Ok, I'm going to start discussing some of the answers given here so far. I'm going to start with Kathy's because I haven't had much opportunity to pick on her lately.
First is preventative measures. If I find myself close behind a buddy with few other options, I bring my arms up in front of my mask and reg and cross my forearms to form an X. That pretty well blocks any chance of an errant fin kick til we can find some room to separate.
If I do manage to get my reg kicked out, my first instinct is to go to my bungied backup. Like Kathy, my secondary is on a necklace around my neck and I can normally grab the mouthpiece just by tucking my chin to my chest without even using my hands. I use this setup in both single and double tank configurations and once I have something to breathe, I can take my time recovering my primary reg.
If I'm the lead diver and I feel myself making contact with my buddy, I'll immediately freeze my movement in the leg that made contact and switch kicks. I normally use a frog kick, so switching to a modified frog will usually give me some momentum, without contacting my buddy again til we can gain some separation.
Failing help from my buddy, my next option would be to deploy a SMB. I carry one on all open water dives and have practiced enough to be proficient with it even with my eyes closed. I would seriously caution doing this unless your confident in your skill with impaired vision! Once the SMB is deployed I'd keep myself slightly negative and just slowly reel myself up the line.
I could also do a free ascent and judge my depth and ascent rate by my ears, but it's easy to end up faster than you planned. Also with impaired vision, I don't want to potentially surface into a boat or something. Having a marker on the surface can alert a boat crew that something is wrong and to help them keep an eye on you til you come up.
If you elect to open your eyes in salt water, one trick I've found that helps greatly is not to shut them as you surface. Leaving them open helps the salt flush out of them, and if you close them when you come up it gets trapped and causes increased burning and irritation.
I agree that good situational awareness will all but negate this problem. However there are times I've found myself close enough to kick or be kicked by a buddy, usually in low viz, tight quarter situations.* What would you do if your buddy kicked your reg out of your mouth?
First of all with proper situational awareness I wouldn't be diving close enough for this to happen. But if for some strange reason it did, I have a back up reg just under my chin on a bungie which is very easy to access - then I can sort the primary out & keep diving.
First is preventative measures. If I find myself close behind a buddy with few other options, I bring my arms up in front of my mask and reg and cross my forearms to form an X. That pretty well blocks any chance of an errant fin kick til we can find some room to separate.
If I do manage to get my reg kicked out, my first instinct is to go to my bungied backup. Like Kathy, my secondary is on a necklace around my neck and I can normally grab the mouthpiece just by tucking my chin to my chest without even using my hands. I use this setup in both single and double tank configurations and once I have something to breathe, I can take my time recovering my primary reg.
If I'm the lead diver and I feel myself making contact with my buddy, I'll immediately freeze my movement in the leg that made contact and switch kicks. I normally use a frog kick, so switching to a modified frog will usually give me some momentum, without contacting my buddy again til we can gain some separation.
I don't typically carry a backup mask during openwater dives unless I plan to incur deco. If I lost my mask and it was unrecoverable, I can see reasonably well enough under water to open my eyes and I don't wear contacts to worry about. Ideally my buddy would be there to lend support and possibly recover my mask or help me manage my ascent.* What would you do if your mask strap broke and you lost your mask?
Well all equipment should be tested and inspected before dives, and I dive a cloth mask strap so can't see it braking. But if it was knocked off and lost, I keep a back-up mask in my right pocket which I have practiced deploying. So just put on the backup, take a look for the primary mask and in most situations keep diving - If we need another mask, my buddy now has another back up mask in their pocket
Failing help from my buddy, my next option would be to deploy a SMB. I carry one on all open water dives and have practiced enough to be proficient with it even with my eyes closed. I would seriously caution doing this unless your confident in your skill with impaired vision! Once the SMB is deployed I'd keep myself slightly negative and just slowly reel myself up the line.
I could also do a free ascent and judge my depth and ascent rate by my ears, but it's easy to end up faster than you planned. Also with impaired vision, I don't want to potentially surface into a boat or something. Having a marker on the surface can alert a boat crew that something is wrong and to help them keep an eye on you til you come up.
If you elect to open your eyes in salt water, one trick I've found that helps greatly is not to shut them as you surface. Leaving them open helps the salt flush out of them, and if you close them when you come up it gets trapped and causes increased burning and irritation.