Did you know that your eyes can adapt to being open in sea water? When you first open them underwater in the sea, they'll sting like crazy. If you persist - or at least this was the case for me, that effect will go away, and you can open them underwater without pain.
They will still be unfocused, though, of course. From the article, it sounds like you need to practice for a while before the eye learns how to focus underwater:
> Gislen wondered whether the Moken children had a genetic anomaly to thank for their ability to see underwater or whether it was just down to practice. To find out, she asked a group of European children on holiday in Thailand, and a group of children in Sweden to take part in training sessions, in which they dived underwater and tried to work out the direction of lines on a card. After 11 sessions across one month, both groups had attained the same underwater acuity as the Moken children.
Perhaps this only works for children, who seem somehow more biologically adaptable? The body is quite adaptable in general so I would believe it that people who swim regularly could see better underwater. I'm glad to have the science though to study the effect more rigorously.
I come from a Mediterranean island and I spend my summers swimming and diving, always with open eyes. I don't want put my feed on sea urchins or crash with a boat or rock! My eyes only hurt in swimming pools after a while. In the sea, my eyes don't hurt. I'm in my thirties.
I wouldn't say sting like crazy, for me it's a mild irritation that goes away quickly unless the water has a lot of suspended sand. Been swimming in sea water with eyes open since I was young; it used to be more painful.
That's weird. I experience the exact opposite. When I was younger I could keep my eyes open underwater in all sort of condition. Today, they sting like crazy even in fresh water.
Did you know that your eyes can adapt to being open in sea water?
Wow... I didn't know that. Losing my mask and panicking while diving has always been a concern of mine. I'll have to try this out. Regardless of being able to see clearly, it'd be great to just not be bothered by an onslaught of seawater.
>> Losing my mask and panicking while diving has always been a concern of mine.
That's one of those things that take me by surprise when I discuss peoples' relation with the sea. I never thought there was a problem with having your eyes open underwater. I'm Greek and I've spent a lot of time in the sea when I was young, so I must have just gotten used to it.
Mind you, my eyes still get red but I don't actually feel them stinging or experience anything unpleasant.
I can totally understand being worried about panicking in the sea, though, especially if you're diving. I snorkel, and even so, when I go under it's always in the back of my mind that anything can go wrong and I need to keep my wits about me at all times. I've been close to drowning twice too, so yeah. Need to be careful.
Your tears are very salty so seawater actually isnt that different from the water that's already in your eyes. A lot of panic people have in opening their eyes in seawater stems from their experience of chlorinated swimming pools - which absolutely stings like hell!
Yep. But when something goes wrong and you're 80 feet underwater, panic is not far away, and is really risky, since the panic response is unlikely to be the safe thing to do when deep underwater. So anything I can do to become acclimatized to problems is a win.
Practicing (and successfully remediating) this scenario is required for PADI OWD certification. My instructor removed our masks and breathing gear one at a time. We had to reposition the mouthpiece, fetch the mask, perform X number of breaths without a mask, put the mask back on and clear it all while keeping calm and staying level. Doing it in a lake at ~ 20f depth wasn't much more hostile than doing it in a pool. However I wouldn't want to lose my mask during a drift dive, as it could very well be gone quite fast.
Yeah, but taking off my mask still makes my eyes sting, and I certainly wouldn't want to panic 80 feet down. So... despite having done it a number of times, it's heartening to hear that I might be able to get past the sting. If I could just take off my mask at will and not worry about it, that'd be one less thing to worry about.
They will still be unfocused, though, of course. From the article, it sounds like you need to practice for a while before the eye learns how to focus underwater:
> Gislen wondered whether the Moken children had a genetic anomaly to thank for their ability to see underwater or whether it was just down to practice. To find out, she asked a group of European children on holiday in Thailand, and a group of children in Sweden to take part in training sessions, in which they dived underwater and tried to work out the direction of lines on a card. After 11 sessions across one month, both groups had attained the same underwater acuity as the Moken children.
Perhaps this only works for children, who seem somehow more biologically adaptable? The body is quite adaptable in general so I would believe it that people who swim regularly could see better underwater. I'm glad to have the science though to study the effect more rigorously.