mask clearing and water up the nose

[CLaFong]

Hi

Any body have any tips on how to prevent water going up the nose during mask clearing? I got my wife into taking scuba lessons and she she's having tbl in that area. She has that problem with swimming also. When the mask floods she thinks it might be the pressure from the water. Any tips would be appreciated. Shes a good diver otherwise, but sure like to get her passed this, my new dive buddy and all that

thanks inadvance

[BobbyWombat]

A couple thoughts that I've heard that I can pass along:

1. Have her first sit and breathe without the mask on. Then swim without the mask on. This should help her learn how to not breathe through her nose when underwater.

2. Make sure when mask clearing to bring your chin back down after the mask has cleared but before you stop blowing out your nose. I've had water go up my nose if I stopped blowing with my chin still up.

Maybe that will help.

[mitsuguy]

I have to really concentrate on this - its not so much breathing - its just the water gets forced up my nose half the time unless I am blowing air out through my nose... doesn't happen when I swim unless I am doing flips and stuff underwater, so its not that I breathe it.... for instance, when swimming laps, at the end of each lap I will do a flip and push off the wall - I have to consciously remind myself to blow air out my nose at the same time, else I will drown every time...

[ScubaToys Larry]

Teaching something new to someone is a very challenging thing. I'm a course director, so I not only teach students... I teach instructors. And I explain that in teaching, the secret is break all skills down to small steps, and don't have someone go to step 2 until they have mastered step 1.

Now the problem that normally occurs with mask clearing is instructors stand in the shallow end of the pool, explain the skill, then have the students kneel down and watch him. The parts of the skill he explained is put some water in the mask, look up, exhale through your nose and lower your head as you do it, the whole time putting some pressure on the top of the mask to make the water try to come out the bottom.

Then he demonstrates how easy it is... tells students to do it, and some - no problem. Others get a nose full of water. Why? Because he left out the most important thing the student needed to master.

So what did he leave out? What has the student not mastered?


I'll give you a second to figure it out....


Ok....



Time's up.

How to breathe properly.


Your whole life up to this point, it never mattered if you breathe in or out through your nose or mouth... and now suddenly - it does!

Students rarely have problem with the flooding, or even the clearing of the mask. Most the problems occur when they take the breath after exhaling, they also inhale slightly with their nose as well as their mouth, and even just a little water in the mask gets inhaled and causes a problem.

So here's how I teach the skill. I have the students all put their masks on, and regs in their mouth. This is standing in the shallow end... not under water. Then I tell them to breath in through their mouth, and out through their nose. And keep breathing that way. I have them breathing like that the whole time I explain the rest of the skill... the flooding, looking up, etc.

What I'm doing is training them to get the breath rhythm down to be able to do this skill... and actually, the most important part of the skill.

I'll have them breathing that way for a good solid 2 or 3 minutes before I ever have them go underwater. It give me the chance to watch... If you look closely, you will see when they do their inhale if they are breathing in still through their nose, as you will see the mask suck to their faces a bit. If they are still doing that - point it out, and have them keep working on it before they ever go under water.

Once they have mastered that "dry", then I have them kneel down and do the same thing. Breathe in through the mouth - out the nose... no water in the mask yet. Just working again on the breathing rhythm underwater for another minute or so. Then I have them crack the bottom slightly on the exhale (I grab my mask and crack the bottom instead of the standard, push on the top... work better for me - so I teach it that way). So now they are doing a mask clear motion and technique... but we still have not introduced any water into the mask.

Then when everything is looking good... I'll have them crack the mask a bit and put a little water in as their doing the clear - and bingo - it goes out - and I rarely ever have anyone have a problem.

So I would say, put on the mask, and more important than just not breathing through the nose, is getting the breathing down where you can exhale from the nose, and not breathe in through the nose when you inhale with your mouth.

That is the actual secret of that skill. And if someone just practices that while sitting in their house watching TV for about 10 minutes, I'll bet the next time she hits the pool, she will not have any problems.

Let us know how it works out!

[CLaFong]

thanks guys

I think thats it, when you break it down, I can see that is exactly what i do myself but didnt even know it

I'll send her the link so she can read up on this,

I just joined the forum, and it already payed off

cool

[CaribbeanDiver]

I tell ya, you just gotta love those Scuba Toys guys. Why, if Dallas was close to the ocean, I would move there.

[RonFrank]

Boy Larry really put the KYBosh on this thread with that nice explanation

Nose breathers have a problem in that you can't do that UW! Some techniques that other instructors have used include diving in the pool without a mask, or snorkeling in the pool without a mask. In either case if one does that for a while, they can train themselves to NOT breath in through the nose when in the water.

One *crutch* that a couple OW students that were nose breathers used was to pinch their nose closed when doing mask drills. I would NOT recommend this other than to regain control if it's leading to panic at depth. Both divers I witnessed doing this did so because one had already done a panic ascent on a previous OW checkout dive, and the other was near panic before regaining control after holding his nose. Both divers were told to work on this so as to NOT have to resort to nose pinching when clearing.

Mask clearing is a VERY important skill. In a lessons learned article (ScubaDiving mag) one diver drowned in Palau at Blue Corner when the current ripped her mask off her face, and she freaked out.

[CompuDude]

We have a simple homework assignment we give all OW students before their pool session.

Go home and fill your sink or tub with COLD water.

Put your snorkel in your mouth (NO MASK), and dip your face in the water. Breathe normally through the snorkel... no nose pinching allowed, of course.

It may not happen at first, but it's rare that someone can't do it, and most have no problems figuring it on their own in this scenario.

If you can do this for two minutes, in cold water, but only 2" or so, in a perfectly comfortable, safe environment, 90%+ of the time you'll have no problems during the actual pool session. (We start while standing in the shallow end there, also, before progressing underwater and ultimately to the deep end and ocean.)

Note it's important to use cold water, not nice warm bath water, otherwise the shock of cold water in the pool or ocean or lake will be a real shock when you try to do this skill for real. You need to be prepared, and warm bath water doesn't quite do it.

It's frequently VERY obvious in the pool session which students did their homework and which ones did not.

[chace_nicole]

Originally Posted by CompuDude

We have a simple homework assignment we give all OW students before their pool session.

Go home and fill your sink or tub with COLD water.

Put your snorkel in your mouth (NO MASK), and dip your face in the water. Breathe normally through the snorkel... no nose pinching allowed, of course.

It may not happen at first, but it's rare that someone can't do it, and most have no problems figuring it on their own in this scenario.

If you can do this for two minutes, in cold water, but only 2" or so, in a perfectly comfortable, safe environment, 90%+ of the time you'll have no problems during the actual pool session. (We start while standing in the shallow end there, also, before progressing underwater and ultimately to the deep end and ocean.)

Note it's important to use cold water, not nice warm bath water, otherwise the shock of cold water in the pool or ocean or lake will be a real shock when you try to do this skill for real. You need to be prepared, and warm bath water doesn't quite do it.

It's frequently VERY obvious in the pool session which students did their homework and which ones did not.

Thats what my instructor had me do AFTER I had a problem with it the 1st pool night. Wish he would have had us practice that before because it made all the difference in the world.

[Steve Scuba]

Geez, after reading Larry's post, I'm half tempted to move to Dallas Texas just for the better training opportunites!