When you are first learning how to dive. You learn basic skills in the pool before you move to open water. One of the most basic is clearing your mask. There are a couple of reasons you will have to clear your mask. It isn’t sitting right on our face, and it is leaking a little. You are diving with a group of people, and you get kicked in the face, and your mask gets knocked off. This is a skill you should always practice, especially if you have not dove in a long time. No matter how often you dive being good at the basic skills will always pay off.
This is one of the most basic skills to have, but it is also one of the most important. Let’s say you are doing a 3-hour night dive. About 15mins into it your mask starts leaking. You have to clear it every couple minutes. So you decide to change out your mask. This could be a quick thing, or if you have never practiced this, it isn’t going to help at all.
Leaking mask
After you have inhaled slightly press the top part of your mask to your forehead while blowing slowly through your nose. Tilt your head back slightly looking up while exhaling through your nose. Start to exhale thru your nose slowly. Watch for bubbles if you close to your target. The water will slowly start to leave. You don’t have to do this fast.
Flooded mask
This is just as easy as clearing a partially flooded mask. Let say you are diving in a group and someone kicks you in the face knocking your mask off. First put your mask back on, make sure that you have a good seal and there isn’t anything in its way, like part of your dive hood. Then using the same method above to clear it. Take your time. If you go to fast you will push out more air then water. So go slow and don’t waste your air. If you are really deep when you do this, there will be more pressure, making it a little harder to push the water out. Sometimes it is better to leave the mask strap off and just let the water pressure and your hand hold the mask to your face. Once you have some air in your mask then you should put your mask strap on.
If you are only able to dive a couple of times a year. Then you need to get in the water and practice your basic skills, and this is one that will help a lot. There is nothing worse than being on a night dive, and your mask won’t stop leaking, and you can’t see anything. The best way to perfect this skill is to practice it over and over again in a controlled environment like a swimming pool. The primary keys for being able to clear a flooded mask is to relax. This is the reason you had to do all those flutter kicks on the side of the pool with your mask full of water. Lastly, if you have to do a 3-hour dive and you go thru all these steps, and nothing works, well you at least get a good story out of it.
