What do you do when you can't tell the cuda from the cuckoo bass anymore?

In other words, what's the deal with using prescription lenses in dive masks? Also, when I'm wearing my glasses I can't see up close, and I don't want to stick my knife into my hand instead of my victim's head, so is it possible to have something like bifocal lenses? Is that practical, or are there other solutions?

The lighties better not chuckle at this! Your day will come you cheeky sods!

I know that some companies will put your prescription into your mask - not sure if it can be done locally, I know when I used to dive with Gyula, he had prescription lenses in his mask and that was about 12 or so years ago.

Hendrik,

Have you not considered contact lenses. I have been using contacts for about 20 years and they do not affect diving at all. I know that not all problems can be treated with contacts. The nice thing about contact lenses is that you can always keep a spare one in your sleeve should you get hammered in the surf and need to replace one.

There is a product which I use called "stick ons". They are obtainable from Optometrists. They are plastic bi-focal type lenses which you can stick onto sunglasses etc with water so that you can improve your vision.

What I do is place the lenses in the correct position on the inside of my mask and then put a dot of clear epoxy "glue" in each corner. The lenses can't come off and if you change masks as I have. You carefully peel the epoxy off the glass surface using a craft knife blade and then cafefuly peel it off the lens to use again. Cost . . . . The beauty of it is they are about R250 a pair.

Thanks for the responses.

Angelo, I have SCUBA dived with contacts before, but unfortunately my vision gets quite badly distorted for seeing close up when I wear them. In SCUBA that doesn't matter so much, but in spearfishing it could be a problem, so I haven't tried it. Something I have thought of trying is to spearfish with only one contact lens, but I think it will take some getting used to.

I quite like the sound of Peter's "stick-ons", because it seems like I could effectively create a bifocal lens at a reasonable cost.

I'm not against going the prescription lens route, as long as I can overcome the close up distortion problem. Can prescription lenses be made for any mask, or are some masks better suited to them?

Hi Hendrik,
Have a look at the Cressi range, they have a few low volume masks which are suitable for spearfishing and can be fitted out with prescription lens.

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