How to Find the Right Diving Mask

Finding the right diving mask is not as simple as perusing an online retailer's website or a brick-and-mortar shop's shelves and picking out whatever mask catches the eye. While dive masks have many characteristics, the ultimate test of the right mask is seeing how well it fits on your face. Because every face is shaped differently, standardized sizes are of little help in testing that fit.

Instructions

    • 1

      Look on the box and a store clerk about what masks have prescription lenses or can be sent back to the factory and fitted with prescription lenses if you wear glasses or contacts. This helps to narrow your search. If you do not wear glasses or contacts, skip this step.

    • 2

      Eliminate masks with skirts (the plastic part between the lens and your face) made of silitex. This is a cheaper material that wears out and loses its shape more quickly, and thus loses its fit. Unless compelled by thriftiness, you want a mask with a silicon skirt.

    • 3

      Choose between masks with clear and and black skirts. Clear skirts maximize peripheral vision, which is desirable for divers in general. Avid underwater photographers, however, prefer the black mask skirt because it reduces the glare.

    • 4

      Evaluate extra features against your budget. Many high-end masks have side-view lenses to increase peripheral vision (and without an increase in glare) and/or purge valves to minimize the manual flushing of a mask during a dive. However, masks of this type might cost twice or even three times as much as a basic dive mask, and therefore might be beyond your budget.

    • 5

      Test the fit of prospective masks by placing it on your face without the strap, inhaling slightly with your nose and looking straight ahead. If mild suction alone holds the mask on and the fit is comfortable, the fit is good. Shake your head around slightly to further test the fit.