Diving with contact lenses

[boulderjohn]

I wore contacts for years before getting LASIK surgery, and I never had a problem. I closed my eyes when doing any mask skills without a problem. When I have students with contacts, I tell them to close their eyes during mask skills, and I've never had any have a problem.

I had very good correction with my contacts, and I was quite pleased with how well I could see when diving. On the other hand, I went diving to a familiar location as soon as possible after LASIK, and I was absolutely startled at how much better I could see everything. That was more than 10 years ago, and I still have 20/15 vision in both eyes. I do need reading glasses, although the need is not great. I have a small magnifier lens in one of my masks for the times I need to see something small underwater.

 

[Storker]

You can't see a thing without a mask anyway, so what's the point of opening your eyes?

I can see quite a bit without a mask. Sure, it's really out of focus and pretty fuzzy, but it's infinitely better than nothing at all.

My first no-mask experience was during one of my OW dives. Someone kicked my mask off, and my thought was "Hey, why's everything so fuzzy? Hey, there's a mask! Uh... It's probably mine..." I grabbed it, put it on, cleared it and continued the dive. I hadn't been able to see and grab that mask if I hadn't been able to see a thing.

So when I do my mask drills, I do them with my eyes open. Yes, I've got poor vision, but again it's a lot better than nothing at all.

When I was a boy, I did a bunch of skin diving without a mask. Sea water was OK, pool water gave me rabbit eyes, and freshwater stung. The trick is to open your eyes completely; if you squint, it'll sting.

 

[LittleNat]

I always wear my contacts and have never had a problem. I do keep a spare pair in my dive bag though, just in case.

 

[wizbangdoodle]

I never liked my close-up vision with my soft contacts because I couldn't see my computer clearly. I now wear a hybrid lens, soft/hard, and dive with those exclusively. Distance and close vision is great. The lenses were developed for those that have had a difficult time with getting their vision corrected the traditional way and/or had lasik.

 

[shamufish]

Finally a thread where I can contribute!

So basically the idea is that in general, you should avoid putting any kind of water at all on your eyes while you're wearing contacts. The worry is that you could develop an infection along the lines of Acanthamoeba keratitis[FONT=Open Sans, sans-serif], which is bad... mmmkay?[/FONT]

[FONT=Open Sans, sans-serif]That said, hundreds of thousands of people have had the odd dive or trip to the beach while wearing contacts and their eyes didn't fall off. I personally always dive at sea with contacts on, and never had a problem. I do however use disposable lenses, and never hesitate to throw them away if I feel they become uncomfortable.[/FONT]

Wearing contacts is IMHO the way to go (better field of vision, cheaper than Rx Masks, no worries about losing your mask, etc). If you want to be really safe use disposables, remove and throw them after each dive, and carry some solution such as Baush & Lomb eye relief to rinse your eyes between pairs. Can't hurt and the cost is minimal.