A friend of mine bought a pair of running shoes the other day and ended up hating them after 3 days and kept on complaining. I asked him the reason for all his ramblings about his newly bought branded shoes and he said the fittings was bad. The first thing came to my mind was the big question “Did he even tried the shoes first?” And yes, for being such a brand conscious, he spent his money on a good brand that did not give him what he expected. So what had he learned from the experience? Good brand name does not necessarily means great product for you. What I am trying to say here is you have to try some products before you can decide whether to invest in them or not as the results may be different for different individual.
The same thing applies when you decide that you are going to buy a pair of diving mask for your personal use. There are of course many great brand names out there for you to choose. However, the question is which one fits you the best. In scuba diving activity, other than having a great diving skill, you also need to have equipment personally good for you. Mask play an important role. Bad fitting will only allow water to keep sipping into your mask making uncomfortable dive.It does not matter if you own a cheap pair of mask if it works perfect for you. You saved more and you gain more benefit from it. This is one piece of equipment that needed to be tested first before buying, just like a wetsuit.
When you learn scuba diving, your instructor or the long video presentation will give you important tips on how to buy a right fitting mask. Of course I will share with you here as well. It is by far the easiest method to determine your personal fitting. Put the mask on your face, inhale through your nose and hold it for few seconds, look down, if the mask doesn’t fall off you just found a right fittings for you. One more factor to consider is to make sure the lenses are tempered glass. Why, in a very unlikely event, should the lenses break it will only crack all over instead of shattering into your face. Next, check the nose pocket, is it comfy? Does it cover your nose well or is it too small for your nose? Keep testing until you get the right one for you. Remember, for you personally.
It does not really matter if the mask have double or single lens. At this point, you are already sure that you have found a correct fitting mask. So what’s left for you? Choose your colour if you should, get an extra strap or get a prescribed lens if you have to. Want a more sophisticated mask? Try the full face mask if available but I would not recommend those to newbies as it needs more experience and of course they cost more than a normal pair.
That is all for now. Hopefully this article can help you and others too. I did the same thing as I wrote and I had a blast with them until now. Enjoy your dive activity and yes, dive safely, that is the only way to enjoy it. If you want to do more things underwater, go upgrade your level or just keep collecting experience by diving more.