Scuba Masks advice please';?

Hi All,





I recently passed my PADI open water diving certification while in Phuket, one problem I constantly had during every dive was my mask filling up with water, it was never really ';clear'; as soon as I cleared it (by breathing thru my nose and holding my head back) it would clear for a min or 2, then slowly fill again.





I tried 3 different masks all filled up, one of the instructors told me this is because I have a Goatee beard (hair on my top lip) so the mask cannot seal correctly,, could this be true, and if it is true are there any tips you can give on how to keep my mask clear without having to shave off my beloved Goatee?





thanks!Scuba Masks advice please';?
My husband had the same problem. He tried on quite a few masks before he found the best fit for him (so what if it was pink?). He put vaseline on his moustache and that helped a bit so you might want to try that. He also has deep smile lines so there is a bit of a gap at the bottom of his cheeks. Nothing you can really do about that. He has since shaved off his moustache and his mask still leaks a bit, but not as much as it did previously.





Yours seems to be filling up very fast so maybe you don't have the best fit you could have.





Some masks are designed for small, medium or large faces. Ask the advice of your dive shop. A smaller mask (one with lower internal volume) will usually give you the best fit. To see if you have the proper fit, follow these steps:





1. Touch mask to face - Put the mask up to your face and stop when it is barely touching your face. Ideally the mask should touch all around your face at the same time. Do not press the mask hard onto your face.





2. Check skirt - Check around your temples and the smile lines between your nose and corners of your mouth since this is the most common area for leaks. There should be no gaps between the skirt and your skin. If you see big gaps, move on to another mask.





3. Inhale - Sniff in lightly through your nose to to create a vacuum on the mask. The mask should stay in place without any straps or hands holding it in place. If you have to keep on inhaling to keep the mask on, try another mask.





4. Exhale - Exhale through your nose to remove the mask.





The most important step to getting the correct fit is to check the skirt as it is barely touching your face. The proper skirt fit will do the most to making sure your mask doesn't leak.





Hope this helps. I know a mask that leaks that much can be a pain. Good luck.Scuba Masks advice please';?
vaseline on the mustach before putting on the mask may help.
You didn't say how old you are.





If you have smile lines on your face, particularly the junction between your mouth/lip muscles and your cheeks, water can easily get inside your mask through those lines. This would be in addition to improper sealing that a goatee might cause.





Best bet I think is to keep trying different masks, doing the sealing test in air to make sure that it will seal on your face properly. You may want to ask your local dive shop for masks that fit well with goatees; the staff there should be more than happy to help you out with that. My PADI instructor had a goatee and had a mask that sealed on his face, so it's definitely doable!
if ya wanna keep your beloved Goatee, then buy some vaseline.
During the winter, I have a full beard. During the summer I don't. There's a reason behind that and it has to do with your question. :)


Your instructor is quite right in that hair on your upper lip is definitely going to be a factor. It may not be the entire cause though and could also be that your face shape and the masks you've tried still aren't all that compatible. Still, I don't have any dive pals that even with a great fit mask and hair under their schnoze, don't get some flooding happening.