Snorkeling Mask suitable for Scuba OW?

[ucrtwf]

My wife and I both were certified in our snorkle gear... we even wore our cheap (sportmart) fins for our first 7 dives. The masks were tested up to 90 ft with no problems. My wife now has a set of the Tusa Liberator fins and she's fine with 'em.
Good luck!
Tim

 

[meesier42]

Unless the instructor that you spoke to inspected your mask then, he was most likely basing his comments on the common occurance of snorkelling mask having plastic lenses, which are not suitable for scuba and tend to fog uncontrollably, not to mention lenes tend to pop out and such.

So give him some slack, if he did look at it, noticed the tempered glass lens, and further tried to sell you a new mask, he's just out for money, find a new shop to work with, the last thing that you want is an instructor telling you what gear fits and works for you. A good instructor will be able to provide his/her insight as to why they use the gear they use. But to tell you that your gear is inferior without a solid explaination as to why, that's just trying to make a buck.

 

[Web Monkey]

The biggest thing, as has been mentioned is the tempered glass.

It has to actually say "tempered" right on the glass, or have some indicator from the manufacturer that it is tempered.

This means that if it breaks, it will break into lots of tiny pieces that have less of a chance of poking your eye out than non-tempered glass, which breaks into jagged shards.

Other than that, it needs to seal against your face well and you need to be able to clear it.

Terry

Sweet, that sounds good. They don't leak, and I like them, so I guess that's what matters. The strap is still is pretty good shape too, the mask feels solid, so it should hold up just fine. I just wanted to make sure as well.

I think the instructors concern was to be sure I didn't have the cheesy $5 plastic pool mask or something. She had asked if I could bring them in for her to glance at them first before just making a blanket statement that they'd be fine, but I haven't had time between my classes.

The instructors are actually professors in other subjects at our school, and they run the club and teach the classes. I think the school actually helps fund the club, so it gives them a scuba room for equipment and lets students rent equipment for a good deal.

We dont have a LDS nearby, so I am ordering everything online. I decided to just go with the Tusa Liberator fins and some boots from Scubatoys. I think they will fit the bill, and I can upgrade later if I get serious.

Now I just have to wait for it to come in, I can't wait to start the class!

 

[GoHokiesGo]

Well, I just finished my final Open water dives this weekend, so I'm OW certified, woohoo!

My mask was perfectly fine, fit great and didnt fog up or have any issues. Once the instructor saw it, they said it would be just fine.

Our instructors were wonderful. We had 2 instructors and a class of 9 people, plus 2 divemaster candidates helping them out. The instructors were very methodical and devoted time to each student to make sure you understood everything; they were quite fun as well. Also, since it's a college club, they're professors, not store owners trying to sell you more gear. We even got a free gear rental for another weekend from the club so that we continue to dive and all.

Our open water dives were in a quarry in Va called Lake Rawlings, it's apparently where the movie "the Replacements" was partially filmed. They also had a lot of Halloween decorations hiding throughout the lake, which was rather funny. The water temps were in the 70surface/67bottom so still warm, the air temp was a little cold getting out though (41* this morning!!!). But it was a great weekend, I think scuba is definitely gonna be one of my new main hobbies. I had a great time with the class.