How To Choose Snorkel Masks

Hi, I'm Howard Payne and I'm an instructor with Dive Wimbledon. We're a 5-star IDC centre here in southwest London and I teach both recreational and technical diving and I have been diving for about 8 years. And today, I am going to give you a little bit of advice on equipment and how to scuba dive.

Okay, let's just take a look at some of the things that you should be looking for and some of the things/issues surrounding masks for both diving and snorkelling because firstly, a really good idea is to choose a good-quality mask for whether you are snorkelling or scuba. A decent mask is pretty much essential really and the same goes, things apply to both diving and snorkelling. Good quality masks will use good quality glass and that makes quite a difference.

Firstly obviously, some thing that is very clear and that there are no blemishes so that you can see out very easily but also you'll find good quality glass has very little in the way of imperfections on the inside and that's really what condensation sticks to. I think it's important to mention that although you might like the look of a certain mask, masks kind of choose you when you rather that the other way round really. When you are looking at one primarily, what you are looking for is something that it fits really well, so let's take a look to work that out first, so just using Jack here as a model, if you peel the strap back on the mask so that it is literally round the front and then pop it on your face and breathe in through your nose, the thing should just fit really easily and shouldn't move.

Does it feel comfortable on your face? Also if you look here, that if you look, that is a good width for his face. Jack has quite a wide face so you want something that is not right on the edge of your eyes but you also want something if you've got a thinner face, that isn't too wide obviously because that will leak. So looking at that, there you can see actually is a really good fit that in that mask.

Good quality masks the skirts on all modern masks, are made out of silicone and something with a decent quality silicone that isn't too soft will hold its shape better and that's really important because it leaks less and that's really important, so something of a decent quality is going to be much easier to dive with because you are not clearing the water out all this time if it fits better. These are both scuba pro masks, you can see the two different styles here, this one is a single glass pane whereas this one is a two pane of glass and again, this is just a personal preference thing really, what kind of fits your face. Something that is really important is to choose a mask that has a very low internal volume, so hardly any air space inside because when you are trying to clear the water out that's going to make it much easier for your clear it. .