Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Dive Mask - Guide for Scuba Diving Gear

Choose your dive mask
Diving Mask

Your eyes cannot focus in water. Your dive mask provides an air pocket so your eyes can focus and you can see clearly underwater.

Its also known as dive mask, scuba mask or goggles.

Sea Fun Divers as a PADI Dive center has a large selection of masks to choose from. The following points are needed for a a proper dive mask:

  • Your nose must be within the eye pocket so you can adjust for pressure changes. This is the main reason why swim goggles cannot be used for scuba diving.
  • Tempered glass as plastic lenses  & standard glass is hazardous if accidentally broken.

Features you like to have and also found in more less all masks made for scuba diving are:

  • A double skirt - Makes mask seal more reliable and comfortable
  • A wide strap with touch buckle adjustment - Mask adjusts quickly, easily and stay adjusted during the dive

Visit on of our dive shops and we can help you find all the right mask and other scuba gear

Optional features you might like are:
  • A low volume as the the smaller the mask, the less drag it has while diving. Your face may require something a bit larger, so don't consider this an absolute.
  • A purge valve which is used to blow water out, however this you can do easily without a valve so not really needed
  • Special lenses - Some scuba masks can be fitted with prescription lenses, which is convenient if you wear glasses or use contacts.
How you choose a mask?
For most divers the problem in choosing the right mask. Best way to find the right one is to choose several different masks with the features you like and than ... hold each mask gently against your face (Please do not use the strap) and  inhale gently through your nose and if they fit, the mask(s) will stick to your face and stay where they are without leaking and without continuous suction through your nose. Than simply choose the one that fits best.

Finally a few tips:
Don't save money and buy a cheap mask. They may look the same, however the important things you can't see (the quality of silicone& glass) as just as important as those you can. Your mask is one of your most important pieces of scuba gear as if you only have a dive mask, you can still have fun swimming & snorkeling in the shallow parts of the reef looking at the tropical fish, shells and other stuff. But if you have every piece of scuba dive gear except a mask, you not even get wet.

Scrub out the mask and use defog to prevent mask fog, which plagues many beginning divers, however it is actually easy to prevent as all you need to do is first scrub out a new mask with toothpaste as recommended by many manufacturers. This will remove a chemical that sometimes coats the glass during the manufacturing and causes the fog up. This you only need to do this when you get a new mask. Then, before your dives just use defogging solution and your mask will stay fog free and you can a have a great time under water.

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