prescription lens for snorkeling goggles?

[sklja]

Has anyone ever bought prescription lenses for their snorkeling goggles? The problem is I wear bifocols....If I were to pay the extra money and get them would I get my far sighted prescription or my near sighted prescription? Or would it be a waste of money?

Any input would be appreciated

sklja

[rsldonk]

Has anyone ever bought prescription lenses for their snorkeling goggles? The problem is I wear bifocols....If I were to pay the extra money and get them would I get my far sighted prescription or my near sighted prescription? Or would it be a waste of money?

Any input would be appreciated

sklja

You can get your prescription custom ground into your mask. I would talk to your local dive shop about it. I don't have bifocals, so I was able to just get magnification inserts which were $45 each lens, but my dad has bifocals and we had to send his mask out to get them ground into it. I think we had his mask back within about a week. I believe the cost was about $60 per lens, but that could be grossly wrong.

[Lsimon]

I wear bifocals in normal life as I'd otherwise couldn't read nor see the computer screen well. In my case the bifocals are not necessary for snorkeling as there isn't much to see in a reading or mid range distance. I do not use bifocals for snorkeling. I actually use contact lenses that do nothing for my close vision. (I use reading glasses when I'm out of the water, still have my contacts in and need to read something).

 

I'm also wondering how well a close up "reading distance" lens would work in a mask, since the mask lens wouldn't be as close to your eyes as the lens of eyeglasses.

 

So think about what your true needs are, there really isn't anything that you're going to need to see closer than 3 or 4 feet away, and most of the time you're going to be looking further than that. If you have a local dive shop that sells the kind of mask that has inserts for general distance problems you might want to see if you can try those in the store and see if it is good enough, then compare the cost of those to having a custom ground lens in your mask.

[Stevesan]

As previously mentioned, your lenses should be for distance.

If you don't have astigmatism, bring your prescription along and the shop can pop in the proper diopter correction lenses on site.

if you do have astigmatism, the lenses should be sent out for grinding which will obviously cost more and there'll be @ a ten day delay.

 

My prescription indicates astigmatism, but the astigmatism is slight so a phone call to my opthmalogogist got her authoriztion for just the diopter correction lenses.

 

They are fine for snorkeling; there aren't many underwater road signs.:D

[rsldonk]

 

They are fine for snorkeling; there aren't many underwater road signs.:D

 

 

With skin diving, you don't have to worry about reading dive tables, bottom time (or computer), air gauge, compass etc. Just some things to consider.

[Stevesan]

With skin diving, you don't have to worry about reading dive tables, bottom time (or computer), air gauge, compass etc. Just some things to consider.

 

Excellent point for potential scuba divers.

[c2explor]

Do you have a dive shop in houston that you have used for prescription lens? I will need them and have no clue as for as a good shop to use.:)

[Stevesan]

Do you have a dive shop in houston that you have used for prescription lens? I will need them and have no clue as for as a good shop to use.:)

 

Yep - I got mine thru Sea Sports Scuba Westheimer store, excellent staff and good equipment selections. Give them a call first, then come in on 1093.

 

http://www.seasportsscuba.com/

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Simonton,+TX,+United+States+of+America&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title

[c2explor]

thanks for the informamtion will give them a try.

[heydn62]

I recently saw some "prescription" masks at a Sports Authority near me. They come in Mild, Moderate, and Strong instead of actual prescriptions, but the moderate was just like looking through my glasses for me. They are packaged in a way so that you can look through them so you can check them out to see how well they improve your vision. They were about $60 and I've seen similar prices on-line for exact prescription lenses, but this is another option out there. One advantage here is you can try on the mask before you buy. They sold a similar style of swim google as well.

[DANofNORTH]

http://www.snorkel-mart.com/

 

They have a pretty good site, resonable prices and an explanation of the prescription goggles etc.

 

Hope this helps.

[alphakitty]

My husband got his prescription mask from Snorkel Mart (link mentioned above). It was about $60 and he loves it. He can even see the fish now. :)