When the thought of taking your mask off underwater just freaks you out

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With every exhale, you are adding moist air to that air space which, especially in cold water where there is a larger delta between the temperatures inside the mask and the mask lens itself which will be at water temperature, will condense on the inside of the mask once the combination of humidity and temperature have reached a certain point (dewpoint).

Therefore: dive in warm water. In rashguard and speedos.

Also SeaDrops last for over an hour in warm water, if used properly.
 
If you keep the smallest amount of seawater in your mask you will almost certainly NOT fog up. It should sit in a little pool near your cheeks and act like a defroster.
 
Therefore: dive in warm water. In rashguard and speedos.

Also SeaDrops last for over an hour in warm water, if used properly.
I would love to but I can't afford to emigrate! Holiday warm water diving is all I can get.
 
our experienced instructors (old ones, with beard :) ) teaching newbe, who has problems with breathing underwater without mask, by very simple way. Everybody can do it at own home, on the kitchen (better) or bathroom (not so comfortable).

Just take wash-hand bassin (dishpan), put there enough water (cold, if you planning to have dive at north side, or normal otherwise), and place it on the table in front of you.
Than sit down on the chair, take breathing tube (snorkel or shnorchel, upon your choice), and start to breath from the tube in front of this dishpan. In the air, just sitting in the chair.
Than slowly start to putting down your face in to the water of dishpan. And continue breathing.
Just doing it, without any thinking about water, breating tube etc.
You can listening news or music, during this time... do anything, but only NOT to thinking about what you do. Just breathing.
After some time you will see, that you can do it, when you do not thinking about it :)

Similar way - when you goes waist deep in water with scuba - just start to breath from mouthpiece and without mask. And slowly start to put your face on the water, and deeper.
You also can do it (later) in neutral bouyancy, swimming in the water on the same depth - where you always can stand on the ground, and take your face from the water.
 
Being able to handle yourself underwater without a mask is definitely a good skill to have. I have never had my mask kicked off before but I have done a negative entry on a drift dive where I forgot to secure my mask strongly enough during a backroll and had the mask sucked off my face before. Being able to switch to a backup mask at 15-20 feet saved the dive for me in that situation. And luckily another diver was able to grab my primary mask as it descended. Then switched back to primary mask once we were on the wreck.
 
Lots of great suggestions here! Great reading for afflicted students who just happens to be reading ScubaBoard before they certify (God help them!). :D

At the risk of sounding like a POV warrior for the Tonka Truck method, I would only comment that the most fearful students with this issue risk real negative reinforcement if they repeatedly try to overcome the problem in the shallow end of the pool, or in the sink at home, or as АлександрД says, with a dishpan while distracted listening to music.

Of course try one of the methods discussed above! Most students figure it out and move right along, proud of themselves for overcoming their fear. But for the extreme cases, I would suggest that if they really want to dive (or are really being pressured to learn to dive by their wife or boyfriend, for example), they learn how to control that muscle with an out of water exercise, before they have built up a habit of panicking when their nose hits the water. How you pressure them in this regard, as Instructor or significant other, can play a big role.

My 2¢.
Lots of great techniques out there. АлександрД's distraction method is a new twist for me. I like it!
 
At first, she was scared and had challenges when learning how to clear a partially flooded mask in a shallow pool during the confined water portion of her training. After some confidence building exercises and practice, this is a video of her removing and replacing her mask while hovering in open water.

YouTube:

Facebook:
 
I've just spent the last two days practicing no mask dives, including SMB deployment, make a bubble trap, orientation, etc...
It is always nice to practice these skills and get used to.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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