Diving with a full-face mask
Today at Cal Academy I used an AGA full-face intercom mask for the second time, the first time being last week. The full-face mask is much larger and bulkier than its scuba mask cousin, and comes with a learning curve. For starters, once it is in place your air supply must be on to allow you to breathe, even above water. Since the mask covers your nose and mouth you would suffocate without an external air source. It has a five-point anchor system (straps at each side of the jaw, each temple, top of head) so once the mask is in place and tightened down it does not come off easily. A diver needs to be able to deal with this in the event his or her air supply is interrupted because it is no longer a simple thing to spit out your regulator and grab your buddy's, or take a breath from above the surface. And then there's the whole breathing through your nose thing.
Every scuba diver is used to the fact that you just don't breathe through your nose while diving. You couldn't even if you tried, as your nose is pinched shut by your mask. But not in a full-face mask. We are taught to breathe only through our nose while wearing the full-face mask, as exhaling though the mouth causes a lot of noise on the intercom microphone, but that definitely takes getting used to.
Then there's the whole idea of a two-way intercom. Diving is usually a quiet sport with minimal communication at best. But with the underwater ear phones and in-mask microphone, I spent my entire second dive talking with my topside dive tender. It's pretty funny having a conversation about random things as I'm scrubbing stubborn algae bits off the glass.
So what were my impressions after these two dives with the full-face mask? In general, it was fine. I never felt uncomfortable, but I'm not yet as comfortable in the full-face as I am in regular scuba gear--that will take a few more dives. I'm very glad that I was just able to wear the mask while just basically doing busywork (minimal cleaning) so I could concentrate on what was and was not working for me, and address the things that were not working. I was slightly overweighted without a BC, so I'll need to take a pound off my weightbelt next time (you need to be truly neutrally buoyant when you don't have a BC to compensate for extra lead).
I'm glad I started diving with the full-face mask. It's a good skill to know, and it certainly is necessary if I'm going to do the presentations from inside the tank. I just hope that once I start doing those I can still do the cleaning dives on scuba, as those are the dives that allow me to explore all the nooks and crannies of the tank.
Every scuba diver is used to the fact that you just don't breathe through your nose while diving. You couldn't even if you tried, as your nose is pinched shut by your mask. But not in a full-face mask. We are taught to breathe only through our nose while wearing the full-face mask, as exhaling though the mouth causes a lot of noise on the intercom microphone, but that definitely takes getting used to.
Then there's the whole idea of a two-way intercom. Diving is usually a quiet sport with minimal communication at best. But with the underwater ear phones and in-mask microphone, I spent my entire second dive talking with my topside dive tender. It's pretty funny having a conversation about random things as I'm scrubbing stubborn algae bits off the glass.
So what were my impressions after these two dives with the full-face mask? In general, it was fine. I never felt uncomfortable, but I'm not yet as comfortable in the full-face as I am in regular scuba gear--that will take a few more dives. I'm very glad that I was just able to wear the mask while just basically doing busywork (minimal cleaning) so I could concentrate on what was and was not working for me, and address the things that were not working. I was slightly overweighted without a BC, so I'll need to take a pound off my weightbelt next time (you need to be truly neutrally buoyant when you don't have a BC to compensate for extra lead).
I'm glad I started diving with the full-face mask. It's a good skill to know, and it certainly is necessary if I'm going to do the presentations from inside the tank. I just hope that once I start doing those I can still do the cleaning dives on scuba, as those are the dives that allow me to explore all the nooks and crannies of the tank.