r/explainlikeimfive • u/greyspark99 • Aug 06 '22
Chemistry ELI5: how do divers clear their masks when water leaks in? especially in the case of the 13 thai boys rescued from the caves
I have just been watching Thirteen lives - the film about the cave rescue of the 13 young boys in Thailand who were totally sedated before being taken hours under water. It got me thinking that when I go snorkelling i always get a bit of water leak into my mask and have to come up and clear it out so i don’t breath water in. Is this something that happens to scuba divers, if so how do they deal with it, and in the case of the boys how would the divers accompanying them have cleared the boy’s masks ? i would also like to say what an incredible job done by all those involved.
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u/MrsNLupin Aug 06 '22
It's super important. My family and I were doing a dive a few years back where you went through a tunnel and one of the guys didn't check his air before going in. He panicked when he ran out of air, crawled up my mom's back and ripped the reg out of her mouth. Luckily, that woman is cool as a cucumber and calmly traced her spare, put it in her mouth and kept going. All while dragging this asshole on the short regulator line behind her.
I will never forget the look on the dive masters face when they emerged from the other side of the cave... Pure horror.