Snorkelling excurions for someone who wears glasses

[VtnynvvT]

This may be a dumb question but I figured I would give it a go...

I wear glasses and can't/don't wear contact lenses. I have signed up for a catamaran cruise/snorkel in St Martins next month. I want to snorkel but how can I if I wear glasses? I don't want to buy a prescription mask. My vision is to poor to do it w/o glasses. Is there a way to do this? Will the mask fit over glasses? Am I missing an obvious solution or am I out of luck? It will still be a nice excursion even if I can't snorkel so I am not too worried about it but I would love to do it. Any feedback is appreciated :D

[SadieN]

Many of the tour operators have masks for you.

I bought my own for about $60 off the rack at a dive shop. Their strengths are labeled similar to reading glasses.

 

More info can be found on the snorkel and scuba board.

[ozarkmama]

I found it was worth buying my own mask so I know it fits well. They are not expensive.

[Hlitner]

The direct answer to the OP is that there are no decent masks that fit over a regular pair of glasses. So you only have a few options. 1. Buy a prescription mask. They are actually very reasonable in cost (about $60-75) and can be easily found online or at decent dive shops. Most folks do fine with off the shelf prescription lenses which are close (but not exact) to your normal script. Having done this myself for many years we found that with the normal distortion caused by water....a close prescription works fine.

2. Just snorkel without any corrective lenses. You will still see something (the distortion caused by water might help) but its not idea. and 3. Ask your tour operator if they have prescription goggles. This would be very rare since there are an infinite number of different scripts and no tour operator and have everything.

 

Hank

[maryann ns]

Ask around for places with prescription goggles. You may want to switch who you take your excursion with.

 

But even if you cannot get any prescription goggles, you will likely find that there is some natural magnification with regular goggles and you will see better than you might think. I had to go with regular goggles in Cuba and still had fun.

 

Last year on the Great Barrier Reef, our operator had prescription goggles and they were great. They do not have to be a perfect match to help. I am very nearsighted with astigmatism, by the way.

 

You could also look at wearing contact lenses for the time you are in the water.

[ksqueak]

I had a pair made about 10 years ago and still wear them! Talk to your eye doctor. I talked to mine and have his blessing to wear them even though my eyes have changed alot since then. Without glasses I found the "normal" lens only corrected to about 4 feet and I wanted to see further than 4 feet!

[chrispb]

I need to wear my glasses for distances only, not reading. Amazingly, I can see just fine through my mask when snorkelling.

 

I'd suggest just to try your mask before going to the expense of buying one on prescription.

[OCruisers]

Water is a natural magnifier! You will probably be able to see better than you think you will. :)

LuLu

[VtnynvvT]

Thank you for all of your replies. It sounds like it might worth looking into buying a mask. I need glasses for distance so I might be able to manage with a non-prescription mask. I wear pretty a strong prescription so can only see properly up to about six inches from my face.

[nybumpkin]

I'm very nearsighted. (You know, the patient in the ophthalmologist's office who, when asked to read the lowest readable line on the chart, has to walk several feet to see the big E.:p). I bought a used prescription mask online - not too far off my prescription and not very expensive at all. Having said that, I've used non-prescription masks and have found that the water really does improve my vision.

[suezyq50]

Thank you for all of your replies. It sounds like it might worth looking into buying a mask. I need glasses for distance so I might be able to manage with a non-prescription mask. I wear pretty a strong prescription so can only see properly up to about six inches from my face.

 

I don't think you will regret getting a mask. Hubby put it off for years. He now has them and states what a difference it makes.

[hubofhockey]

Water is a natural magnifier! You will probably be able to see better than you think you will. :)

LuLu

 

I wear glasses and see fine in the water. I never understood why. That's a great explanation.

[bwaz]

I also cannot wear contacts, but I have a very strong prescription and the OTC masks were not enough for me. I snorkeled for a while without any correction - as a previous poster said, you will see something, I finally bit the bullet and bought a prescription mask. It was a great investment in vacation enjoyment.

 

Another option you might want to consider for a separate excursion is helmet diving. DH and I did it a couple of times. You can wear your glasses - your hair does not even get wet. You walk along the ocean floor and sea the ocean life, coral reefs, etc. that way. There is a guide. You might like it as well.

[bbwex]

First of all, you do not want goggles, you want a face mask. That way you never make the mistake of accidentally breathing through your nose!!!

 

You need to go somewhere to find a mask that fits. That too will be important. Find a mask that you like, then push it onto your face (with the strap out of the way) and see if it will stick just from pushing it onto your face without very much pressure. Once you have a mask that fits, you can then work on getting your prescription ground into the faceplate, or they will make a set of lenses that attach to the faceplate.

[Twelvevman]

Take the arms off an old pair of glasses and add a strap to keep them in place. They will now fit under the mask and not have leaks from the arms.

[Ahall2015]

Take the arms off an old pair of glasses and add a strap to keep them in place. They will now fit under the mask and not have leaks from the arms.

 

Have you actually tried this? What kind of strap would you use?

[navybankerteacher]

Have you actually tried this? What kind of strap would you use?

 

I did this using three heavy rubber bands knotted together, with each end knotted to the "stump" left when I removed the arms. The face mask made a perfect seal over the taut rubber band - but the exercise is a nuisance and I've found that my vision is good enough to enjoy things just slightly out of focus.

[Twelvevman]

I used a strap from an old pair of goggles.

[mjmj57]

The speedo vanquish optic googles seem to work really wwwell. They have several diopter to choose from. check Amazon. Their are not real expensive right.might be worth a look

[sweetalyssum]

It's been a number of years ago, but I seem to remember folding the arms of my glasses in the way I do when taking them off, and then putting the mask/goggles over them to hold them into place. You have some obstruction, of course, with the arms, but it's better than nothing. I think I would use an old pair for this in case they fell off. I wouldn't have thought of doing this myself. I believe the person renting the snorkeling equipment suggested it.