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#775
Best Budget/Moderately Priced RX Dive Mask?
cricket - 2/29/2012 9:11 AM
Category: Equipment
Replies: 7

Hey all,

Introducing my daughter to
diving and I am not absolutely certain this will be her cup of tea (she is 14
and the wind could blow sigh) . I want her to enjoy the experience-however,
she is extremely near sighted. I need a great budget conscious yet comfortable
prescription/corrective lenses dive mask. "Budget" is defined as
single parent/two children/mortgage/WV public school teacher budget.

Any ideas? Suggested
websites?

Thanks again for all of your
help.

Peace,

Cricket
#8590
dalehall - 2/29/2012 11:38 AM
There really isn’t much out there in the way of "budget" minded lenses.. Even the "gauge reader" inserts aren’t very cheap, unfortunately. I’m getting to the point where I’m about to need them, so I’ve been looking into them..
Here is a site that does perscription lenses
http://www.seavisionusa.com/

Hope you find what your are looking for...
Dale
#1200
Subscribed
Dutch - 2/29/2012 12:07 PM
I think the TUSA mask with pre-made inserts will end up cheapest. If the inserts fit her needs, that is. They would not work for me as I am far sighted. I have a bifocal now from a German company. They now have the variable focus no-line lenses but they are 250 Euros per lense!
#5828
Agojo - 2/29/2012 3:51 PM
May not be budget but I have a seavision corrective with bifocals mask. I had a basic seavision mask without corrective lenses and liked it so I bought what was supposed to be the same mask with corrective lenses and the actual width of the mask was smaller and it didn’t fit my face. I contacted seavision, was able to return the mask and I couldn’t believe the customer service that happened next. They removed the corrective lenses, and installed basic lenses in that mask. They provided a new seavision mask that did fit and they had the corrective bifocal lenses made and installed in it. with the corrective bifocal lenses. Cost $0, other than me shipping the mask to them. They returned the mask that didn’t fit withnew clear lenses along with the new mask that fit with the corrective lenses.
#1172
Precious_Cargo_Diving - 2/29/2012 4:59 PM
Might be able to help you Cricket shot me a PM... Michael...
#142
Hollywoodivers.com - 3/08/2012 9:57 PM
89 dollar prescrition mask...call 323 969 9666 be ready to provide the RX numbers...these lens are in 1.0 to 7.5 half diopter increments
#1200
Subscribed
Dutch - 3/09/2012 12:19 AM
^That is the TUSA insert lens system I mentioned as probably being the cheapest.^

Be sure you check the mask fit before buying!
#2242
MDW - 4/17/2012 12:30 PM
Another cost effective option may be contact lenses. You can usually get your optometrist to give you a "trial pair" of "disposable" contacts. These are designed for daily wear for 2 to 4 weeks and then throw them away, but if she just wears them for the time of diving and keeps them stored in the right solution in the case between dive days, the one pair will last the season. That should be long enough to see if she is really interested enough in diving to invest in a prescription mask or perhaps switch to contacts instead of glasses for daily life (14 is the age when they don’t like being seen in glasses anyway).

That said, I used the pre-fab prescription masks mentioned above for the first 10 years of diving and they work just fine (except when I set my tanks down on my first mask one time and broke the plastic where the strap attaches). Last year I switched to a custom ground prescription mask, for which I paid $250 just for the lenses, and it is appreciably better because it has my exact prescription including astigmatism and pupilary distance factored in, but I would not recommend this for a 14 year old as her eyes will likely continue to change for some years to come. With the pre-fab masks you can just buy some new lenses after a couple years. I found that vision underwater is "good enough" even with lenses that are 1 or 2 diopters off. I used -8 (the highest they offered from the time my eyes were -8.5 to -9.75 and the mask was still more than adequate to see what I needed to just fine.