any divers out there.,.,help please.,.,

CHEERS KIN YOU FOUND IT IN ONE AND THANKS....

Firstly the novice diver, I agree, does seem to get a blood filled mask more often than someone with a 100 or so dives under their weight belt. This is because of late and violent equalising. We all remember our first dive. A bit of apprehension perhaps, wishing the mouthy old timer wasn't there telling us of all his near death experiences underwater. That sort of thing.

Well what tends to happen is that in they plop into the blue, all OK on the surface and down they go. However what happens next is all too frequent. Instead of being cool headed and relaxed, and equalising often and little from the surface down something else happens. They check their depth gauge, make sure the octopus is there, double and triple check the air gauge, look for their buddy, look for the instructor. That sort of thing. Suddenly though at 6 or 7 metres they realise they haven't equalized yet, and the deeper they are the harder it is. At about 7 metres if you haven't equalised by now you wont unless you go up. But the first timer is unlikely to call up the group but will try harder and harder to blow some air up the Eustachian tube. By doing this the pressure on the nasal mucosa lining the septum of the nose is enough to blow some capillaries, and hence the bleed. So remember here, if your kit works on the surface check it will as you go down. Equalise a little and often as soon as you go down. Don't leave it late and have to blast it hard.

The other common reason for a big bleed is a sinus squeeze. Novices may not be able to call when and when not to dive if they are a bit stuffy in the nose. If you cannot equalise your sinuses then the negative pressure in these bony cavities will suck the lining off the sinal walls and cause the blood vessels to swell up and explode. The sinus will then equalize, not with air but with the red stuff. Then as you ascend the little air inside still expands, and forces the blood out of the sinus, through the nose and into your mask. So at about 5 to 10 metres you notice a red fluid level ascend towards your eyes. Not nice for the new diver.

The moral here is don't dive with a cold, and if you get searing pain in your forehead on descent, call it a day.

Should you dive again that day?

If the bleed is minor and due to leaving it until too late to equalise, then you should be fine for the afternoon.

But if you've had a major bleed, I would leave it, inhale some eucalyptus to open up the sinal canals and try tomorrow.