It has been awhile since my last post because I was continuing a world cruise–– interrupted by COVID in 2020. By the way, there are so many incredible places in the world to paddle board, kayak & surf. The list is endless and most spots are pristine and never traveled, especially Africa’s southern and western coastline.
I was looking for an all-in-one, full face-mask for my wife, who does not like to deal with separate components. Having never tried these before, I searched around, studying different features and applying my knowledge of decades of diving as well as read several reviews of these masks before buying this one.
I tried it out in our pool and I have to say, I was impressed. The view is good, even with the angled side panels, but not as optimal a view as a low volume free-diving mask. The fit was very comfortable and the seal was soft and formed around my chin perfectly–– not a drop of water entered the mask on the first try.
A nice feature is the foldable snorkel making it easy to stow in the mesh bag it arrived in, which can easily be kept on your paddle board deck.
There is also a GoPro mount kit that securely snaps onto the snorkel, but don’t expect to operate the camera features because you can’t see the camera, so you would need to turn on the recording, put the mask on, go snorkeling and turn it off when you are done.
The breathing was great and a little weird at first because I was so used to holding a snorkel in place with my lips. The form fit around the mouth is very comfortable, but you will not be able to talk. I dove down to the bottom and when I surfaced I was amazed at how nicely the water exited the snorkel to bone dry. Amazing. This is a great mask, especially for the price ($32 on Amazon). If you are looking for an all-in-one mask and like to stay on the surface, this is a great buy.
The only suggestions I would have for the manufacturer would be to have button-adjust straps to tighten or loosen the fit. This is old style where you need to manually slip off the strap band, fiddle with the length, then slip back on the strap band to keep the fit from slipping. This is not a big deal, but adding button-adjust straps would make it that much better.
This mask comes in a variety of colors and two sizes. I chose the smaller size to fit my wife’s fine features and it form-fitted both of us perfectly.
As with all full face-masks, they are not ideal for diving below the surface due to the fact that you can not pinch your nose to equalize and this will limit your depth to about a fathom before your ears feel the pressure. If you are one of the lucky ones who can wiggle your ears or jaw to equalize without having to pinch your nose, than God bless you. For me it is a surface snorkel mask for shallow water viewing, but a great on at that.
I Paddle 4 U 
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