Can I scuba if I wear glasses? What are my options?

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stevef22

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My girlfriend and I are going to Cancun Mexico for vacation and she has put me in scuba classes here.

But I WARE GLASSES. : (

What are my options? Leaving for trip in 2 WEEKS!

Any help would be much appreciated. Good to be on these forums. : )
 
There are prescription masks. You can purchase online or probably from your local dive shop. You could even rent one at a dive shop in Cancun.
 
Your LDS should hopefully have a contact with an optometry shop that can bond prescription lenses onto your mask lenses. That's how I do mine.

Or wear contact lenses.

Even if you don't have time to get prescription lenses bonded on your mask lenses, you should be OK. The water acts as a magnifying glass a bit too. I'm blinder than a bat but when I went through open water classes, I saw things just fine underwater. I do miss out on details and can't see into cracks & crevices too well, but I was able to function and enjoy the dives just fine.
 
My LDS had the lenses in stock. They swapped the lenses and I was good to go. There are also many on line sites that provide a mask with lenses. Diving is so much better if you can see!! Enjoy Mexico!
 
How much correction are we talking about? If you don't need much, you might get away with nothing at all, since a certain amount of magnification comes from being underwater.

Depending on the mask, some manufacturers also sell drop-in replacement lenses with different diopter corrections, typically in 0.5 diopter increments. Under water you can get away with a less exact correction. Look for masks with two separate lenses as opposed to one big piece of glass. Doesn't help with severe astigmatism.

There are several outfits that have been mentioned here on Scubaboard which specialize in custom grinding lenses. Send them your mask and they'll send it back with a fully custom correction. Some people have also been lucky and found local opticians who've been willing to do the same. A couple of weeks might be a bit tight, though.

Some people use stick-on lenses to the insides of their mask.

Quite a few people wear contacts under water. Doesn't work for everyone, though. For some people, they tend to pop off if your eyes are immersed in water. For others, it's not an issue. Some people prefer using one-day disposables, to avoid the inconvenience if they do loose one. I think it's a common recommendation to clean and sterilize contacts or dispose of disposables right after the dives are done, especially in sea water and particularly in the tropics. Lots of nasty creatures can get trapped in there and breed happily in the warmth of your eye.

BTW, it might also help if you filled in your profile to include your location, so that people in your area might be able to tell you where to find things.
 
Answer = Yes. Many people do.

Options are (from most $$$ to least):
1.Get laser surgery
2.Get prescription inserts for mask
3.Get Contacts
4.Dive without corrective lenses

Sometimes you can do #3 and #4 on the same dive. I have and what I found was that while I have terrible vision above water without contacts-it wasn't that bad under. I just thought the vis had gotten a little worse after my mask flooded-until I surfaced.
 
Thanks guys for the great suggestions, I will call around my dive shops here in San Antonio TX. Anyone suggest a shop locally that would have inventory of prescription googles I can go try on?

** THX UPDATING MY INFO NOW> San Antonio TX BTW : )
 
I started diving with contacts with no problem, then got laser. Worth every cent that I am still paying...:D
 
Have you ever tried using the mask underwater at least once?

I have been wearing glasses for years, but when I am underwater I wear no corrective aid whatsoever - and guess what, it looked fine. No matter which mask or swimming goggles that I used, the refraction that the water provides is good enough for me to see underwater.
 
For years I was happy diving with just a plane old mask, the improvement that the simple mask gave my eyesight UW was so much better than my eyesight above the water, w/o my eyeglasses. Then I tried my brother's prescription mask. WOW! Didn't realize how much more there was to see!!!

Now I have prescription mask, with small bifocal inserts for reading my guages. Should have done it years earlier
 

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