You Can’t Have Fun if You Can’t See

Have you ever had students who go through class in a fog? By that, I don’t mean they are not paying attention. I mean that they literally can’t see because their masks are perpetually fogged up.

Think back to when you learned to dive. Would learning have been any fun if you were perpetually blind? (Who knows? Perhaps you were.)

The ability to see clearly is critical to both learning and enjoyment. Yet far too many instructors seem indifferent to their students’ unnecessary vision impairment. No wonder so many students get certified then never dive again!

Keeping students’ masks clear requires both thought and effort. Here are some ideas that can help:

Don’t be Afraid to Clean Masks Yourself: When we sell masks to students, most of us emphasize the importance of cleaning the inside of the mask with an appropriate cleaner or detergent, to get rid of any residual preservative and help ensure that the de-fog we sell students will be effective. How many students never get around to doing this? How many more attempt to clean out their masks — but fail to realize just how long and how vigorously they have to scrub to get their masks clean enough for the de-fog to work.

You can try to dismiss this problem by saying, “Well, I told them so…” It still won’t make up for the fact your students can’t see what is going on around them.

The fact is, if you want your students’ masks to be truly clean, you are going to have to do it yourself. A good time to do so is immediately after you have rung up the sale. The extra five or so minutes you spend will help show students how much effort they need to put in the next time they purchase a mask. It will also give you an extra five minutes to talk about equipment, upcoming trips and activities, continuing education — and just how much fun they will have in class.

What if you don’t have the time to do this when a student buys his or her mask (i.e., other customers are in the store, the student is on a schedule, etc.)? Why not have the student leave the mask with you? He or she can always pick it up later. Believe me, it’s your willingness to put in this kind of extra effort that will demonstrate to students why it’s clearly better to buy from you than from someone on the Internet.

You most likely know from experience that it may take more than one attempt to clean the preservative completely out of the inside of any new mask. Make students aware of this.

Make Certain Students Understand How De-Fog Works: The key points are:

• De-fog must be applied while the mask is still dry. If you wet the mask first, the water may form a barrier between the de-fog and the glass.
• Use only the tiniest amount of water to rinse excess de-fog from the mask, once you apply it. Students often rinse their masks too vigorously, rinsing out all of the de-fog they just applied.
• Once you apply de-fog, keep the mask out of the water. I frequently see students holding their masks in their hands, under the surface. They then wonder why it is their masks fog.

The bottom line is: The best things students can do after de-fogging their masks is to stick them on their faces and leave them there.

Teach Students to Carry De-Fog With Them: Unlike “normal” dives, students in confined- and open-water training are flooding and clearing their masks constantly. It doesn’t take much more than a couple flood-and-clears for the de-fog to be completely rinsed out. The solution is to have students purchase de-fog and carry it with them in their BC pockets. This way, any time spent on the surface can be time used to re-apply missing de-fog.

Be Sensitive to Other Vision Problems: Students who have had Lazik surgery or wear contacts may also have glasses they use for reading and other close up work. Under water, these students may have difficulty reading gauges, compasses, etc. It’s almost a sure bet that any student you have over the age of 40 will have difficulty seeing things close up.

Often, students don’t realize they will have this problem until after they get in the water for the first time. By then, they may be too embarrassed to mention it to you.

Early in training, you need to ask students to be frank with you about their ability to see close up. For those who are having difficulty, solutions may include simply holding gauges at arm’s length, or adding self-adhesive bi-focal lenses to the inside of the mask.

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