How To Clear a Fully Mask While Scuba Diving

Knowing How To Clear a Fully Flooded Mask Underwater ​can help you to solve a foggy mask underwater or clear the mask if it ever get's flooded on a scuba dive. It is very rare for a scuba mask to fully flood on a dive and even rarer remove your mask underwater. It can happen however, so it is important that we practice the Fully Flooded mask skill in the PADI Open Water Diver course.

Clearing a Fully Flooded Mask

It's is best the practice clearing the fully flooded mask after you mastered the partially flooded mask skill in the PADI Open Water Diver course. The PADI Fully Flooded Mask skill is part of PADI Confined Water Dive 2. The performance requirement in the PADI Instructor manual states:

Clear a fully flooded mask.

Steps for the How to clear the PADI Fully Flooded Mask skill

1. Fully flood the scuba mask by pulling down the top of the frame
2. Touch the top of the frame with your fingers
3. Breath into your mouth 
4. Breath out of your nose while gently looking up
5. If there is still a bit of water in the mask then repeat the previous steps
6. Until the scuba mask is clear from water

Check out this Fully Flooded Mask Skill Video:

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The trick with this skill is to not overthink it. Stay calm, breath in slowly and exhale though the nose while looking up. The skill can be very handy when you get a bit of a foggy mask while scuba diving. To prevent a foggy mask from happening we recommend you to use toothpaste or spit into your mask before the dive. Would you like to know more about how to teach the mask skills as a PADI Diving Instructor than check this article.

Check out the mask below that we recommend as one of the softest latex/seal, making mask clearing very easy:

Mares Liquid Skin Mask

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Next Skill: Mask Removal, Replacement and Clearing