Help me find a snorkel mask for my farsighted 4 year old?

July 15, 2017 8:51 AM

We're going on a last minute trip to warm waters in a few weeks and I'm trying to figure out a snorkel/dive mask option for my very farsighted (> +8 in both eyes, plus bifocals) 4.5 year old. Any experience in navigating this in a way that isn't too spendy?

Made to order masks seem like they are going to cost ~$300+, I might spend that if she was a teenager, but its more than I want to pay given her age, and the fact her prescription changes so often. Let's say my budget is at most half of that, we're in the pool all the time and have another trip planned for next year so if we can figure something out we'll hopefully use it for a couple years at least. The cheaper the better, but I know a decent mask alone costs a little bit.

Masks with step diopters seem like the cheapest option, but I haven't found any that go higher than +4. She has step diaopter googles that seem to work well for her in the pool, (although I don't really know what she sees.) Is there some hidden place I haven't looked that might sell that type of (kids size) mask in a high enough prescription for her?

We have some old lenses of hers, she has Amblyopia and her prescription changes a slightly ever 6 months or so in trying to treat that. I'll have to check the prescription on the old lenses, but is there some way we might be able to utilize those? Say have our eye shop glue them into a mask?

Any suggestions on finding a used kids mask? I looked on ebay but found very few prescription masks and almost all for nearsightedness, but maybe I don't know how to search Ebay.

I called our local dive shop, they and from what I could tell have never dealt with this before for kids and didn't seem engaged. (The water is *cold* here, their clientele is probably more experienced divers than tropical vacationers).

If all else fails we can just use her googles (she loves to swim, no idea if she'll really use the snorkel, but she'll probably want to try). I'm going to keep calling our eye shop (associated with our dr, but difficult to reach) and call a couple online stores I've found on Monday, but would love to hear any suggestions folks might have. Thanks!

posted by littlerockgetaway to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (8 answers total)

Any chance she could tolerate contact lenses if you inserted and removed them for her? Getting a week's worth of dailies would be pretty inexpensive and her doctor might just give you samples at whatever distance correction would work for snorkeling.
posted by carmicha at 9:00 AM on July 15, 2017

We mounted glasses inside the Tribord Easybreath mask. There's plenty of room in there. You can also stick glasses (obviously, ear stems removed in both cases) into a regular snorkel mask, but it's a pain in terms of fit and also because you then have three surfaces that fog up: inside of mask, and front and back of glasses. The visibility is not the greatest. The Easybreath is ideal for this application because you are always getting a curtain of fresh air coming down across the glasses, so it (and the mask) never fog. It's really a masterpiece of design. The only downside is that because it's a much bigger mask that covers the whole face, the pressure when you get below 1 meter is pretty uncomfortable, but that's going to be self-limiting, not a safety issue. For mounting the glasses, I highly recommend Sugru, which gives you plenty of time to build up the structure you need to hold them in place, and then cures just as it is. You can embed the corners of the glasses in the lumps of Sugru so that they won't come off when cured.
Diving is just about the most expensive sport there is, so it's not entirely surprising, though unfortunate, that they were nonplussed by your resistance to spending $$$ for a kid's mask.
posted by wnissen at 9:03 AM on July 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: wnissen - thanks for the link to the Tribord mask! Can you tell me more about using a full face snorkel mask? I think these are new since I last snorkeled/dove (pre kids). It seems like a nice way to keep the snorkel from flopping around (a big reason to use a mask instead of her googles), but might be a little scary for a small child to wear.

I can't imagine our dr would give us a prescription for contacts for her, and I can't imagine having to put them in/out of her eyes. Eye drops after surgery have been enough of a struggle.

My price estimates are from shopping online, my lds just didn't even want to have a convo. My father did chat with his lds on the other side of the country, which said they could do it (similar price) but it would take several weeks and might not be back in time for our trip. (That doesn't necessarily seem unreasonable since it's basically a fancy pair of glasses, but the time required is one more reason to not pursue the custom prescription route. )
posted by littlerockgetaway at 9:16 AM on July 15, 2017

I have seen some hacks using old glasses with the arms removed and Sugru. This one looks the least leaky.

(I'm a -7 and looked into this last year for a trip - turned out not to have good snorkeling, so I haven't tried it. )
posted by cobaltnine at 9:39 AM on July 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Are you going to a touristy area? The dive shops near me advertise rental masks with corrective lenses, although you might be right that her specific combo of prescription strength and face size is a limiting factor.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 3:16 PM on July 15, 2017

> The dive shops near me advertise rental masks with corrective lenses

They won't have them for farsighted people, based on my experience in Hawaii.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:19 PM on July 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

The Tribord is a new type of mask, just came out in the last 4 years. It is easier than a traditional snorkel, because it doesn't need to be adjusted. It is one of the "dry" snorkels and that is very reliable; it's almost impossible to get water in it. And, you breathe naturally through your nose instead of having to adjust to mouth-breathing. My son had a traditional mask and he found it constraining compared to the wide-open Tribord. The only real problem is getting the right size. It's not as flexible as a traditional mask, and if it doesn't sit well on your face, it will leak. It's irritating, but not a huge problem, as it will pool down by your mouth instead of your nose, where you breathe.
posted by wnissen at 6:15 PM on July 15, 2017

I bought one of the full-face snorkel masks earlier this year. My husband rented a Tribord when we were in St. John, but I ended up getting this one instead, based on some reviews I read and the cost.

Overall I liked it, since I didn't have to clamp something in my mouth and could breathe normally. wnissen is right about any leaks pooling down by your mouth, and the mask I got will automatically drain the water if you lift your head up.

I would make sure if you get that kind of mask to practice with your kid beforehand. There were two things I found that took some adjustment when switching from the normal mask. First, you hear your own breathing pretty loud, which at first made me feel a little like I couldn't get enough air. Second, the mechanism to keep water out of the mask is pretty sensitive, and if you turn your head to far or look too far down, it closes. I would make sure a kid that young experiences that so they know not to panic and how to re-position their head so they get air flow. That applies to most snorkels these days, but I found the full-face version to be more likely to shut.

Also, while I didn't notice it, my husband commented on the fact that since you can breathe through your nose, you can smell. It didn't bother me, but he felt like the ocean had a strong fishy smell where he was.
posted by thejanna at 5:56 AM on July 18, 2017