Backup Mask, Prescription or not?

[Nemrod]

The answer is no if you mean the "back up" mask you intend to carry. That should be the smallest little folding mask you can find. If you mean a spare mask you might keep in your bag, yes, it should be the same as the mask you wear or at least as good.

I do not carry a spare mask for no overhead or soft overhead dives. I am fine with no mask and will simply make a leisurely ascent if I were to loose it which I cannot recall ever doing, but maybe I did somewhere sometime, dunno. You know, if I were with a buddy and lost my mask, how exactly would that happen? But anyways, I would just continue the dive, no big deal. If I am solo, I would as I said, after sorting things out, make a leisurely and not hurried ascent.

If your strap breaks, you realize, a mask will stay on without a strap?

N

 

[FinnMom]

Having a mask with funny vis may still be nicer than having no mask at all. Your tematecan decide if it really comes to that. I only carry an extra mask if losing mine would be a problem. Basically on a challenging dive I don't want any unnecessary added challeges, so I carry the extra mask.

 

[Doc Harry]

...However, it was mentioned during the class that all equipment carried by individual team members are part of the team's shared resource...

My spare prescription mask is not a shared resource of the team, it's my spare mask and it has my prescription lens, and I'm not willing to have it any other way.

 

[jboneng]

As I see it, every divers primary concern is his/here own safety, and the secondary concern of any diver is the safety of his dive-buddy / team.
So if you think a prescription backup mask makes you safer, then buy a prescription mask.