Tried adjusting my Kirby Morgan band mask underwater and learned a hard lesson

Last Wednesday I was on a job off the coast of Galveston and my mask started leaking bad. Decided to tweak the buckles while 40 feet down and ended up flooding the whole thing. Took me a solid 90 seconds to clear it. Has anyone else had trouble dialing in their mask fit without surfacing?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper6939d agoTop Commenter

Tried adjusting" is a bit misleading, you were tightening a flooded band not adjusting anything.

laura_allen9d agoMost Upvoted

You said "trying to adjust" but honestly that's not what happened at all. Tightening a band that's already flooded doesn't count as adjusting anything, it's just making the problem worse. If the band is saturated, you need to break the seal and let it dry out first before even thinking about tightening it. I've seen people ruin perfectly good equipment doing exactly that.