Are the masks new or the fact they are leaking what is new?
I'm asking because I also have an old face, and generally old faces come with an "adjusted" account for time. Anything less than 10 years old or so I have the tendency to call it new. Depending on age and where those masks were stored maybe the skirt already failed and you just need a skirt replacement.
Is it leaking consistently through the full dive? Again here I've experienced that when I'm in a really pissy mood my mask will leak for the first few minutes, until the dive does its magic for my soul and my very hidden "mellow" relaxes me.
Ultimately you know there is no magic to this. The mask fits or doesn't, whether is due to a change in the face surface/geometry or to the skirt integrity.
If it fits you should be able to have it on without the straps while on the surface, if you can't then something will need replacement or upgrade.
I wonder how does Botox price compares with a new skirt.
I was afraid that I hadn't made that clear. Both masks are pretty old, but neither had had any significant leaking problems until relatively recently. Both have built in bifocal "readers", so one is significantly older than the other. (Had one of them made with two different strengths of readers built in - didn't really work out that well. . .) Lost the most recent one with readers - custom "L"-shaped reader lenses near the nose - perfect, they were. Drew the little shapes onto the mask lenses by looking into a mirror with the mask on my face. No idea how I lost it, but it's not even close to the stupidest thing I've done in the last few years. Not even the stupidest "dive" related thing. Not even the second stupidest dive related thing.
Speaking of "near the nose", there's one mask that comes with readers near the nose. A buddy got one of them. I think they all come with the same magnification - something like "7" - that seems way too strong until you get it in the water. He sez it works great. Now having to decide between getting one of those and trying another go at the custom-shaped readers. But, I don't want to commit until I figger out this leaking thing.
I did, last trip, figure out that I could stop the leaking by holding the skirt down in the area where I suspected the leaks were happening. Not a lot of fun whilst also carrying a big camera rig and dragging a dive flag. I *think* it tends to leak as I exhale and the bubbles come up. Big globs of vaseline didn't really seem to help. K-Y Jelly was a joke. It doesn't tend to be all that much water in the mask, but it collects right where I'm trying to look through the "readers" part of the mask - and, I'm *often* trying to look through that part.
One of the fellows at Force-E had me try on a mask with a lower-hanging skirt in the shop. It definitely felt "different". Reckon they'd let me try it on a dive? I put a magnifying glass in my "kit" (as they say over yonder) recently, but now can't locate it. :-( Have I mentioned "stupid"? Oh, and *every* mask feels great in the shop - even without the strap.
---------- Post added August 4th, 2014 at 08:52 PM ----------
I wonder how does Botox price compares with a new skirt.
Reminds me. I asked a pharmacist about some kind of putty or makeup to try filling in some of the grooves. Remembered making some face stuff once for a Halloween party. She also brought up Botox. . .
Anyway, I *think* I was feeling the water bubbling in a bit "lateral" to the obvious grooves.
Once I bought a new mask, the leakage problem miraculously went away.
