Does anyone scuba dive or snorkel?

[Hose_Head]

Often when on vacation I've had the opportunity to go snorkeling and/or to take some scuba lessons. This would involve training yourself to breath through your mouth. For this reason, I've always declined the opportunity based on the fear that it is antithetical to my use of a nasal cpap mask I use a nasal cpap mask with no problems of mouth breathing and I really do not want to compromise that.

I'm curious whether others have thought about this. Does anyone have experience? Do you use a nasal mask with your cpap? Have you experienced any related issues?

[Mark NJ]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm a SCUBA diver. Assuming you don't have a full-face SCUBA mask you simply have no choice but to breath thru your mouth. You arn't going to breath thru your nose.

You have a lifetime of habit of breathing thru your nose. That you breath thru your mouth for 45 minutes on a dive isn't going to break your habit of breathing thru your nose.

When you get a cold (you are in Canada) you become congested and breath thru your mouth for a week or so. Then, you resume your nose-breathing habit. If the occaional cold hasn't been enough to break your nose-breathing habbit a few 45 minute dives on vacation arn't going to change your habbit.

(There are full-faced SCUBA masks; however, it takes extra training to use them. They are expensive and they make it harder to clear your ears as compared to the usual SCUBA mask. They are justified only for a couple of specialzed reasons which won't apply to you unless you take your diving incredibly seriously.)

Mark

[Slartybartfast]

I've snorkeled since I was a kid. Spent summers up through high school more underwater than above it, it seemed. Breathing through a snorkel was never a problem. Still isn't. You take slow deep breaths one at a time, feeling for the water's surface with the back of your head before you breathe, then hold your breath and dive. As you surface, you slowly expel most of your air, then when you break the surface, blow hard to expel the water from your snorkel so you can breathe. Then take a few more breaths, then one deep one and dive again. You get into a rhythm and learn to relax and over time you get to the point where you can spend a surprisingly long time underwater between breaths. I had no problem diving as deep as 50' routinely.

That said, breathing through a nasal mask, full face mask, or nasal pillows bears no resemblance to breathing through a snorkel or SCUBA gear. You aren't awake, you aren't in the water, you aren't taking individual deep breaths. You are asleep and the primitive part of your brain controls your breathing. My advice: don't analyze it too much. Just do it.

[Big S]

I have been a mouth breather since forever. With the good fortune of cpap, I have been given the ability to breathe through my nose when "strapped in" and when in optimal positions. I feel like I've been drugged when I can do it becasue it feels so good. I've also been a snorkeler for about 20 years and I remember freaking out in the beginning because I had to breathe out of a tube with the added pressure of a mask plastered to my face. However, because the benefits clearly outweighed the risk, I learned to overcome the equipment invasions and grew to seek these activities when I vacation. I always have to reacquaint myself whenever I use this type of equipment after some time of inactivity. I think my experience with snorkeling helped me with early acceptance of cpap paraphernalia and adjustment to it's quirkiness. The pressure on my face with a FFM wasn't so annoying and I realized I had to work with the machine to get air to my lungs. This was kind of a dejavu. As far as nose breathing, I think that anyone blessed with normal head plumbing will never detour from it for very long. It's far too eficient and user friendly.

[deerslayer]

Ain't no biggie

[mstevens]

I dive.

Diving is different from sleeping. Breathing through a regulator (which for a sport diver will always mean through the mouth) is entirely different from sleeping and breathing through one's nose. During a typical week of tropical diving I've never had the slightest difficulty switching back and forth.

Surely you don't inflate balloons with your nose in your efforts to avoid mouth-breathing? No blowing out candles with your nose?

[Hose_Head]

Surely you don't inflate balloons with your nose in your efforts to avoid mouth-breathing? No blowing out candles with your nose?

How do you know that I don't? It's really handy to be able to blow up two balloons at the same time ! Great party trick, too!

[clb]

No problem switching back and forth--just do it--it's very natural to breathe through the regulator or the snorkel when they are in your mouth, and then to breathe through your nose when they aren't.

deerslayer, thanks for the visual--it's been a long time since I've been in the water--exhilarating!

[absolutscharf]

I'm regularly doing deep (300 ft) and long (3+ hr) technical dives. Deep wrecks and caves (yes, I have seen "Sanctum", and no, that movie was nothing like the real thing). No problem switching back to nose breathing when back on land. The only reason I wear a full face mask at night is because I sometimes open my mouth, and I found the FFM less disturbing than a piece of duct tape...

As others have stated - go and enjoy it! It may turn out to be an amazing experience for you.