Wanting to use a full face mask....

DeVore

Hi, beginner diver here.

I enjoyed the first dive I did but I found the mask a total nightmare and it ruined the day for me if I'm honest. I couldnt clear the mask at all, and the one time I did it seemed more like a fluke. I really did not enjoy the idea of it possibly happening when I was 6 metres down. A single drip of water inside kept me nervous as all hell while diving!

Lately I've seen a few people on TV diving with what look like full face masks wrapping around the face entirely and looking a whole lot more comfortable and up my street.


So, can anyone tell me if they are common enough for rental? or can you buy your own cheaply enough and bring it?

Why are they not more common, they look waaay better to me?

What are the drawbacks if any?

Do you need to clear them of water?

Anything else you can think of that I might need to know about them would be great! thanks!

DeV.

DeVore

So, answering my own question to an extent is this:

http://www.ehow.com/about_6112795_full-vs_-standard-goggles-scuba.html

but it doesnt answer all of my questions by any means


DeV.

Larianne

I don't know anything about full face masks so I'm not really answering your question.

But.... I do know a lot of people who have problems clearing their masks when they first learn to dive. I'm pretty sure I freaked out and then when they got me to take the whole thing off. :eek: The experience of letting water in and flushing it out to clear your mask is a strange one, on top of breathing in and out through your mouth and not your nose. It does take a while to get used to and not everyone is comfortable with it at the start.

I would persevere with it though if possible. The main thing with diving, to enjoy it, is you need to be comfortable with everything. Your equipment, your instructor, feeling ready to dive, not rushed.

Talk to your instructor about it. If they are any good, they will show you again how to do it and practice doing it in the pool or shallow water. They should not rush you. It's a skill which takes a while to get used to doing. In fairness, scuba diving is not a natural thing to do at all!! But totally worth it.

You diving out in Malta?? Ya lucky thing!!

yankinlk

I am using an AGA Full Face mask for my diving right now, and I love it. It gives you a much wider picture than normal goggles and also opens the possibility of communication. I have a mic installed and it works pretty good, but it takes practice. You need to speak/listen between breaths. I bought mine for search and recovery, but I like it so much I use whenever i get the chance.

Pros:
1. Visibility. Brilliant clarity, wider vision. No need to clear my mask, I have a positive pressure mask, so any water gets pushed out.

2. Communications. This is good or bad, depending on your talkative buddy, but overall its good if you need to talk.

Cons:
1. Cost. Mine was secondhand and i am pleased.

2. Claustraphobia. Getting your gear on the side of the boat can be more difficult, and standing around waiting to get in with the mask on can feel pressured. You cant just pull out the reg and take a drink of water - you are locked in.
Once you are in the water tho, you are weightless so its not bad.

3. Buddy experience. You need to be diving with people that understand your gear. Luckily I dive with 5 or 6 people with AGA - so they can assist me. I seen noobs try and pull masks off divers from in the water, totally breaking connections, just trying to be helpful.

I know there are more cons than pros - but in reality they are all easy to overcome. I would add that they are rock solid, but ive only had mine a year - so im not 100% sure of that yet.

Never met you Devore, but always liked your work. If you ever want to come down to Kilkee or Portroe Quarry I will gladly give you a test drive. http://www.diveportroe.com/

yankinlk

Actually let me elaborate on the only real drawback which is cost.

http://www.interspiro.com/diving.htm

This is the mask I have http://www.interspiro.com/product-mk2.htm
And I use positive pressure and a silicone mask. Apparently its very good, i knew none of this when I bought it...but the experienced guys were impressed with my purchase so I knew i did something right.

I got a buddy phone with it for comms. I think you can get the mask and comms for around 1200 sterling all in brand new.

There are also masks from these guys that are meant to be good too. You might be able to get just a maks and save a bit of cash. http://www.oceantechnologysystems.com/
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OTS-GUARDIAN-AGA-FULL-FACE-SCUBA-MILITARY-DIVE-MASK-/200436459652

You don't really need to buy anything else, BUT if you decide you want to only use it part time, you will find it difficult to switch back and forth from your reg to this. I ended up buying a second set of spare 1st stage, octopus and gauges so that I could leave the AGA hooked up the entire time. So that is something to consider if you try and purchase it, or want to use it only part time.

who_am_I?

How do divers with full face masks deal with an out of air situation?
I always imagined that they would remove the full mask to take the air & breathe with no mask as they surfaced.

Paddy Diver

who_am_I? wrote: »

I always imagined that they would remove the full mask to take the air & breathe with no mask as they surfaced.

Someone might give a better answer but as far as Im aware some masks have a port that you can rig up and plumb in an octo into them so there;s a secondary gas sourse.

A second option ive seen is a gas switching block where all your gas is plumbed through a device which allows you to switch to a different gas sourse, expensive i think

yankinlk wrote: »

I am using an AGA Full Face mask for my diving right now, and I love it. It gives you a much wider picture than normal goggles and also opens the possibility of communication. http://www.diveportroe.com/

Yankinlk, do you know about CO2 build-up's in FFM's? I am considering getting one for my rebreather but havnt looked into it much yet, any info id be greatful?

All the best

tedshredsonfire

Devore good avdice above but I would only go for a ffm after you have mastered all aspects of flooding clearing removing astandard mask etc. Dont get one because you have a problem with it. as mentioned above comfort with your surriundings and rquip is essential and will come with time and practice. do as much as you can in a pool or very sahllow area wheer you can stand up or hold on to th side of the pool atc and kee doing it untl you are comfy. I presume it depends on the mask type but I would have thought air cnsumption would have been higher too. Only used a ff mask once and it gave me a good idea of how a student feels for the first time with a stndard mask and reg. I held my breath an all when i put my head under water, but now thats all i do anyway.

yankinlk

who_am_I? wrote: »

How do divers with full face masks deal with an out of air situation?
I always imagined that they would remove the full mask to take the air & breathe with no mask as they surfaced.

You are correct, for this reason I keep a spare mask in my BCD pocket at all times.

Paddy Diver wrote:

Yankinlk, do you know about CO2 build-up's in FFM's? I am considering getting one for my rebreather but havnt looked into it much yet, any info id be greatful?.

I don't know, but I have two experts I can check with later today. Ill come back on that.

tedshredsonfire wrote:

I presume it depends on the mask type but I would have thought air cnsumption would have been higher too.

Not always true. For some people, when they get used to the FFM, they will feel more confortable under water and the consumption can go down dramatically. Its pretty much neutral for me, but I'm hoping I can practice with it and eventually get my air down more.

Peace

DeVore wrote: »

Hi, beginner diver here.

I enjoyed the first dive I did but I found the mask a total nightmare and it ruined the day for me if I'm honest. I couldnt clear the mask at all, and the one time I did it seemed more like a fluke. I really did not enjoy the idea of it possibly happening when I was 6 metres down. A single drip of water inside kept me nervous as all hell while diving!

Lately I've seen a few people on TV diving with what look like full face masks wrapping around the face entirely and looking a whole lot more comfortable and up my street.


So, can anyone tell me if they are common enough for rental? or can you buy your own cheaply enough and bring it?

Why are they not more common, they look waaay better to me?

What are the drawbacks if any?

Do you need to clear them of water?

Anything else you can think of that I might need to know about them would be great! thanks!

DeV.

Hey,

Clearing the mask is probably what most people struggle with when they start diving. I used to hate the mask removal and replacment skills.

When you find a mask that fits well then it should only let a couple of drops in during your dive. I don't really have any experience with a full face mask other than what i've heard/read on the internet.

The only advice i can offer is to try different masks and keep practicing the skill of removing/clearing. It was a while until i found a mask that really created a good seal but after that i had really dry dives even on the dives that went on for over 3.5 hours.

DeVore

What i was thinking was, that if I used a positive pressure face mask, I wouldnt have to do the mask-clearing stuff as thats the only bit that freaked me, breathing and comfort and confidence were fine except that in training i trie 20 times to clear it and did it once, so my confidence in my face mask and skill was poor in that regard. I just thought a FFM would circumvent that problem enough to let me diver occasionally.

DeV.

yankinlk

I know of divers that have this problem, and they dive anyway - hoping that a leaky mask never happens to them. In your case, you are trying to fix the problem by buying different gear. Everyone so far is right, you really should sort the root of the problem first.

Having said that, if it kept you from diving at all - then i guess maybe the gear upgrade would be a good choice if you felt more comfortable. You would need to be extra careful that you didnt ever get into an Out of Air situation tho - as taking off the FFM, putting on a spare mask and grabbing someone else' octopus would be far trickier.

50 bar on the surface at all times!

joeKel73

I've no experience with full-face masks but I think if you're not comfortable using a standard mask then you would be very uncomfortable if you did need to buddy breath and had to pull off the full-face mask underwater.

You should practice taking your mask completely off and on underwater. For our basic training we had to remove our mask and ditch our reg... then find the reg and replace and clear the mask. You could practice this is shallow sheltered water or the pool first.

If your mask is leaking frequently it's probably not a good fit. You should be able to hold the mask on your face without the strap, just by inhaling through your nose a bit. My first mask was very leaky, eventually replaced it and dives were much more enjoyable.

loctite

Walk before you can run......... Mask removal is one of the most common problems instructors come across when they are teaching.

Like other posters have highlighted, you need to get used to having water in your mask because if you are have a problem with your FFM and need to take it off for any reason will you be comfortable or confident in your abilities to do so........

I cannot speak for all training agencies but I know that if you were training in PADI in a OW course it is a requirement to complete the mask removal skills thus you wouldn't be certified if you can't complete the skills.

Don't let a poorly fitting mask put you off diving with a regular mask, spend a few quid on getting a good quality, good fitting mask and practice taking the mask on and off repeatedly and you will become more confident and more comfortable with it.

locum-motion

I'd just like to echo the advice of others here.
The whole set of mask skills are not the most pleasant experience in the world, but they're not designed to be pleasant or comfortable. It's about being able to solve a problem if it arises during a dive. Force yourslef to do it during training, learn to work outside your comfort zone, and hopefully you'll never actually need to do it again. BUT, you'll know that if the situation DOES arise, you can handle it.

AntiVirus

I was like you when I started. I would be diving around with half a mask full of water hoping it wouldn't fill up any more. You can see it in the picture below!




I spent one day practicing in the swimming pool and had it master in 30 minutes. With a new good fitting mask, I hardly ever need to clear it.

yankinlk

A leaky mask was the least of your problems antivirus!

locum-motion

AntiVirus wrote: »

I was like you when I started. I would be diving around with half a mask full of water hoping it wouldn't fill up any more. You can see it in the picture below!




I spent one day practicing in the swimming pool and had it master in 30 minutes. With a new good fitting mask, I hardly ever need to clear it.

Looks Photoshopped to me!

AntiVirus

locum-motion wrote: »

Looks Photoshopped to me!

Stuart cove's shark dive in the Bahamas.

locum-motion

I spottted Stuarts Cove on the wetsuit, and I'd heard of it before and seen pictures of it before, so I know that it is possible to dive there with loads of sharks, and that the scenario is realistic. I just meant that the picture itself doesn't look all that realistic.

AntiVirus

locum-motion wrote: »

I spottted Stuarts Cove on the wetsuit, and I'd heard of it before and seen pictures of it before, so I know that it is possible to dive there with loads of sharks, and that the scenario is realistic. I just meant that the picture itself doesn't look all that realistic.

You're right the pictures quality is amazing and they do use state of the art photographic equipment to get the best pictures. You should see the video footage!!! Anyway this thread isn't about if you think the photo is photo shopped or not. Back on topic

Peace

Lads,

Keep it on topic please?