and over we practiced, until the routine became embedded in his muscle memory.
Once back in the pool, the same issue returned, because the presence of water near your nose is a powerful inhibitor of opening that passage, even to EXHALE. But using the same mindset as we had at the surface, and coaching him to "blow his nose into a tissue", he reacquired the habit he had shown so easily on land.
Your problem is VERY common, and is merely a matter of teaching new individual muscles to do something they are disinclined to do. With repetition (just like in grade school with your ABC's, over and over), what is difficult becomes easy.
I always start my pool classes asking my students if they can flex their fourth finger BY ITSELF. We can all flex our index finger, or our thumb, but it takes a bit of effort and repetition to find the nerve connection that tells just one muscle to act in a fashion different from before. With that analogy, and making a game of isolating the mouth from the nose, we can almost always get past the sort of issue you have described.
Just keep practicing at it, and don't lose hope! It takes years to play a violin. At least scuba is easier, if not less daunting when you first start. You will do just fine!
My other student of the pair seemed to experience exactly what you describe. He had no problem breathing through the regulator, but when it came to clearing a flooded mask or breathing without one, he would take four or five breaths to accomplish it, as only a tiny spurt of air would come out his nose as he attempted to clear.
What we started with was on land: just a repetitive cycle of inhaling ONLY through the mouth (like sucking through a straw) and exhaling ONLY through the nose (like blowing into a tissue when you have a cold). Over and over and over we practiced, until the routine became embedded in his muscle memory.
Once back in the pool, the same issue returned, because the presence of water near your nose is a powerful inhibitor of opening that passage, even to EXHALE. But using the same mindset as we had at the surface, and coaching him to "blow his nose into a tissue", he reacquired the habit he had shown so easily on land.
Your problem is VERY common, and is merely a matter of teaching new individual muscles to do something they are disinclined to do. With repetition (just like in grade school with your ABC's, over and over), what is difficult becomes easy.
I always start my pool classes asking my students if they can flex their fourth finger BY ITSELF. We can all flex our index finger, or our thumb, but it takes a bit of effort and repetition to find the nerve connection that tells just one muscle to act in a fashion different from before. With that analogy, and making a game of isolating the mouth from the nose, we can almost always get past the sort of issue you have described.
Just keep practicing at it, and don't lose hope! It takes years to play a violin. At least scuba is easier, if not less daunting when you first start. You will do just fine!
clownfishsydney
Contributor
I've done over 4,000 dives and I still hate it when I have to remove my mask to clean it and breathe (luckily I can normally clean it without needing to take a breath).
Apart from on the course, you should hardly ever have to do it, so do not worry too much about it.
Apart from on the course, you should hardly ever have to do it, so do not worry too much about it.
Jay
Need to dive more!
Side thought, OP, you wouldn’t happen to be a yoga enthusiast?
It will come; you can always pause things too and reinitiate later. Dive Instructors are really accommodating!!
It will come; you can always pause things too and reinitiate later. Dive Instructors are really accommodating!!
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