question re prescription masks

[spadge]

i am looking to purchse oen for my daughter shes 9 , her perscription is roughly -1.75 would she benefit form this ? or am i wasting my money ? sorry ofd aft question but difficult for me to imagine what she can and can't see and to me masks magnify somewhat

thanks

[Scott L]

i am looking to purchse oen for my daughter shes 9 , her perscription is roughly -1.75 would she benefit form this ? or am i wasting my money ? sorry ofd aft question but difficult for me to imagine what she can and can't see and to me masks magnify somewhat

thanks

You may wish to pose this question to idocsteve who although a horse's ass seems to know his profession well.

Contact lenses and diving -Questions Welcome - by Idocsteve

If prescription lens are recommended, Prescription Dive Masks of San Diego is by far the most recommended source on this board. I have had two masks worked on by them and the quality is top-notch...

Welcome to Prescription Dive Masks 1-800-538-2878.

[Marek K]

Hmmm... As you implied, she may not need correction at all, particularly if she's not diving seriously yet (and I note your other thread about what kind of lessons might be available to her). Refraction works a lot differently underwater than in air, and is much more forgiving; but I'm not sure it's a function of magnification.

That having been said, it's tough to know until she tries correction.

Particularly with her correction, I certainly wouldn't go with expensive custom-made lenses. I assume not much if any astigmatism?

Does she have a mask now? Are there off-the-shelf lenses available? An Internet search would determine that easily. Off-the-shelf lenses would work just fine, and are available for like $35-$40 each, depending on the mask. They're available in half-diopter increments, and you'd want the closest correction downward... or -1.5 in her case.

Me? I have about -10 diopters of correction in each eye, with serious astigmatism and reading correction. I see perfectly underwater with -9.5 lenses in my mask, with just spherical correction (no cylinder or reading correction).

[DA Aquamaster]

Same advice here. There are times when I dive without contacts and in that case I wear a mask with generic drop in lenses. My correction is -5.75 in one eye and -4.25 in the other with pretty much a straight no issues correction (there is some mild astigmatism in my left eye - a remanant of an eye injury in a bar fight in my younger more miltant years, but it is not noticeable on a dive.) At this point my eyes are also improving sloightly with age, so a custom mask makes no real sense either.

My son started diving at age 12 needed a correction in the -2.75 range. In his case generic drop in lenses also made sense as we could swap lenses every couple years if is prescription changed.

There are a few companies sell masks intended for corrective lenses and they sell the lenses for pretty reasonable money (under $30-$40 each) usually in .25 diopter increments up to about -8 diopters or so.

[spectrum]

1st question is, can she read her instruments? Choosing the right instruments can influence this. Water provides something like 1 diopter so that closes the gap for reading instruments and sightseeing.

2nd is general vision, her correction does not sound major so seeing the shore and boat adequately is probably not a big challenge. Her vision wants to be good enough to exchange signals and so forth.

Finally is her comfort. Long uncorrected dives can lead to fatigue. If she is the typical youngster diver this is probably not an issue, again her correction is not major.

If she's good with the instruments I'd wait for a demonstrated need.

Pete

[spadge]

apologies for my typos ! thanks for the replies - some of them were a bit to technical for me sorry
its seems i can get a mask for her to her perscription for about £60 sterling so we may well do that - altho i'm not convinced how much difference it will make still , so if anyone can advise further on that i 'd be grateful, it is just for snorkelling thanks

[Dave C]

I almost always recommend for someone who is nearsighted to get a prescription dive mask. However, since your daughter is only age 9 and her prescription is relatively mild, in your case I would recommend against it. It's quite likely her vision will get worse in the next few years, in which case she would have to get an upgraded prescription. Also, at age 9, she would probably be using a child's mask that she would soon outgrow. If she were an adult, I would say sure, get the prescription mask. However, as a 9 year old with a prescription of -1.75, I think she could get by with a regular, nonprescription mask. Wait until she is older to get a prescription mask.