best mask for freediving.?

[ickis]

silicone masks usually provide the best water-tight seal...

 

[David Wilson]

silicone masks usually provide the best water-tight seal...

The frustrating answer, from my experience, is that it depends on the individual and the purity/quality of the material. An open-water swimmer will sometimes wear a latex swimming hat over a silicone one to combine warmth (silicone thickness) with watertightness (latex thinness and conformability), while dry suits have neoprene or latex rubber seals for watertightness, never silicone.

Since the early 1960s I've always been very happy with high-end rubber-skirted masks which had "double feathered seals", providing more thin, flat surface to make fuller contact with the face. The mask my parents gave me for my sixteenth birthday in the 1960s is still the best-fitting mask I've ever tried. I've only ever tried a silicone mask once, on vacation in Southern California when I hadn't brought a mask of my own, and that silicone mask was the worst-leaking mask I've ever used in my a half-century of snorkelling.

Watertightness isn't down to one factor such as a given material, it's also down to the purity/quality of that material, facial fit, the tightness or looseness of the strap, the design and construction of the interface between the mask and the head. A mask's watertightness may also change over time and in response to the swimmer's/diver's activities and facial development. In other words, finding a watertight mask is often a lucky chance event, as in AfterDark's case, rather than a scientific certainty, because there are too many individual variables.

 

[joco]

hi aftredark

actualy i did not no it was.......It's a U S Divers clear silicone wrap around mask.

so thanks you did answer my ?..

joco thanks to all answers guys.

 

[AfterDark]

hi aftredark

actualy i did not no it was.......It's a U S Divers clear silicone wrap around mask.

so thanks you did answer my ?..

joco thanks to all answers guys.

I left on low volume also. Easy to clear.

 

[holdingmybreath]

joco

Originally Posted by joco
AfterDark
a bit more info on the mask you got at W.M would be nice.
thanks.
truly i would be going under 40 feet..for now..so dont think i need the best deep diving stuff.
for now...if ever i do go deaper in a few years will see then.
but do like to have good quality and dry mask.
i got a round face and a beard..so that dont help mutch.
joco

fdog

...I wouldn't consider freediving with my beloved Atomic Frameless because....

Joco,
spearfishing/freediving less than 40', - really.. look at the atomics aquatic. Sure it's not a cressi minima or a mares target for volume, but you can't beat the view or clariy and the volume isn't terrible. I'm comfortable wearing mine up to ~ 75' or so, and I guarantee that I've taken fish I would have missed seeing to the side with any other mask.

 

[kareem_d]

I'm an avid freediver and spearfisherman. I use the cressi superocchio and the omer alien. Both great masks.
Heres a great guide thats really helpful in picking a freediving mask...

Freediving Mask | NichePage

good luck