Naked Nimamok\’s Corner

Today I going to talk about MASK !

Its one of the major part of the scuba diving sports , but has been a favorite debate subjects…

some would even go to war ! defending what they feel is the best type of FINS … or MASK.

There are generally 3 Types of MASK in my point of view. Please dont flam me if you dont like my selections hehehe.

There are for MASK, FRAMED MASK, FRAME LESS MASK and PARA MASK.

FRAME LESS MASK.

The reason why its frame less is becos as you can see the plastic or rubber is moulded around the glass part of the mask. This in turn gives it a lower profile. The reason for my choice is the closer the glass is to the face of the user, generally you can get more viewable area hehe, think about tunnel vision.

Since if it was a framed mask, its plastic frame would be thicker, you will experience less field of vision. Also the lower the amount of air between your face and the mask, the less chances you can feel the suck out effect. This is due to the air been compressed by the water around you when you go deeper into the sea. That can be usually balanced out by blowing a little air out of your noses when you fee; the face squeeze hehe.

Now there are 2 points when you are buying and preparing a mask.

See the picture above. This is how you been testing a mask when you look right into it. Now without putting the rubber band around and over your head just lightly place the mask over your nose and eyes.

Next just inhale slightly through your nose and let go of the mask while your head is looking straight down. If the mask is a good fit on your face profile or type , it should be able to stay in place on your face and wont drop off by itself after 20 secs. If it has a bad fit around your face, the air around you will seep into the mask and cause it to slowly peel off. Thats the simplest rules to test the fitting of the mask on your face.

Now to prepare the new mask for use, its a bit more tricky, some might ask you to just put tooth paste on the inside of the mask glass parts and leave over night and wash it off with a tooth brush and running water.

The reason is all new mask comes with some kind of chemical coating on the inside of the glass part of a mask. Its a factory default. Therefore you need to peel or wash off that layer to prevent the mask from foggin easily while using it underwater.

What I learned is a bit more effective but needs a steady hand. I would prepare my mask by using a small lighter, the type you can buy off the tobacco or cigarette counters. Then slowly warm the inside of the glass part surface, as you do that you can clearly see the heat from the small flam slowly but surely burning off and evaporating off the chemical coatings with all new Mask. Once you got to heat off all the glass surface inside the mask, you maybe leave it to cool for 10 mins and then wash off the inside with tap water.

Now all you need to do is to spit saliva into it and wash it off with sea water and you are guaranteed clear vision through out a 1 hour dive hehehe . Of cos some more civilized divers unlike myself would still prefer to use commercial anti fog products on the inside of the treated mask glass part instead hahahaha.

Thanks for reading this blog and take care.

Well this is my 1st article on the BC. I not attempting to write which is better or give a technical writeup of its functions. I am just going to give a no nonsense review of my BC.

Still please take note that my BC is uncommon among Malaysian divers…. maybe you will see similar types when you dive with Singaporeans for now we can call it a backplate + wing BC…

Heres a picture of it……

Heres the back view of it……..

From the 1st picture you can see that there is a lightweight metal plate which is attached by a harness or straps

From the 2nd picture you can see that there is the 2 CAM Bands that is use to wrap around the Scuba Air Tank and keep it from floating up to the surface when you are at the bottom of the sea hehehe.

This is a major part of your Scuba equipment. The ones you see at the Shop eg. in Mid Valley near the GSC cinema would be selling the Jacket Type BC. The reason they are called that cos they look like huge vest or jackets that you wear .

As you can see from the 1st picture, there the blue pockets.. thats not standard as I did some motifications to the original. Its purpose is to hold my Weights.

Yes you heard right, we are usually not heavy enough to sink on our own, this is because we got our lungs to thank for… so we need to add a specific amount of extra weights to help us to be able to sink hehehe scary eh?

Now I am about 79 KG so I usually sink very well with 4 KG of weights, thats like 5% give or take. But the thing is some guys are light but need more weights then me to sink. Its all down to your specific body type, that you can learn alot when you practicing in normal diving pool.

Note is that in the pool its not salty like the sea water, reason is Sea water with its salt content makes us even lighter in water. So generally we need 1KG more when we go diving in Salt water.

This above picture is showing the Low pressure Inflator Hose … the main job of this part is to connect to a device that has a air hose that hooks on to the shiny tip there beside the button. This is what you control to inflat your BC and deflat it.. Why?

It helps to control how much you float underwater Why do we need to bother with that is simple… as you move down the levels of water… the water you passed behind you will push its weight on you. Your air in and around your body like in the equipments will be compressed by the weight of the water… so what air you have on upper levels will begin to be less in volume.

This means you wont float as much. So in order not to sink anymore and maintain a certain deep , we need to allow air from our Scuba Air Tank into the BC. When you do that its counters the down ward force of the water above you and makes you neither float too much or float too little.. we call it Neutral Buoyancy..

This is learned from the fact most fishes have their own BC naturally built in.. thats how the fish seems to float in the water like a bee and not sink and crash into the corals or sand hehe…

Thats a picture of a Dump Valve… its uses is simple, pull the Orange Cord and it will let you dump the air inside your BC very very fast… I wont discuss in detail how to use this … but there usually are 2 Dump Valves on a BC… Mine has another one located near my left shoulder Straps infront. Just take note of the location of these Dump Valves is all .

So now you have the basic idea what this equipment is for . If you want to know more detail and more technical information you can sent emails to me or comments, I will try my best to answer them.. if you are working in the same Gym as me, I could bring this equipment and help you understand more about it.

Thanks for reading this blog, the next blog would be followed with other basic reviews of the Scuba Equipments we use to go diving…

I started diving by accident while on company paid holiday in Tioman Islands summer of 2006. I always love to snorkel and love to go to island holidays.

Myth Busters :

I need to know how to swim before diving. ( No you do not , ironically you need to know how to sink ! )

I need to be like superman to dive ( Reasonable state of health and most importantly a sound mind )

I need lots of money to learn how to dive ( Well if you are living in Malaysia then your lucky ! RM 1000 and you get a license )

I need lots of time to get a Open Water License ( nope I did mine over easy a span of 4 months with only 1 weekend day practice of 3 hours each.)

I need to buy my own equipment which is very expensive ( nah you could rent those easy at the dive centers on the island for less then RM 100 per days ! )

Write to me at nimamok@hotmail.com if you interested to take the first step to underwater adventure.

Now the myths have been busted, ( if you have more just comments and I will reply ) lets see how I started.

I was holidaying on Tioman Island and was introduced to diving when I took a discovery dive tour package.

Basically they give you a crash course for 1 time only diving trip near the beaches. I was hooked !

After 5 months back in Kuala Lumpur , I finally took my open book exam and island dives and I was certified.

Thats how easy it is. Yes ! its that simple. Below is my advice to would be divers.

1. Respect your equipment and let them tell you how to dive.

2. Respect the environment you are diving in because you will always be a guest !

3.  Respect the animals and plants in that environment and they will take care of you.

4. Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing behind but bubbles.

Happy Diving my friends !