If you wear prescription glasses but love to dive, one of the most frustrating things is not being able to see clearly underwater. Sure, I could use contacts but I don't really like the way they feel in my eyes and so I've had to settle for a sub-par experience while snorkeling - until now. San Diego-based SportRx contacted me and asked if they could help, so I accepted their offer of a Sea Vision Ultra dive mask featuring lenses matching my prescription for our trip to Cozumel last month but I didn't really know how much of a game changer they would be.
For years, people had spoken of how clear the water was and how bright the tropical fish were as they swam through the coral here. In fact, Cozumel was where I first went snorkeling, some 20 years ago on similarly rainy and overcast day. Since then, I've enjoyed diving at various spots along the western coast of Cozumel as well as other Caribbean islands. For me though, snorkeling had always been fun - but never amazing. Now that I can see things clearly though, all I can think about is going back out to better locations where I can spend more time exploring.
On our trip, the weather wasn't perfect so we didn't go out to the reef areas. Instead, I did some exploration just off the coast of our beach club. Despite that though, it was absolutely one of my best experiences ever and I can't wait to return again.
SportRx offers an astonishingly complete selection of prescription lens solutions for virtually every sport from ski goggles to glasses designed for hunting, golf, driving, and sports like basketball. They also have motorcross and swimming googles too and you can sort everything by sport to make it easier to find.
My Sea Vision Ultra dive mask came in a nice plastic box to protect it, along with some defogger spray and a lens cloth. This made it very easy to travel with since I didn't need to worry about having it crushed in my suitcase the way I have traveled with cheap snorkel gear in the past.
Sport Rx offers three different models of Sea Vision Ultra scuba and snorkeling dive masks, including the Sea Vision 2200 that I chose.
the mask is constructed with a crystal silicone that felt absolutely amazing compared to the cheap plastic that I'd been used to. It also fit my face perfectly without being too tight. You can purchase these "as is" if you don't need a prescription, and prices start at $55. From there, they offer vision inserts for +$170 for a single vision or +$192 for bifocal. You can also add a scratch protection coating for +$30 too. Once you've got your dive mask picked out, simply upload your prescription or one of the other methods availble including fax or email.
At $255, this certainly isn't a cheap product but for how much of an impact it made on something that I'd enjoyed previously it is totally worth it. Plus, when you consider that you are spending thousands of dollars to travel somewhere and then hundreds of dollars for the day trip to go snorkeling or scuba diving then it's almost silly to not be able to experience the beauty fully.
Thank you to SportRx for providing the dive mask, we heartily recomend it!
