Own mask for discovery scuba?

[drpooh]

My boyfriend and I are planning to purchase our own masks and snorkels for snorkeling excursions. We are also planning to do a Discovery scuba excursion, neither one of us having dived before. Can we use our snorkel masks to dive, or are the masks they give you for the dive good enough? I've heard bad things about rental masks, but I don't know if the two masks are the same... Thanks for any advice!

[mipps]

Always use your own as long as it is dive quality .... at least you know the sucker isn't going to leak as much

 

my 3 cents

 

:)

[scubaran]

My boyfriend and I are planning to purchase our own masks and snorkels for snorkeling excursions. We are also planning to do a Discovery scuba excursion, neither one of us having dived before. Can we use our snorkel masks to dive, or are the masks they give you for the dive good enough? I've heard bad things about rental masks, but I don't know if the two masks are the same... Thanks for any advice!

 

The masks are effectively the same between snorkel and dive masks. The big thing that makes the different is the "skirt", inner flap that fits at your mask to your face. Cheap snorkel masks make them from a soft plastic, more expensive masks, usually above $40, use silicon. Silicon is best for diving. Rubber doesn't have the tension capability at depth.

 

Randall

[KJHorton]

I think you also need to make sure a scuba mask is tempered glass. Some of the inexpensive snorkel masks are plastic.