For Folks with poor vision

[SteveBF]

My wife is considering getting certified and she asked me a question last night that I didn't know how to answer so I thought I'd post to the board and get some opinions.

Here vision is fairly poor and she has to wear contacts. Short of getting a mask with optical inserts can one dive with contacts in? What happens when you do mask drills and need to open your eyes under water? Will you loose your contacts? Anyone have experience with this? I normally wear bifocals but can still read my gauges without glasses so I never worry about this.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!
Steve

 

[Guba]

You might want to do a search on this topic. There have been some pretty extensive discussions about just this issue, some fairly recently. It would probably provide the information you need quicker than waiting for everyone to chime in again.

 

[seaducer]

I dive with my contacts in all the time. While I have never tried this, apparently if you wear soft contacts and squint you can open them UW without losing them. I might be somewhat reluctant to do so unless I needed to because you are introducing the chances for an infection if you don't replace or clean them soon after.

However there is no reason to have to open your eyes in u/w in class, and I only would if I lost my mask and had to ascend without one.

I have never had any issues diving with soft contacts, hard lenses might be a different story.

 

[Thiad]

I've squinted and not lost a lens, but when I did my OW drills, I kept my eyes closed. My only complaint is getting water in my mask and eyes. Really dries the lenses out.

 

[herbdb]

When I did my course, one of the exercises was to remove the mask, swim to the other side of the pool then return and don mask. I don't think I could do this with eyes closed.

At the time, I thought it was a required skill, but maybe it was something my instructor threw in to reinforce the idea that you don't need a mask to be able to breathe.

 

[Garrobo]

You can buy a prescripton mask, plenty good enough for recureational diving, from several providers on the internet for around $60 or $70 dollars. Google 'prescription mask' and look around.

 

[SteveBF]

You might want to do a search on this topic. There have been some pretty extensive discussions about just this issue, some fairly recently. It would probably provide the information you need quicker than waiting for everyone to chime in again.

Sorry guys that was pretty poor forum ettiquete on my part. I always forget to do a search first... Boy was Guba right... apparently I'm not the first person to ask about this! Thanks for your responses... this was really helpful!

Cheers!
Steve

 

[Guba]

Nothing wrong with your etiquette at all, Steve. I just happened to remember a similar question not too long ago, and thought that thread might be useful.

Personally, I've pretty much run the gamut, from contacts to "gauge reader" mask, to prescription mask. The latter is by far the best, short of having Lasix or something.

Hope the thread helps!

 

[decidedlyodd]

When I did my course, one of the exercises was to remove the mask, swim to the other side of the pool then return and don mask. I don't think I could do this with eyes closed.

At the time, I thought it was a required skill, but maybe it was something my instructor threw in to reinforce the idea that you don't need a mask to be able to breathe.

I did this skill in my open water class too. However, for those who wore contacts the instructor allowed us to keep our eyes closed the whole time. The instructor just grabbed my hand, lead me over to where the mask was (probably 25ft or so), picked it up and stuck it in my hand. I then put it on and cleared it. My impression was that the important part of the skill was to swim for a certain distance with the mask on, not necessarily to find the mask.

This was a PADI class last year. Overall, my specific instructor was pretty accommodating for those of us who wore contacts. For example, whenever I'd do a mask clear, I could keep my eyes closed and the instructor would squeeze my hand once the water had been fully cleared from the mask.

 

[MRadke]

I think my issue would be the possibility of infections from contaminants being trapped in the contacts. I had enough issues with infection to stop wearing contacts, and that was before I started diving. I use a prescription mask, well worth the money, especially when one factors in the cost of all the other gear and travel.