Ocean Reef Full Face Mask?

[idivedeeperlonger]

Anyone have or like OR FF masks?

 

[DeepBlueScubaDvr]

c

 

[idivedeeperlonger]

c what?

 

[texdiveguy]

Contact Debra at SIS Scuba for pers. owner info. and good price on avalb.units. 817-652-DIVE

 

[mntdiver]

Junk... There's quite a bit of information posted on this subject, you might try a search.

 

[FFMDiver]

Anyone have or like OR FF masks?

They say FFMs relieve jaw fatigue.
But if you have a pointy chin like mine, I've found they can actually facilitate fatigue at the jaw joint because these masks want to be flush on the face and they end up pushing my chin back. Fit is everything.

 

[rsdancey]

The wife and I had the Neptune IIs in the water last Saturday at the Edmonds Underwater Park, just north of Seattle.

This time, I managed to get the batteries in the communicators the correct orientation, and we did have a successful underwater communications test! The units actually worked, somewhat to my surprise!

I have sub-par hearing, plus I was wearing a 7mm neoprene hood, plus there's a lot of ambient noise in Puget Sound, and despite all those hurdles, I could hear the speaker when my buddy talked! It was faint - not "edge of hearing" faint, but "reasonably hard to hear" for me faint. Luckily, prior to each transmission there is a short "beep" (which seemed slightly louder), so I knew when to concentrate on listening. The wife said she had some problems hearing as well, but we resolved them by relocating the speaker unit to better cover her ear.

I'm considering punching a number of small holes in my hood just over my ear area to improve the sound - I'll just restate that this is something of a "junk hood", and if I screw it up, I won't feel to bad - don't necessarily try anything similar with a preferred set of headgear.

The biggest challenge we're facing right now is the change in bouyancy characteristics. The volume of the mask is such that it adds a couple of pounds of positive bouyancy - which has screwed our trim and weighting pretty badly. At this point, I'm experimenting with 2 two-pound ankle weights which I'm strapping to my cylinder. I think that I only need 3 pounds, and want to try some experiments with just 2 pounds.

With an AL80 at 800psi, and no weights, I was unable to sustain submersion with the same rig which I can stay submerged sans mask. Same rig, 4 pounds, I could get submerged.

We proceeded to 7fsw, submerged, and conducted a mask-replacement drill. Both the wife and I were able to perform the drill successfully - although she ran into problems when the mask strap flipped around and ended up in front of the mask faceplate. I had to untangle the strap before she could complete the drill. We're both going to spend some time fiddling with the masks with our eyes closed to familiarize ourselves with various ways they could become entangled.

We have not yet conducted an OOA drill - that's the next step. Having done 3 mask replacement drills myself, I'm reasonably confident that we can do the OOA drill without incident. I've recovered from the initial shock of the cold water, and was able to perform the drill without any significant physical or mental distraction.

After doing mask replace drills, fiddling with communicators, and trying to deduce proper weighting the wife got cold and tired, and elected to terminate the dive.

One nagging issue is the quick-disconnect hose. I purchased the quick disconnect system from the local dive store that supports the Neptune II, and the disconnect fitting itself works fine - the problem is that the supplied hose is about 6-8 inches shorter than the normal hose length, and the difference has caused me no end of difficulties. I've removed it from my regulator and have returned to the stock hose setup, which requires a manual mask attachment with a wrench prior to diving. We'll see how unwieldy that is with our next attempt this weekend. I'm planning on talking to the LDS to see if they can put the quick disconnect fittings on longer hoses.

So far, I give the masks the following ratings:

Comfort & Fit: B+
Communication: C
View & Visibility: B
Hoses & Fittings: D

Overall: B-

 

[Divmstr223]

Never used one and probably won't ever buy one...but they look very cool!!! :14:

 

[mntdiver]

They say FFMs relieve jaw fatigue.
But if you have a pointy chin like mine, I've found they can actually facilitate fatigue at the jaw joint because these masks want to be flush on the face and they end up pushing my chin back. Fit is everything.

You could be over tightening your top strap.

 

[gcbryan]

The wife and I had the Neptune IIs in the water last Saturday at the Edmonds Underwater Park, just north of Seattle.

This time, I managed to get the batteries in the communicators the correct orientation, and we did have a successful underwater communications test! The units actually worked, somewhat to my surprise!

I have sub-par hearing, plus I was wearing a 7mm neoprene hood, plus there's a lot of ambient noise in Puget Sound, and despite all those hurdles, I could hear the speaker when my buddy talked! It was faint - not "edge of hearing" faint, but "reasonably hard to hear" for me faint. Luckily, prior to each transmission there is a short "beep" (which seemed slightly louder), so I knew when to concentrate on listening. The wife said she had some problems hearing as well, but we resolved them by relocating the speaker unit to better cover her ear.

I'm considering punching a number of small holes in my hood just over my ear area to improve the sound - I'll just restate that this is something of a "junk hood", and if I screw it up, I won't feel to bad - don't necessarily try anything similar with a preferred set of headgear.

The biggest challenge we're facing right now is the change in bouyancy characteristics. The volume of the mask is such that it adds a couple of pounds of positive bouyancy - which has screwed our trim and weighting pretty badly. At this point, I'm experimenting with 2 two-pound ankle weights which I'm strapping to my cylinder. I think that I only need 3 pounds, and want to try some experiments with just 2 pounds.

With an AL80 at 800psi, and no weights, I was unable to sustain submersion with the same rig which I can stay submerged sans mask. Same rig, 4 pounds, I could get submerged.

We proceeded to 7fsw, submerged, and conducted a mask-replacement drill. Both the wife and I were able to perform the drill successfully - although she ran into problems when the mask strap flipped around and ended up in front of the mask faceplate. I had to untangle the strap before she could complete the drill. We're both going to spend some time fiddling with the masks with our eyes closed to familiarize ourselves with various ways they could become entangled.

We have not yet conducted an OOA drill - that's the next step. Having done 3 mask replacement drills myself, I'm reasonably confident that we can do the OOA drill without incident. I've recovered from the initial shock of the cold water, and was able to perform the drill without any significant physical or mental distraction.

After doing mask replace drills, fiddling with communicators, and trying to deduce proper weighting the wife got cold and tired, and elected to terminate the dive.

One nagging issue is the quick-disconnect hose. I purchased the quick disconnect system from the local dive store that supports the Neptune II, and the disconnect fitting itself works fine - the problem is that the supplied hose is about 6-8 inches shorter than the normal hose length, and the difference has caused me no end of difficulties. I've removed it from my regulator and have returned to the stock hose setup, which requires a manual mask attachment with a wrench prior to diving. We'll see how unwieldy that is with our next attempt this weekend. I'm planning on talking to the LDS to see if they can put the quick disconnect fittings on longer hoses.

So far, I give the masks the following ratings:

Comfort & Fit: B+
Communication: C
View & Visibility: B
Hoses & Fittings: D

Overall: B-

I'm curious as to your reasons for going to a full face mask. Was it strictly for the communications ability? How would you compare your old face mask to the full face mask in terms of view and comfort.

Thanks.
Gray