I’m off to Thailand in a couple of weeks and our first stop is Koh Tao where we plan to complete the open water course.
I was already aware of the requirements like treading water for 10 minutes, swimming 200m, No problem with that at all BUT I recently saw a video of somebody doing a try dive in a pool and they had to take off their mask and keep breathing without holding there nose.
I snorkel a lot and am very comfortable in the water but the thought of having to breath without a mask covering my nose (or without being able to hold my nose to stop the water going up it) terrifies me! I’ve since read that you have to be able to breath without you mask for 1 minute and it’s really worrying me. Can you hold your nose?
Per the PADI Instructor Manual, you have to…
"Breathe underwater for not less than one minute while not wearing a mask."
That is the required part of the skill. In the "suggested techniques section" it says to tell the students not to pinch their noses.
Here is how I normally approach it in my classes:
1. There are situations in class and potentially in real diving situations that you might have your mask off your face. Remember the class is trying to give you the background and training to handle a bunch of what if scenarios.
2. Before ever reaching the no mask breathing skill, the students will have already done a few partial mask floods, a couple of full mask floods, and a couple remove/replace/clear the mask. You will be somewhat used to having water against your nose while underwater through these skills. To help visualize it, if you can do the mask remove, replace, and clear skill, then the no mask breathing is just a longer period of time between the remove and replace steps.
3. To pass the skill, the student only needs to breathe without the mask on, I make the skill a little more "realistic". First everyone kneels down, the student will take off their mask, the student breathes for at least a minute, and the student puts their mask on and clears it at the end of the minute. I can’t fail the person for the "added" steps as long as they breathe for the full minute.
4. With the putting the mask on, it would be difficult to hold your nose during that step. At some point during the mask clearing portion, you have to let go of your nose.
Tips:
–While sitting at your computer reading this, breathe in through your mouth, and out through your nose. In through the mouth, pause, out through the nose, pause, in through the mouth, pause, out through the nose, pause, etc. Use the pause to mentally swtich between mouth breathing and nose breathing. Any time my mask is off my face, I exhale through my nose.
–With just your snorkle, go stand in the shower. With the water hitting/running down your face (and not going in the top of the snorkle), breathe in through the snorkle and out through your nose.
–Water does not magially go up your nose. It only goes up if you inhale through your nose. Work on making the mental swtich.
–I actually tell my stundets not to pinch their noses. If they can’t complete the skill, then I give them some tips and work with them. Even to the point of just doing the breathing part without the mask skills in there. As a second to last try, I let them pinch their nose in the beginning, but they need to let go of it after a couple of breaths. As a last try, I let them pinch their nose.
–You will only do no mask breathing twice in the class. Once while kneeling on the bottom, and once while swimming around the pool. The swimming one is actually easier. You do not have to do this ever again, but it is a good skill to practice for the just in case scenarios.