Practicing Mask Skills with Contact Lenses

[1RUSTYRIG]

I wear Bausch and Lomb rigid gas perms. I have stuck with the same brand for the last 10 years.

 

[DivingCRNA]

I used to had a prescrition mask. Not all that expensive if you correct myopia, but not astigmatism. Worked great.

Then I got LASIK sugery and all those silly problems are gone.....

Don

 

[MoonWrasse]

What brand of contacts do you use? I've been using the Acuvue 2, I've had the least amount of hassle with them and diving.

I agree on the heavy water content lenses, they're nice for on the surface, but they really stink for diving.

I use one of the Acuvue, and I'm thinking of switching to the new Silicone based ones. I don't know if those would behave differently UW.

 

[Daryl Morse]

Ive never founds it an issue, running my finger around the rim of the hood or pulling it sideways away from my face hard always seems to pull the hood from under the mask, even the sides where the strap attachment is.

Pulling the hood opening to the side doesn't seem to help with the top. Maybe my hood is just too tight and/or the opening is too small. I'll try it some more this weekend.

 

[Daryl Morse]

Wow, lots of comments/questions about contact lenses. I'll try and respond to them in one reply.

I normally wear Cooper Vision disposables. Just because of the sizes available for my myopic eyes (-8), I wear 55% water content in one eye and 60% water content in the other eye. These lenses are so flimsy they would practically swim off if I opened my eyes under water.

The lenses I wear when I dive are 60% water content, but they are made of silicone. They're thick and rigid so they aren't as likely to get lost if the mask floods. I've had them move around due to the mask flooding, but they've never come right off. I still would never intentionally open my eyes under water because they just aren't that secure on my eyes. I don't wear these lenses normally because the wear time per day is much less than normal lenses.

I don't think I'd want a prescription mask because I'd have to wear glasses when the mask was off. I shore dive most of the time. I think it would be a real PITA wearing a mask while walking down the stairs to the water. The mask would fog up in seconds during the summer.

 

[Daryl Morse]

There is no reason why you can't practice this skill on land. You may want to get your hood and gloves wet first though.

Good point. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Albion]

I use the daily disposable lens for diving now, and never had problems in the past with the old type but it is just safer and easier imho. Putting lens in on a rocking boat is one thing but cleaning lens and stuff late at night after a days diving is recipe for me damaging a lens.

I used to believe the lens would float away without mask on and eyes open so always did the eyes closed thing, even when as a DM assisiting with students. However for my tech course we were expected to perform many tasks maskless and closed eyes was not an option. I brought loads of sets of lens with me so I would have enough for one set per dive. However despite spending what seemed like a whole weekend without a mask on underwater (just exagerating there), i didnt lose one lens. Some dives i was spending 20 minutes or more maskless, swiming around, I did have red eyes but i think that was just the saltwater. Try it out