Recreational divers, do you carry a spare mask?

[psychocabbage]

Hahha.. ok.. here is how I have to answer this:

The wife has a collection of masks in her never ending quest to fullfill her need for all the scuba supplies on the planet and to find the perfect mask for her..

So spares we have.. Do we have them down underwater with us? No. Are they on the boat? Not always.. They are almost always somewhere near the rest of our gear.. so that may be on shore, the hotel room or in the closet with the rest of the dive gear.. but we do have spares..

 

[Blackwood]

For me, having a spare mask clipped off somewhere?
I'd suspect that when diving in some remote dive location the clipped off mask stands a greater chance of being lost or broken long before I would ever need it to salvage a tropical dive where my main mask failed or got knocked off to the point that I or my buddy could not recover it.

I'd prefer it in a pocket for sure, but I'm comfortable that the doubler ender I clip it in my exposure suit pocket with will hold it on a d-ring. If I lose it, I lose it. Better it than the dive


Just saying, if I'm paying 150 bucks for two dives on a charter in Kona, I don't want to blow one of those dives by aborting due to a mask issue.

 

[Firefyter]

X Shorts are wonderful things when diving wet, especially on vacation.....

 

[TSandM]

I carry a spare mask on the majority of my dives -- every once in a while, I'll leave the X-shorts off if it's a simple, shallow shore dive in a very benign site.

I need bifocals in my mask, which means that I can't borrow a mask from someone else, and if I don't have the lenses, I can't read my gauges, which is a horrible way to end a dive. Thus the spare.

I have needed it twice. Once, when I lost my mask on a surf entry at Laguna Beach, and the spare mask saved the dive. The other time, when my mask failed (sealing strip had come loose, and it wouldn't stop flooding) and I didn't HAVE my spare with me, and I had to abort and let everybody else go diving. Lesson learned.

 

[DevonDiver]

I carry a spare mask on the boat for every dive. When teaching I carry one in my pocket in case I need to change mask for a student. When tech diving, I carry one in my pocket in case I have a problem with my first mask.

IMHO, There is no need for mask redundancy (in the water) for recreational divers.

 

[John_B]

I always have a spare mask, though I gave my last spare mask away to another diver who had a leaky purge valve mask. Reminds me that I need to replace the one I gave away...

Not to start another black vs. clear mask war, but I always like to have one of each.

 

[Blackwood]

X Shorts are wonderful things when diving wet, especially on vacation.....

I already get funny looks when I pull out a backplate...

 

[Rick Inman]

Yes, I carry a spare mask in my DS pocket on all dives.

I have needed it once underwater (not counting the times during classes when my evil instructor has stolen my primary mask). At depth, my buddy went to clear his mask and broke the strap. In about 15 seconds he had my spare mask on and we continued the dive.

I use the SP frameless for my spare, but I keep vowing to switch to the mini-shadow.

 

[MdScubaAl]

I wear a bifocal prescription mask and always carry a spare. Last year I was in Cozumel and during my 1st check (not checkout!) dive, the right-side strap bracket broke off! That would have been a real bummer if I didn't have a backup mask in my bag!

 

[reefduffer]

I have a spare mask, all set up with the same bungie necklace/leash I use on my primary, in my save-a-dive kit. I use a gauge-reader mask, so borrowing one, or buying whatever the LDS has while traveling, is a very sub-optimal option for me. Seems like others with gauge-readers or Rx masks have come to the same conclusion.

But the tradeoff of losing one dive vice the rest of a trip says I don't carry a spare while diving, I'd just thumb the dive. I don't dive with overheads.