Bifocal mask

[Marek K]

Try this: With your mask on, sitting in your living room, look at your dive computer on your wrist. Keep both eyes open and cover your right eye and look at the readings, repeat this for the left eye. Notice any change in quality of vision between the right and left eye? You may be using one eye for near and the other for distance.

No, just tried it. With the correction I need in air (very high nearsightedness, moderately-high astigmatism, and now moderate reading correction), the spherical lenses in my mask make everything a bit blurry in either eye at any distance in air -- from four inches away to infinity. I think for close-up, it's the uncorrected presbyopia. For farther away, it's the uncorrected astigmatism.

Yet perfect underwater.

 

[Wendy Moul]

I had the same problem and went with multi-focal contacts, just got back from a week of diving at Reef House in Roatan and I could actually see! The computer was fine but seeing the camera screen was a bit tough for me to be sure the picture was focused. My theory is, I can loose a very expensive vision corrected mask and then the rest of the dive trip is trash, or, I can loose a set of contacts and mask and buy another mask and get a 2nd pair of contacts from my stash in the room. This way I don't miss much and the dive trip is saved. Good luck, just give yourself a couple of months to figure out what contacts work best for you and get your brain adapted to the multi-focal.

 

[SteveTan]

There is a new release of near aids for scuba divers. It is called the SeawiscopeEY and is available in the internet. It is actually a very good pair of reading glasses conveniently fitted on top, and externally, of your own habitual mask. It enables not only reading the dive computers but seeing little things in great details. I used it to examine nudibranchs and actually picked up a pigmy seahorse with my own eyes !

 

[SteveTan]

I'll tell you the ultimate solution to age-related presbyopia is the Liquivision X1, but it costs considerably more than $60.

Liquivision X1 may be a solution for presbyopic divers reading dive infos, it does not help for examining small things underwater.
I belive the only solution to age-related presbyopia is to correct it. Please check out SeawiscopeEY in the internet for the ultimate correction of presbyopia. Unlike bifocal prescriptions, it provides full near vision field and it is attachable externally to the mask you are using.

 

[idocsteve]

I belive the only solution to age-related presbyopia is to correct it.

"Age related presbyopia"?

That's like saying "Underwater Scuba Diver".

Another solution to presbyopia is to simply ignore it and stop reading anything close up. It's probably not the best solution but you'd be surprised how many people do it.

 

[SteveTan]

Another way to help seeing near details is to use a hand-held magnifier. Hope there are divers who would share their experience with underwater hand-held magnifers.

 

[SteveTan]

Another way to help seeing near details is to use a hand-held magnifier. Hope there are divers who would share their experience with underwater hand-held magnifers.

No responses. I guess there are not many presbyopic divers using hand-held magnifiers for their gauges (and other things at near).

I do wish to know more about underwater magnifiers, mainly whether they work and where they are available.
Ordinary hand-held magnifiers do not seem to work very well.

 

[TSandM]

idocsteve, you are so right! I have realized I no longer try to inspect very tiny things underwater. Even with the bifocals, it's a pain. I can swim up to something and crane my head back to try to look at it through my lenses, or I can look at the baitball that's 20 feet away.

The ONLY thing you absolutely have to see underwater is your gauge. Everything else is more or less optional, which is why I'm okay with a gauge I can read and whatever else I can manage.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

For all you who "must" see your gauge, what do you do in limited to zero visibility? There was a reason the J-reserve was made, and the restrictor orifice designed in the early days of diving. Cousteau divers simply used three tanks, with one turned off. They breathed down their other two, then opened the third "reserve" cylinder and ended the dive. Did you know that Cousteau's patent discussed this, and the fact that there was no need for a separate gauge? This is the reason Healthways and Scubapro also came out with sonic reserves in the early days of diving. We sometimes dove in waters where a gauge wasn't the best idea.

Saying that, I have a mask with bifocals in it, and find it sometimes helpful and sometimes a pain. In my dive area on the Clackamas River, I usually get out of the water with my mask still on, and those bifocals can cause distorted vision at a distance where my feet meet the ground (I climb out on rocks, and must climb about 50 feet elevation to get out). So sometimes I wear it, and sometimes I go without it. When I dive without it I use one of my many "vintage" masks, like my tri-window Dacor mask, or even an old oval mask. My vision is not bad enough to "require" the mask to see everything, but it does help. What also helps is having analog dials rather than digital readouts if I don't wear my bifocal mask.

Just some thoughts.

SeaRat

 

[TSandM]

John, I don't care about my pressure gauge. I know how much gas I started the dive with; I know what my consumption is, and how much I should be able to end the dive with. If I've been able to follow my gas at all, I know if I'm on track. I can cope with my gas.

In midwater, in the dark (as it often is in Puget Sound), in low viz, the depth gauge is a different story. My depth gauge is a huge piece of my safety. Although I may be able to determine whether i am going up or down (and some days, not so well) I can't determine how fast I am doing either. Yes, there are qualitative clues, like dry suit looseness, but I wouldn't even begin to claim that I could control an ascent with stops without having a depth gauge or a buddy who can see his.

I agree with you that a bifocal mask can seriously augment balance problems getting out of the water. That's why every shore diving buddy I have has been told NOT to get far away from me on exit. I just hold onto my buddy's arm while I'm getting out. Taking my mask off can help a lot, where it is safe to do so.