[Previous entry: "PORT DOUGLAS VILLAGE North Queensland Australia."] [Next entry: "Fluoride in tap water.......and cola drinks and beer etc."]

11/06/2005: "MASKING THE PROBLEM fogging dive masks are avoidable."

Face Masks
This single, most important diver item has been neglected by manufacturers since the ScubaVision mask ( pictured uw) went out of production in the 1970’s. Masks have come and gone. Each year there is a new array of promoted items, none as good as the masks we wore in the mid 1960’s. The white/clear/translucent rubber masks began in Hollywood in “The Deep” to highlight the beautiful features of the British actress. Professional divers avoided them – and returned free samples to the importer, as I did. Some like dolphin expert Kathy Troutt kept the mask but painted the inside black.

Enough were sold to keep the production lines churning out new models. They sell well today but people don’t always use them long term. You’d think dive shops would have a voice and brains and enough feedback to influence manufacturers. The point is, no face mask should have a reflection on the inside of ‘the viewing screen’. Maybe OK in Japan and Europe where blue sky is rarer? Maybe that’s how they get away with it?

Novice dive shop retailers got conned and believe advertising. Few realize they are pushing ‘lemons’, which ultimately effect their business. Most argue in favour of these masks being a good item, such is this retail business today. Plus the masks ARE good to look at, and they feel good, but still no hot choice. The $22 face mask pictured is a dream, brand new and no fog on the first swim.

Consider:

1. The people overseas who design divers face masks rarely go skindiving themselves.
2. New face masks are sprayed with rubber preservatives (which cause the fogging).
3. It takes weeks or months before a new face mask gives crystal vision.
4. Clear rubber face masks allow (distracting) sunlight to reflect inside the mask.
5. Professional (abalone-type) divers prefer simple one-piece masks (pictured).
6. Deep swimming freedivers use low volume masks, to conserve air exhaled in pressure equalization. (Yet some modern freedivers dive with empty lungs these days)!
7. My choice of a face mask shape today is a cheap $22+ version (see box) from many fishing tackle stores.
8. This design face mask (in box) is advertised in Japan as a “professional divers mask”.
9. Would you buy a tennis racquet of golf club that had to be used for six months before it worked properly? Why then a fogging face mask?
10. A brand new (ex dive shop) dive mask that gives crystal clear vision from day one is 40 years overdue.
11. Palmolive dishwashing liquid is said to be a good de-fogger, and the cheapest.
12. There are solutions not mentioned here. Yet to be shared with a suitable manufacturer.
13. The original Espadon brand compensator mask from France as used by Valerie Taylor (for decades) – is very similar in design to the $22 version.

MORE
With diving gear I have always held the opinion that a highest price was never a guide to quality. French and Italian gear seemed to have the lead. French wetsuit neoprene rubber was the best quality we have ever seen. Warmest, softest and best smelling too.
My one piece surfer wet suit of today has somewhat foul-smelling neoprene, but has a good design and is more practical in the tropics than the roughly designed diver wet suits, so I put-up with the smell. If only the Tarzan suits were still available in Australia today.
They were double skin (without nylon lining) and were the warmest. The downside was you needed talcum powder to get them on, and the risk of tearing was paramount.