First, let me say that I believe the antagonist (I being the protagonist) in the following story reads SB, so I am writing it aware that he might read it. But, my purpose is not to call him out. We talked after it was all over and cleared the air and are, I think, "good". MOF is a subject that has inspired many posts here on SB and is clearly somewhat contentious. So, I want to share my story of what happened to me, and what COULD happen to you, as a result of not belonging to the School Of MOF Means You're Going To Die.
Second, if you don't already know, MOF means Mask On Forehead. Some scuba instructors teach that you should never put your mask up on your forehead because that is a sign of distress.
Onward....
This past weekend, I got in a local pool with a buddy of mine to practice some tech sidemount skills. He arranged for us to get in a pool that I had not been to before, with a shop that I have never been to before. As I learned while there, the shop was running an OW class with half a dozen or so students and a Rescue class with some smaller number of students, plus (I believe) a refresher for a couple of other divers. We were all sharing the deep end of this pool.
My buddy had made most of the arrangements for us to be there. I just had to call a few days before, give them my credit card for the $25 fee to get in, and email them scans of a signed liability waiver and of my C card. When I got there, my buddy was already there and had the lay of the land. I only talked to him and nobody from the shop really talked to me. Nobody asked me my name or introduced themselves. When the waterobics class before us got out and the deep end was empty, I asked my buddy and he said we were clear to splash, so I did. Other folks were following suit shortly after.
We'd been in for a while and everyone was in and actually doing a reasonable job of staying out of each other's way. At least, they were doing a good job staying out of our way and I HOPE we were staying out of their way, too. I was trying, anyway.
We got to a point where we wanted to chat, so we made an ascent and were hanging on the side of the pool. I was holding onto the side with my left hand, facing him. The OW class was a ways away behind him. He was holding on with his right hand, facing me. The Rescue class was doing something not too far behind me.
As we were talking, I head a voice yell in the distance. This natatorium was big and there were a lot of swimmers with coaches and whatnot in the rest of the pool area outside of the deep end that we were using. It was loud in there. I didn't react to the first yell I heard. Then I heard another yell and it was closer/louder. I looked around to see what was going on and I see a diver in the water swimming at full speed in my general direction. It was he that was yelling and yelled again. This time I realized he was coming towards me and yelling at me.
He yelled, "SIR, ARE YOU IN DISTRESS?"
I said back loudly, so he could hear, but not yelling, "no."
He continued to swim towards me. Now about 10' away. Still yelling, "YOUR MASK ON YOUR FOREHEAD MEANS YOU ARE IN DISTRESS!"
My first thought was that this was one of the students from the Rescue class and he has mistaken me for someone who is playing a part in a rescue scenario. A similar thing happened to me back when I was a Rescue student - except in that case, it was I who mistook one of the instructors. I mistakenly thought he was pretending to be non-responsive and then combative and I "rescued" him despite what turned out to be his actual, real attempts to get me to stop. His non-responsive behavior was simply him not realizing that I was trying to assess him and staring blankly back at my hand signals because he didn't realize what I was doing. But I digress...
I said back, again, loudly but not yelling, "no. It does not." I really did not care to get roped into playing along with a rescue scenario. I had things I wanted to get accomplished while we had the pool time and playing games was not one of them.
He has now swum close enough and stops and yells at me again. Seriously. Yelling. "AS AN INSTRUCTOR IN CHARGE OF THIS POOL, I'M TELLING YOU THAT YOUR MASK ON YOUR FOREHEAD MEANS YOUR ARE IN DISTRESS!!"
Oh. You're an instructor for the shop that has the pool right now? Well, why didn't you say so? I didn't say that. As I was taking my mask off my head, I just said, "Oh. No problem. It won't happen again. Your pool, your rules."
At the shop where I am currently a DM, we don't teach people that they can't put their mask on their forehead. We do tell them that some people may see that as a possible sign that they are in distress, so they should be aware of that. We also teach people (in the Rescue class) to look for that as a possible sign of distress in other divers. But, I have personally seen people lose their mask to the bottom of the quarry because they turned it around backwards then, as they swam on their back towards the shore, they didn't notice that their mask got knocked off by their 1st stage. So, I wouldn't ever tell someone NEVER put your mask on your forehead. I would be more inclined to tell people to be aware of how things can be interpreted, but do what works. And if you see someone with MOF, use your best judgment and common sense to determine if the MOF means they are in distress or not. Not everyone is trained the same way, when it comes to MOF, so don't assume anyone else has the same training as you.
If you are of the same mind as I am, please allow yourself to learn from my mistake. Otherwise, you could get yelled at by someone who sees a perfectly calm diver, hanging out and talking on the surface, as a diver in distress, because you have your mask on your forehead. Don't be like my former Rescue instructor and get yourself "rescued" (or even just yelled at) by someone who has misinterpreted your actions.
Second, if you don't already know, MOF means Mask On Forehead. Some scuba instructors teach that you should never put your mask up on your forehead because that is a sign of distress.
Onward....
This past weekend, I got in a local pool with a buddy of mine to practice some tech sidemount skills. He arranged for us to get in a pool that I had not been to before, with a shop that I have never been to before. As I learned while there, the shop was running an OW class with half a dozen or so students and a Rescue class with some smaller number of students, plus (I believe) a refresher for a couple of other divers. We were all sharing the deep end of this pool.
My buddy had made most of the arrangements for us to be there. I just had to call a few days before, give them my credit card for the $25 fee to get in, and email them scans of a signed liability waiver and of my C card. When I got there, my buddy was already there and had the lay of the land. I only talked to him and nobody from the shop really talked to me. Nobody asked me my name or introduced themselves. When the waterobics class before us got out and the deep end was empty, I asked my buddy and he said we were clear to splash, so I did. Other folks were following suit shortly after.
We'd been in for a while and everyone was in and actually doing a reasonable job of staying out of each other's way. At least, they were doing a good job staying out of our way and I HOPE we were staying out of their way, too. I was trying, anyway.
We got to a point where we wanted to chat, so we made an ascent and were hanging on the side of the pool. I was holding onto the side with my left hand, facing him. The OW class was a ways away behind him. He was holding on with his right hand, facing me. The Rescue class was doing something not too far behind me.
As we were talking, I head a voice yell in the distance. This natatorium was big and there were a lot of swimmers with coaches and whatnot in the rest of the pool area outside of the deep end that we were using. It was loud in there. I didn't react to the first yell I heard. Then I heard another yell and it was closer/louder. I looked around to see what was going on and I see a diver in the water swimming at full speed in my general direction. It was he that was yelling and yelled again. This time I realized he was coming towards me and yelling at me.
He yelled, "SIR, ARE YOU IN DISTRESS?"
I said back loudly, so he could hear, but not yelling, "no."
He continued to swim towards me. Now about 10' away. Still yelling, "YOUR MASK ON YOUR FOREHEAD MEANS YOU ARE IN DISTRESS!"
My first thought was that this was one of the students from the Rescue class and he has mistaken me for someone who is playing a part in a rescue scenario. A similar thing happened to me back when I was a Rescue student - except in that case, it was I who mistook one of the instructors. I mistakenly thought he was pretending to be non-responsive and then combative and I "rescued" him despite what turned out to be his actual, real attempts to get me to stop. His non-responsive behavior was simply him not realizing that I was trying to assess him and staring blankly back at my hand signals because he didn't realize what I was doing. But I digress...
I said back, again, loudly but not yelling, "no. It does not." I really did not care to get roped into playing along with a rescue scenario. I had things I wanted to get accomplished while we had the pool time and playing games was not one of them.
He has now swum close enough and stops and yells at me again. Seriously. Yelling. "AS AN INSTRUCTOR IN CHARGE OF THIS POOL, I'M TELLING YOU THAT YOUR MASK ON YOUR FOREHEAD MEANS YOUR ARE IN DISTRESS!!"
Oh. You're an instructor for the shop that has the pool right now? Well, why didn't you say so? I didn't say that. As I was taking my mask off my head, I just said, "Oh. No problem. It won't happen again. Your pool, your rules."
At the shop where I am currently a DM, we don't teach people that they can't put their mask on their forehead. We do tell them that some people may see that as a possible sign that they are in distress, so they should be aware of that. We also teach people (in the Rescue class) to look for that as a possible sign of distress in other divers. But, I have personally seen people lose their mask to the bottom of the quarry because they turned it around backwards then, as they swam on their back towards the shore, they didn't notice that their mask got knocked off by their 1st stage. So, I wouldn't ever tell someone NEVER put your mask on your forehead. I would be more inclined to tell people to be aware of how things can be interpreted, but do what works. And if you see someone with MOF, use your best judgment and common sense to determine if the MOF means they are in distress or not. Not everyone is trained the same way, when it comes to MOF, so don't assume anyone else has the same training as you.
If you are of the same mind as I am, please allow yourself to learn from my mistake. Otherwise, you could get yelled at by someone who sees a perfectly calm diver, hanging out and talking on the surface, as a diver in distress, because you have your mask on your forehead. Don't be like my former Rescue instructor and get yourself "rescued" (or even just yelled at) by someone who has misinterpreted your actions.
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