Wearing a mask on forehead a distress signal, now that seems ridiculous!

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes I saw the sign
No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong

[video=youtube;DNPjeIamsck]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNPjeIamsck[/video]
 
I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes I saw the sign
No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong

ALL YOUR ACE OF BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

20619_8_bit_all_your_base_are_belong_to_us.jpg
 
This thread is improperly named - it should be called "a great example of how dive instructors fail their students".

As an instructor, I apologize for this in a general sense. But at least I will say if you were my student, you would never be asking this question.

As a DSO, I am responsible for more than a hundred divers - people who come to me already "certified", but who I have to make sure are truly competent divers, or its my responsibility to either help them become competent or wash them out. I'm saying this because the mask on forehead question is one I always ask during my checkout dive process. I tell them that if they dive for my institution they can not park their mask on their forehead - ever. Then I ask them why. I'd say about 60% of the time they tell me because it's the "international sign of distress". And that answer is directly the fault of their instructor. As an instructor, if I can't completely explain the compelling reasoning behind something, then I sure as hell shouldn't be teaching that thing.

International sign of distress my ass.

I then demonstrate what that sign really looks like. It's not pretty and it certainly doesn't look like someone parking their mask on their forehead. It DOES involve a lot of flailing and all round freaking out.

So why do I forbid it? Why do I care? Well, the answer to that is a bit deeper, and has its roots - for me at least - in my other diving hat. In technical diving.

Okay - so sidebar. How do you define technical diving? One of the most accurate answers to that is, "recreational divers solve their problems on the surface, technical divers solve them underwater".

So what does that have anything to do with the afore mentioned MOF Syndrome (mask on forehead)? Two words: muscle memory.

I actually began to learn this concept skydiving, and it's critical there. The same holds true for any high risk activity. If you condition yourself to behave in a predictable, repeatable manner (say, if you condition yourself to always grab your second stage by grabbing it at the base of the hose rather than on the body itself), time and time again, every time, then when you have to react to an unexpected stimulus, muscle memory kicks in and your body automatically reacts in the same predictable way.

Muscle memory.

But it can work against you just as easy - more easily actually, because humans inherently gravitate towards entropy (ie, whatever is easiest).

So... (Here's the tie-in). You condition yourself time and time again to pop your mask on your forehead. You're diving in an exhibit in perfect conditions - what's the harm? Again and again you pop that sucker up there. It's natural. It's easy. It's, well, it's muscle memory. It just naturally goes there.

Then you're out in the field, doing reef surveys at night. You lose your buddy so you surface, there's no boat, no buddy, you're a little nervous, the seas have picked up - you knew you were feeling a change in the surge - and the wind's whipping the top of the waves off. No buddy, no boat - you pop your mask up on your forehead - muscle memory, you're too stressed to even think about it, your body just does it. BAM! You get slapped square in the face with a wave just as you inhale, choking down water while your mask washes off your forehead because, like an idiot you had parked it in the most tenuous, unsecured place conceivable.

THAT'S why you don't put your mask on your forehead - ever.

Muscle memory.

And it's just the tip of the iceberg.

John

John H Hanzl
Author, action / adventure
john h hanzl (author) | official site
 
Nope - you are all doing it wrong!

If I pushed my mask on my forehead, I would get a nose full of water!

Stop splashing about on the surface! Either get in the pool, or get out of it. My mask goes on my melon just before I splash (about 1 second before). It comes off my melon once I am securely out of the water. My name is not Bob. I do not flimsy about on the surface either before or after a dive. Via careful planning, I have no opportunity to adorn my shiny forehead with my mask. Not an issue.

Why do so many "divers" flail about on the surface? Are they lost? I have seen dive groups spend upto 10 minutes forming up on the surface (Belize Blue Hole dive from a liveaboard), dive pairs spending 5 minutes to paddle out to the 30 foot drop off (Bonaire) and over 30 minutes floating about after the dive waiting for the day boat to find them (again in Belize).

Once we are geared up, my divebuddy and I start the dive, by submerging. When we are finished the dive, we get out of the water. No opportunity for mask forehead parking.
 
I just sat in on a PADI open water class my friend was teaching and he went through the whole " mask on forehead could be a sign of panic/ gear rejection" song and dance. I told him I was IANTD and was therefore exempt because I was taught not to panic.
 
I just sat in on a PADI open water class my friend was teaching and he went through the whole " mask on forehead could be a sign of panic/ gear rejection" song and dance. I told him I was IANTD and was therefore exempt because I was taught not to panic.

Too bad you're not SEI. Then you'd have been taught about your long history of walking on water instead of panicking, starting back with your YMCA roots...

:D
 
This MOF/no-MOF thing doesn't seem to correspond to the realities where the rubber meets the road.

Equipment rejection is real. I've seen it. But pulling the mask onto the forehead isn't what you look for as an instructor. What you look for is the student spitting out the reg.

Spitting out the reg under water (seen this) or on the surface before having fully gained positive buoyancy (seen this) is WAY more common than pulling off the mask.

The only cases of pulling off the mask I know about either personally or via colleagues were accompanied by spitting out the reg at an inappropriate moment.

For example, the diver who at 25 metres, in a span of about 3 seconds, spit out his reg, ripped the mask off his head, started to tilt toward the surface and then inhaled water an passed out. He was saved and made a full recovery.

This is what they mean in the rescue book when they talk about equipment rejection.

It can happen on the surface too but in my experience spitting out the reg before having full positive buoyancy is by far the most common manifestation.

Pulling the mask up to MOF seems uncommon to me. What I tell students about this that MOF is a risk for losing the mask and that it's better to pull it down around the neck. However, (due to my experience) I HAMMER at them that they keep the reg in their mouth until they have full control over positive buoyancy.

R..
 
This MOF/no-MOF thing doesn't seem to correspond to the realities where the rubber meets the road.

Equipment rejection is real. I've seen it. But pulling the mask onto the forehead isn't what you look for as an instructor. What you look for is the student spitting out the reg.

Spitting out the reg under water (seen this) or on the surface before having fully gained positive buoyancy (seen this) is WAY more common than pulling off the mask.

The only cases of pulling off the mask I know about either personally or via colleagues were accompanied by spitting out the reg at an inappropriate moment.

For example, the diver who at 25 metres, in a span of about 3 seconds, spit out his reg, ripped the mask off his head, started to tilt toward the surface and then inhaled water an passed out. He was saved and made a full recovery.

This is what they mean in the rescue book when they talk about equipment rejection.

It can happen on the surface too but in my experience spitting out the reg before having full positive buoyancy is by far the most common manifestation.

Pulling the mask up to MOF seems uncommon to me. What I tell students about this that MOF is a risk for losing the mask and that it's better to pull it down around the neck. However, (due to my experience) I HAMMER at them that they keep the reg in their mouth until they have full control over positive buoyancy.

R..


ROOF - Reg Out Of Face
 
...
What I tell students about this that MOF is a risk for losing the mask and that it's better to pull it down around the neck. However, (due to my experience) I HAMMER at them that they keep the reg in their mouth until they have full control over positive buoyancy.

R..

That is it exactly...
 
Yeah... and he's dead! So there's that...

And he died from a mask on forehead related injury?????????????????????????????????
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom