Full Face Snorkel Mask Study Results
- Mark Newman
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I’ve been scuba diving my entire professional career in both beautiful crystal clear waters of the Tropics to the not-so clear waters around the world. Diving up in the Arctic Circle and marine conservation work down in remote Madagascar. As a full-time scuba Instructor I taught divers in both warm and cold waters and lead countless dives.
But, my main specialty is dive equipment. Since 2010 I’ve been working with a wide range of scuba diving brands and 8 years working for one of the largest scuba diving retailers with hands-on experience with cutting edge dive equipment.
My opinion is ” why change snorkel masks when they weren’t in need of it”, save your money and buy a good old fashioned snorkel and mask separate system. I’ve bought a full face, just to see if the experience was different/better. It wasn’t better… After trying the full face; I still prefer my old style snorkel mask, too much leaking with the full face also you cannot equalise your ears as you have no access to pinching your nose, you cannot stay under and clear your eye mask if you fog up, you have to surface, no way of clearing the snorkel as easily as traditional style, Husband found they were terrible with beards, leaking constantly…I can dive deep when snorkeling and can hold my breath a long time and found that I was having issues with my ears which was spoiling my diving. You can also get a bit disoriented by the peripheral view from the side of the mask and can make you feel a bit sick when looking side to side. I didn’t feel that I was getting hypoxia/CO2 toxicity build up when using my model but it’s not something I would choose to use ever again. The risks and pitfalls of full face masks outway any benefit (I can only think they are better for people who don’t like having a wet face or breathing via a mouth piece) attending your local dive club for snorkel lessons will beat any of those fears and reservations out of you 👌👎🤿