How to find the best snorkeling mask. Did you know your mask was the number one item that controls the quality of your snorkeling experience?
How do you pick the right snorkeling mask?
The first thing about a mask is, because it is your number one piece of equipment, if you're gonna save money on dive equipment, don't try to save money on the mask! Spend the money, get the quality, it will last you much longer than a cheap piece of junk.
So what are masks made of today? What materials should you choose?
Don't buy rubber. Don't buy PVC. Some of those manufacturers that make them out of that are gonna hate me for this, but I'm trying to protect you here. Rubber degrades in the closet at home, it just dries out. You can use your mask one time, put it in the closet, and three years later go on vacation and the strap breaks or the mask is starting to crack. They just dry out. PVC gets hard over time and it's really just a cheap material to pump out a molded mask that somebody will pay money for.
If you buy a good quality mask, buy one made out of good quality materials. High-grade silicone will last you twenty to twenty-five years without problems—and if that's if you take care of it. If you do that, you won’t have to buy a mask every four or five years or every time you go on a major vacation.
Next, we check how the mask sits on your face.
Your mask has to sit right on your face. The problem is, most people WAY over tighten their mask. They pull the strap so tight it sucks the mask to their face, thinking that’s what will keep it on.
What they’re doing is comforming the mask to their face, and that can cause all sorts of problems. If, after your dive, you come up to the surface with a big old crease around your face, your mask is too tight.
Really, the mask should just sit on your face. You shouldn’t need a mask strap at all, it’s more to keep it on your face on the surface anyway.
Inner and Outer Seal
Every good quality mask has two seals. It has the outer rim of the skirt and another lip or seal on the inside that's every bit as important as the outside seal. If you don't have both seals fitting your face, your mask does not fit your face and it's not a good mask for you.
For example, if you put the mask on and inhale through your nose, a little bit of suction will help it hold. If the mask fits you correctly, you should be able to look in a mirror and see that the inner seal touches your skin all the way around.
Check Around Your Eyes & Eyebrows
Make sure to check that it seals completely around your eye sockets and doesn’t cut them off. Also test scrunching up your fact to make sure there isn’t a gap around your eyebrows. If there’s a gap, water will come trickling down into your mask, so the dinner seal is every bit as important as the outer seal.
Check Under Your Nose
Finally you’ll want to check that it seals at the part just under your nose. Some masks have the skirt a little longer here, and others are much shorter. You want to make sure that you’ll be able to hold a regulator or snorkel in your mouth without creating a gap in the mask skirt underneath your nose.
Masks With a Moustache
If you have a moustache, there’s a couple of tricks to make sure your mask seals properly. If you have a more narrow bridge under the nose rather than a thicker one, then you might have to shave just a little bit directly under your nose—just a line right underneath—so the mask can seal. That should help.
Vaseline is a big no no because it will deteriorate the silicone of your mask.
There is a product, and it’s only a couple bucks, called mask seal (made by Trident) that works way better. It comes in a stick just like a lip balm and it’s a waxy substance that coats the moustache and allows the mask to seal to it. It works really really well. If you do still get a little leak, then it’s not as big of a deal you just clear it.
Mask Shape & Prescription Lenses
Ok, so let’s talk a little bit about the shape of the mask. Everybody's face is different. The shape of the mask can make a big difference on your fit and how you see underwater. You'll notice some are a little bit more square on the outer edges and some are more round on the edges. Some are taller from top-to-bottom, some have two lenses, some have one lens.
With all of these options available, what the heck is the difference? What’s the best?
Well, what’s best is really what works best for you. That being said, there are certain advantages of these various design features.
I mentioned some masks with two lenses and some with one. Some people think that two lenses means you would get more vision, but that’s not necessarily true. A two-lens mask is often called a low-volume mask. It’s closer to your eyes so you can’t see the piece in the middle. The advantage of that is that if you wear prescription lenses, this is they type of mask that they’re going to put the lens in for you.
Mask Straps
Let’s talk a little about the strap. A good silicone mask is gonna come with a good silicone strap that will last you 20 to 25 years, so why would you ever want to change a strap? A lot of people with long hair like to use a fabric or neoprene strap. We call them slap straps. They're coated with a microfiber on the inside, and what it does for you is it just doesn't pull your hair.
With a regular silicone stap, when your hair is wet and it touches the grippy silicone, the strap will grab your hair and it’s quite uncomfortable. To put your mask on with this strap, you put the mask on your face and slide the strap back along your hair. It will hold it back and be very comfortable. This kind of strap is a very popular addition to a mask just to increase the comfort.
Mask Maintenance
Let's talk a little bit about care and maintenance. What most people don't realize, and few people tell them, is that when you buy a mask that's brand spanking new, it comes from the factory with a coating on the lens. This coating was a lubricant in the factory but it dries kind of hard, not greasy. That coating is clear and you can see right through it on land, but to see clearly underwater, you have to scrub that coating off.
If you forget to get the coating off, your defog won’t stick to the lens and your mask will fog up terribly. To scrub it, you take a quality product like Poseidon pearl polish or mask scrub that is made specifically for cleaning masks.
You can tell when people use the wrong products because when it’s dry, you can see this white line all the way around the edge by the seal. That’s because soap or other residue got in there and is now making it impossible for the silicone to seal directly to the mask. A good mask scrub product and defog will actually enhance that seal in addition to making sure your mask stays clear and easy to see.
You also always want to rinse them with fresh tap water, whether you’re swimming in a pool with high chlorine or in salt water, a thorough rinse after your dive will preserve the material. When you take care of high quality silicone it will last you 20 years or more, no problem.
Thats how you find the best snorkeling mask.