Stupid question? Glasses and snorkelling

[bfamily5]

Hi Everyone! My 2 DD's wear glasses. It's frightening how little they can see without them...what do people do when they snorkel? We live in Northeastern Canada so investing in personal gear isn't practical. Just curious what most folks do? TIA

 

[dworldlovers]

You can't wear a snorkel mask with glasses because it won't seal properly and you'll get water in it. Firefighters can get inserts with their eyeglass prescription that fit in their breathing masks-they are like glasses without the temple pieces! You could Google that to see if they are made for snorkel masks. I wore glasses for many, many years and finally got Lasik!

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

Hi Everyone! My 2 DD's wear glasses. It's frightening how little they can see without them...what do people do when they snorkel? We live in Northeastern Canada so investing in personal gear isn't practical. Just curious what most folks do? TIA

Unfortunately, in this instance, your choices are to have them wear contacts, get prescription masks (not cheap!!!!!!!!!!) or to see if you can find what the PP was referring to as an insert for them. You could also contact your eye doctor and see if they can recommend anything that might be less cost.

 

[JohnDS]

Many people like my wife find that they do not need their glasses while diving or snorkeling. There is a natural magnification that occurs that makes it easier for her to see.

Sent from my rotary phone using DISBoards

 

[peachygreen]

Do a search online. You can get a mask with generic prescription lenses for not that much money. I got some for my husband a few years ago because he can't wear contacts. He has a weird prescription so they aren't exactly his prescription but they are close and when you add the refraction of the water he was able to see quite well.

I'm going to see if I can find the link to where we purchased them.

 

[peachygreen]

Here is the link
http://www.snorkel-mart.com/master.cfm?CategoryID=28

 

[njpyro]

I wear glasses all the time. My eye sight is not great, but i manage to see misty things with a regular snorkel mask due to the magnification. My mom's eyes are worse than mine, and she never has a problem.

 

[wallawallakids]

I agree with PP above about your options. My oldest DD wears glasses and my youngest son is actually severely visually impaired to the point where he is legally blind out of one eye and no prescription can fix his vision in that eye. He sees 20/400 with his glasses on.

With my older DD, we did 2 things. She is a swimmer, so she has prescription googles. Our experience with them is that they weren't that great. They fog up a lot (we have tried many tips to stop this) and of course, when you take them off, you can't see! So you need your glasses right there or you have to keep the googles on for the entire time. This past year, we got her contacts. It is much easier for her now and she wore those snorkeling in Cozumel and did great. But she is older and I do not know how old your girls are? Contacts are a big deal and a lot of money, so if you are just needing them for one day, it obviously isn't worth it. Also, I will say if their prescription is not that severe, than I would just skip it. They will be able to see some things without glasses and I would think they would still enjoy themselves. My DD swam without a prescription for 3 years before we invested the money into goggles. For reference, she has a -3 prescription in both eyes. She has never complained about this and has snorkeled with her dad in the past without glasses and done just fine. She still saw fish and had a blast.

My son, being that he is in a whole different boat, does what he can. We took him snorkeling as well and he did not wear glasses or prescription goggles. He doesn't swim that much and it just was not worth the price right now for us to invest in that. He is obviously too young for contacts. He still did it. We helped him and to this day he still says he loved it. I think he liked the boat the most though. If we are just swimming with him, he will wear his glasses as he doesn't like to put his head in the water anyway, but for snorkeling we took them off and had him wear just the ones they gave us.

I also wear contacts but as a kid I did not. I have a -8 prescription in both eyes, so can't see much of anything without my contacts/ glasses. As a child I swam all summer without anything and managed. We lived on an island off the Maine coast and I spent all day diving under the water and still had a blast. I think kids that wear glasses are kind of used to not always seeing great! I am going to bet your girls will have a blast no mater what you choose to do. Although I understand your concern, as I have that concern daily with my son as well. Good luck with your decision!

 

[JillyBean1899]

Depending on the ages of your kids, you may want to check into contacts for them. If their prescriptions allow it, you could find out about daily disposable lenses. With those you don't have to worry about cleaning them, or if one floats off while they are swimming, because you just toss them at night.

My doc gave me 10 "trial" lens sets as part of my contact exam/fitting 10 months ago, and since I don't wear contacts all the time I still have 1 pair left. This might be an option for your kids, because you could get a box of 30 (that's the smallest they come in) for each eye, and then just buy a new pair of boxes as they use them up for activities like snorkeling, or anything that uses a mask or where glasses just aren't really practical. I wear contacts at theme parks, so I can see on rides and don't have to worry about losing my glasses.

 

[lillyshelle]

Prior to me having Lasik eye surgey..... I use to not be able to see the big E (or whatever letter) on top of the eye chart without glasses or contacts. I am from SC so I spent most of my childhood summers in the water. I use to love to swim with goggles because I could see without having to wet my glasses or worry about loosing a contact lens. I think my vision was around 20/300. So I couldn't see starting at age 5. Your kids should be ok with a regular pair of goggles. They really do magnify everything. Good luck!!!

 

[phinz]

I have *horrible* vision and normal swim goggles seem to work fine for me. I had a pool while in Florida and I didn't need my glasses underwater. The goggles I had actually allowed me to see all the way to the other end of the pool while underwater.

 

[ludari]

Hi Everyone! My 2 DD's wear glasses. It's frightening how little they can see without them...what do people do when they snorkel? We live in Northeastern Canada so investing in personal gear isn't practical. Just curious what most folks do? TIA

As an active scuba diver that wears glasses you have several options. First, is the most expensive is to get prescription masks. This is not something I recommend unless you plan on doing a lot of snorkeling or diving. Second, you can also wear contact lenses which is what I do. Finally, you can use these plastic prescription inserts that attach to the inside of the masks. You can find these prescription inserts at your local dive shop or sporting good store that sells dive equipment. To get these inserts to adhere properly you have to follow the instructions carefully and prepare the masks. Eventually these inserts will fall off over time but they will work for a while if you install them correctly.

 

[jrabbit]

Many people like my wife find that they do not need their glasses while diving or snorkeling. There is a natural magnification that occurs that makes it easier for her to see.

Sent from my rotary phone using DISBoards

THIS!!

 

[allyphoe]

My DD, who is not terribly nearsighted (-1.5 and -2.0) strongly prefers her prescription goggles to her favorite nonprescription goggles, but she's picky about goggles in general and sensitive to blurry vision. The brand she uses hasn't fogged in 9 months of wearing the same pair.

If your kids haven't snorkeled before, getting used to it may be a bigger deal than blurred vision is. Mine has taken snorkel lessons twice, and both times concluded that she'd rather just turn her head to breathe than mess with the snorkel. Because of that, I'm not going to get a prescription mask; she can pick between good goggles and her regular mask.

 

[CM Dad]

I just did a quick Google search and found this page http://www.tropicalsnorkeling.com/prescription-snorkel-mask.html that list several options for people that wear glasses. Before an earlier cruise, my wife gave me a mask with prescription lenses. i don't know what she paid for them.

 

[bfamily5]

Thank you all so much for the advice! My girls both can't see the big E. They are older teens and one wants to do contacts while the other refuses to "touch her eye" Will definaly follow the links and maybe do a test run with a normal mask to see what they can see! Thanks so much!!

 

[JillyBean1899]

The whole "touching the eye" thing isn't as bad as people think it is before they try it. If she can handle putting in eye drops, she should be OK with contacts. I always look as far up as I can, because seeing something come straight towards my eye creeps me out (yet I have an appointment next month for a LASIK consultation ... go figure), but putting the contact on the bottom of my eye, then rolling my eye down doesn't bother me at all. Maybe once she sees her sister doing it with no trouble, she'll decide she wants to try.

My mom says that she never had trouble snorkeling without contacts. I've never tried, when I took SCUBA lessons I had contacts, and the only times I went swimming with goggles before that was in a pool, where it was obvious the wall was coming up. I can see the E on the chart, but it's blurry, I basically see it cause I know it's there; the line under that I can't read with "naked" eyes. I can sometimes guess, but a C looks a lot like an O and a D.