Snorkel with glasses ?

[colababy]

Hi everyone. I am -3.50 prescription and need glasses. However, I never snorkeled before and will snorkel only once on my cruise, so I don't want to use several hundred dollars to buy prescription snorkel goggles. Are there any places in Cozumel and Grad Cayman that rent precription goggles? I don't do well with contacts.

[drew sailbum]

I'm not absolutely certain, but I'd consider checking with the larger dive retail shops here in Cayman. Diver's World would be my first guess. Otherwise Diver's Supply.

 

 

You can check with Red Sail Sports at the Hyatt as well. I know they've got some prescription masks, though not sure what the policy is on renting them like this. Mostly they are used for dive training.

[DANofNORTH]

I had prescription goggles last November & it was great!

 

The cost was about $100 to get the goggles done, but I could see underwater great. No blurryness at a distance and that doubled the snorkelling experience for me.

 

I had checked into contacts as well, all recommendations are NO, it's not a good idea for a number of reasons including saftey.

 

My reasoning was; if I'm spending all this money for a cruise, where I am planning at least 4 snorkelling excursions, I want to fully enjoy them.

 

I could also see what I was taking UW pictures of too!

 

I hope this helps.:)

[scubamargie]

Colababy, I wear contacts scuba diving and wouldn't be able to see a thing without them. You will definitely want something to improve your vision. If you have any dive shops in your area you might see about renting a prescription mask from home and taking it with you. That would save you time in port. Or, to save money you could rig up something (lenses from old glasses silicone sealed into your mask, cut out from a magnifiying plastic sheet (usually used to magnify an entire page), etc. You get the idea. There's no way to wear glasses with a mask so you will want to do something to make the experience enjoyable. There are some inexpensive prescription masks listed on ebay as well. :o

[mlbcruiser]

I have done both - snorkeled w/contacts (which my eye dr. said not to do, but it never caused a problem)and used a RX mask. Since I prefer to wear glasses (can use my RX sunglasses when I'm not in the water that way), I bought a magnifying lense "RX" mask. I got it at at regular sporting goods store and it wasn't expensive. I think about $25 3 yrs. ago. They came in 3 strengths and I bought the weakest one. It is GREAT! (The first time I ever used one was on a snorkeling trip yrs. ago to Garafon Nat'l. Park off of Isla Mujeres w/NCL. I couldn't make out what the guide was pointing to on the bottom. Though he didn't really speak English, he realized I couldn't see that far, swam back to the boat and brought out an RX mask which REALLY made a difference! If you think you would never use it again, perhaps you could recoup some of your money by selling it later.

[ISLABONITA]

Or, to save money you could rig up something (lenses from old glasses silicone sealed into your mask, cut out from a magnifiying plastic sheet (usually used to magnify an entire page), etc. You get the idea. :o

 

Holy cow, what a great idea! Has anyone actually tried this? I have 2 pairs of old prescriptions which are close enough to my present one to use the lenses in my mask. How would I go about glueing them in???

[alphakitty]

Hi everyone. I am -3.50 prescription and need glasses. However, I never snorkeled before and will snorkel only once on my cruise, so I don't want to use several hundred dollars to buy prescription snorkel goggles. Are there any places in Cozumel and Grad Cayman that rent precription goggles? I don't do well with contacts.

 

Prescription snorkel masks are available for around $60. My husband has one and it works great! Well worth the money. You never know, once you are hooked on cruising, you'll probably use it again and again. :) Search the net...you'll find them readily available.

[Middleager]

I bought for my friends masks with prescription lenses, also around -3.5. The TUSA mask was around $40 (was a good mask). Each lense was $20. They put it on for you and you keep the two lenses they take off. So it was $80 each mask. It worked out really wear with my friends in our trip.

[jetskier]

Colababy,

I use the Body Glove mask with corrective lens from Leasurepro.

http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/ItemIndex_1/CategoryID_958/Context_954/Sort_SKU/DescSort_0/Filter_1%3d573/BDGMO.html

It is $59.95. For me -3.00 is what I needed and they offered one in a range of -2.25 to -4.00.

 

It has worked out great with being able to see underwater while diving.

Dave

[renagel]

do most snorkel outfits have prescription masks or masks for nearsighted people?

[Two4Sea]

Islabonita,

I just got my home adapted mask out for my next trip.

1. Look ahead first at how this will fit your mask and frames.

2. Cut a piece of 1/8" plastic to fit in the bridge of the nose area, glue on a smaller second piece and a bar on that for the top of the glasses to press up against.

3. Cut the legs of the glasses to about an inch or two length and bend them down to make stubby arms that just pop in at the sides of the mask. That will press them towards the front of the mask. In mine the mask's nose rubber was just right at the bottom of the glasses to keep them vertical.

4. This needs to get the glasses back from mask front enough to match the normal fit of the glasses to your face and at a vertical positon centered on your eyes.

 

Didn't take long, cost zero dollars and the mask is unmodified. Best of all it works like a charm, I couldn't snorkel without it

 

B

[jetskier]

do most snorkel outfits have prescription masks or masks for nearsighted people?

 

Most dont as they assume you will bring your own in these situations.

Dave

[cruisin newbie]

Check with the operators of your excursions to see if this is something they have available. One of our operators did, but had to know ahead of time and the other didn't. My DH can not see a thing w/o his glasses, so we got him fitted for daily contacts and they worked fine for him. We told optomitrist what the contacts were for and he didn't have any concern with him snorkeling in contacts. It turned out that he didn't like snorkeling anyway so I'm glad we didn't order a mask for him. I, on the other hand can not wait to snorkle again and again and again...;)

[Lsimon]

I got contacts just for this purpose and love them. I also found contacts make it much easier to tolerate the salt water on my eyes (opposite of what I had feared before trying it). In my everyday life I don't use contacts much as they don't correct as well as glasses for me. Also use for heav exercise and other times glasses would get sweaty or fogged up.

 

But I've also seen good buys on corrective masks on Ebay too - look at this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/Prescription-RX-Lens-Diving-Snorkeling-Scuba-MASK-3-5_W0QQitemZ7213849992QQcategoryZ71161QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[CheezysAngel]

My husband and i just got back from a week in the So Carrib. Went snorkeling in St. Thomas and Snuba in Barbados - my husband wears glasses and i wear contacts. Both places had masks available, if you asked (while still on land!). In Barbados my husband didn't ask until we were out at sea, and they didn't have them on the boat - but she asked what his perscription was (i'm a 7 in contacts) and she said if he was 2 or 3 he'd see just fine with a regular mask.

[Drumbum1977]

What is the fear exactly with wearing contacts with a snorkel mask? Now I am a little freaked out!

[Lsimon]

What is the fear exactly with wearing contacts with a snorkel mask? Now I am a little freaked out!

 

There is no fear!

 

before I thought that they would "trap" the salt water in and my eyes would sting. The opposite was true, the salt water didn't bother my eyes at all when I was wearing contacts. Plus they don't dry out when you're swimming. They are GREAT for beach and snorkeling.

[cruisinbuddy]

Don't know if this has beed said, but I read somewhere on these boards that someone took the arms off of an old pair of glasses, attached a band to them, the type of band that is used to keep your glasses on when they tend to slide off all the time, and they wore this inside their goggles. And it worked.

[Drumbum1977]

There is no fear!

 

before I thought that they would "trap" the salt water in and my eyes would sting. The opposite was true, the salt water didn't bother my eyes at all when I was wearing contacts. Plus they don't dry out when you're swimming. They are GREAT for beach and snorkeling.

 

Whew! Thanks.

[Lsimon]

Don't know if this has beed said, but I read somewhere on these boards that someone took the arms off of an old pair of glasses, attached a band to them, the type of band that is used to keep your glasses on when they tend to slide off all the time, and they wore this inside their goggles. And it worked.

 

I tried this and had a real problem with them fogging up. Was basically unusable, due to difficulty in removing the fog from the resulting multiple inside glass surfaces. Believe it or not my next step was to glue them to the outside of my mask using the bent in noise piece and the stubs of the ear pieces, so the water would surround them and keep them from fogging up. I was about to order prescription mask, which had to be custom due to my prescription, when I decided to try contacts.

 

I now like the contacts for snorkeling, beach use in general, as well as any other activity that involves sweating or eyeglass fogging. The contacts don't correct well enough for use all the time. five or six years later, I also need bifocals. So when I wear contacts to the beach I take a long a pair of cheap reading glasses so I can read menu's and see price tags in souvenir shops!

[ISLABONITA]

they have masks with corrective lenses. I am checking with Soto's whom I booked for the GC snorkeling to see if they have the corrective glasses. I only need -1 to-1.5.

Good luck!

Hi everyone. I am -3.50 prescription and need glasses. However, I never snorkeled before and will snorkel only once on my cruise, so I don't want to use several hundred dollars to buy prescription snorkel goggles. Are there any places in Cozumel and Grad Cayman that rent precription goggles? I don't do well with contacts.

[eznunzit]

I went to a dive shop today and they wanted $25 per lense on top of the cost of the mask. There were 3 masks to choose from and the cheapest was $30. I am going to try a couple of more shops though I might go with this deal. My friend works there and I can get a 35% discount so it will work out to be a good deal. Since we live in an area that we can snorkel all year round it will be a good investment. Because I live in this area I want to check other shops to see if there are any good local discounts.

 

Today I found a sight that might help you. They are called Dive Optx Magnification Lenses and the addy is : http://shop.diversoutlet.com/scripts/ecatalogisapi.dll/Item?Item=7587&Group=34&Template=CONVERT830CONVRT&desc=Dive%20Optx%20Magnification%20Lenses

 

That looks like a good solution.

[ezjack1825]

For what it's worth, I have pretty bad eyes so I need some assistance in the mask. There are a couple options to save $$ here. One - if you have no astigmatism or mild one, you can probably get away with what they call a step diopter mask - they come in pre-made lenses to get you close. Check on ebay - they're a lot cheaper than a full custom prescription mask.

 

Here's another option if you need real prescription lenses - scubaspec.com/page2.html - You order the insert, go to Walmart for some cheapo lenses, and then attach it in a regular mask. I thought it was brilliant.

 

I just won an auction on ebay the other day for a step diopter mask that's supposed to be here tomorrow. I'll see how that does for me, otherwise I still have 5 weeks before we sail and I can order from scubaspec.

 

Hope this helps!

[Upandadam]

I snorkel and dive with contacts all the time and have never had a problem. My only fear is that if I ever need to clear the water out of my mask that I may knock a contact loose, so I'm very aware of that and try to be especially careful. So far so good!

 

Ah......but to have perfect vision without corrective lenses.......

[NM_Eman]

I snorkel and dive with contacts all the time and have never had a problem. My only fear is that if I ever need to clear the water out of my mask that I may knock a contact loose, so I'm very aware of that and try to be especially careful. So far so good!

 

Ah......but to have perfect vision without corrective lenses.......

 

Diving was a substantial part of my and my wife's decision to have lasik done 6 years ago now. 20/10 in one eye and about 20/40 in the non-dominant eye (on purpose so I don't need reading glasses for the age induced presbyopia, at least for casual reading and the computer.) Works out to a bit better than 20/20 with both eyes together. Changed my life. And I'm 53 so changing my life takes some doing:o