I would always dive with contacts.
If you are on a holiday and her prescription mask gets lost or damaged
she is stuck.  With contacts you can always beg, borrow or steal a new
mask and enjoy the rest of the holiday.
If you loses a contact you can always replace that for the next dive
especially if you use the daily disposables.

It becomes second nature to close your eyes if your mask floods and open
them when you've cleared it.
I have never lost a lens yet (finding wood to touch very quickly!!!!!)

How bad is your wife's eyesight?  I.e. if she lost her contact lenses
could she see well enough to surface safely and to find the boat or shore?

You say that "she plans to simply never need to purge her mask...".  
Ha!  That is just nor realistic.  But, if she closes here eyes when
the mask floods, she will probably not have a problem -- most of the
time.  However, over time, it is nearly certain that she WILL loose one
or both contacts.  Heck, that happens now and then even OUT of the water.
If she can deal with it, go with the contacts.

My eyes don't tolerate contact lenses, so I wear a mask with prescription
lenses.  My general opinion  is that those who use contacts to dive are
better off than those who use prescription lenses.  In other words, I agee
with your wife.

Suggestions:

(1) Bring and EXTRA pair of contacts when diving.  If the lenses get
lost of contaminated, change to that pair.

(2) Check with your eye care professional for any special cleaning
that may be needed after diving -- or if the lenses should just be
replaced after diving.  

"Jay Furr" <jfurr-nospam@nospam-furrs.org> wrote in message >

People think others should do what they do for various reasons.  It sounds
like your wife considered the prescription mask and rejected the idea.
Maybe you mean you're having a hell of a time getting your wife to do what
you think is best.  In any event, it's her dive; let her do whatever to hell
she wants.

It sounds like the helpful and patient dive shop employees get a nice
kickback from whoever makes their prescription masks for them.  Fortunately
your wife isn't a sucker.

As long as she wears soft lenses, especially the disposable type, and
primarily dives in the ocean, she's correct that contact lenses are
preferable.  I have heard of issues with hard lenses, though gas permeable
hard lenses should be OK.  I've also heard of divers contracting eye
infections from bacteria-laden fresh water.  Then again I've made four dives
in Lake Perris, one of the nastiest diveable lakes in the world, and my eyes
didn't suffer.  I did, however, toss the lenses after those dives.

The hardest part about wearing contacts is during certification, when you're
required to completely flood your mask and/or take it off and replace it
underwater.  The only time this might become an issue for her in future
diving is if her mask gets kicked or tangled in something and pulled off her
head.  If she can grab it and replace it with her eyes closed, no problem.
In fact, eye-closed mask replacement might be a skill she would want to
practice.  In the worst case scenario, mask gets kicked off her head and she
has to open her eyes to find it, she's no more blind than the rest of us
underwater without a mask.

Contacts tend to adhere a bit to the eyeball and don't come out that easily
when flooded unless the flooding solution is the same salinity as the eye.
I've briefly opened my eyes underwater in swimming pools and in the ocean
and have never lost a lens as a result.  If I did, I suppose I'd be in
trouble the rest of the dive day until I could get back to my hotel room and
put in a new pair.  If I were really concerned, I'd bring an extra pair on
the boat with me.  But since I've never ever lost one while diving, I simply
don't bother.  I do always bring an extra pair or several on dive trips,
mainly because I worry about losing one on land and spoiling the rest of my
trip, but losing them underwater simply is not a real issue.

On the other hand, Janna wears a prescription mask because she can't
tolerate contact lenses well.  She has no complaints about field of view.
What is a problem for her is that she is rendered blind unless that mask is
on her face, from the time she stows her glasses away safely on the dive
boat until after she gets back to the boat, gets her gear off, and can
retrieve her glasses.  For me, that would be uncomfortable.  I don't put my
mask on until right before I hit the water and it comes off my face as soon
as I ascend unless the seas are really rolling.  My visage is simply too
handsome to be covered up with an ugly mask for too long.

Also, a spare prescription mask is a necessity for long, expensive dive
trips.  You don't want to arrive on your $3,500 pp 11-day liveaboard after a
$1,500 plane trip only to find that your prescription mask broke on route
and now you can't dive.  That would, in a word, suck.  Before I started
doing liveaboard trips with Janna, I insisted she get a spare.  One of the
masks always rides with her on the plane in a carry-on bag.  She has a bad
habit of setting her mask down on the bench next to her when she doffs her
gear and it's only a matter of time until someone else sits on it, and
crunch.  Since my constant begging her to put the mask somewhere safe is
interpreted as nagging, buying a spare was the safest and sanest thing to
do.  But that's an extra $250 or so right there.  I can buy many boxes of
contacts for that price

I've been diving with extended wear contacts since 1990 and never lost one
(can't even remember a flooded mask).  Dive count at least 600.

Dive shop makes profit on prescription masks.  And they ain't cheap neither.

I carry a backup mask withme on all my dives.
She could do the same - wear a non-prescription mask with contacts, and in
the event of a flood and contact loss, switch to the presxcription backup
mask.

Dennis

I dove with contacts before lasik.  I lost a few - never dove with
prescription.  Now I have a little insert lens for reading my gauges and
dive computer.

 Your wife's problem is her attitude, not her vision correction.

 1) A thought train like that is flatly unsafe and has no business in the
water, and,

 2) Hope you survive the incident as well, being the spouse (not likely if
you're any kind of a man), and,

 3) Now might be a swell time to contact your agent about a coverage
re-evaluation.

It sounds like she's already been diving with her contacts or do you mean to
say that she did her training while wearing them?  It matters not, I wore
disposable contact lenses (while diving) for years before I had lasik.  I
never lost a lens though there were a few times that after removing my mask,
I thought I'd lost a lens.  However, it was only a bit of water in my eye
and the lens had floated up under my eyelid a bit.  A few extra blinks and a
drying pat of the eyes on a towel, would resettle the lens.  I always
carried plenty of replacement lenses on my dive trips and any day trips I
had at least one spare pair with me.

Does your wife wear disposable lenses?

I've purged my mask plenty of times while wearing contacts.  Heck, I've
deliberately flooded it.  Tell her to squint or close her eyes during the
process.  As far as her plans for "simply never need to purge her mask", I'm
sure she's saying that all very tongue in cheek.

I'd quit trying to convince your wife to consider it.  I also can't believe
that there are so many of your instructors and dive shop employees wearing
prescription masks, and none that wear their contacts instead.  How did you
end up with a shop that has such poor eyesight?

I just finished a course where I flooded and fully removed my mask about
a dozen times.  Both I and my buddy did this with contacts on, eyes
closed.  With practice, you learn to do this without quickly,
efficiently and without changing depth.

Rather than assuming it will never happen, your wife should simply
practice these skills with contacts on until proficient. Again, it is
important to be able to maintain your buoyancy control.  Starting by
just closing her eyes and maintaining depth would be an excellent first
step. Then move on to flooding and full removal with eyes closed.

Carol's worn her contacts on every dive for the last 20 years.  Hasn't
lost one, never had a problem with purging her mask (close the eyes).
Always packs a spare pair or two.

I don't wear contacts, have a mask with lenses.  Never had a problem,
although I treat my mask like a golden egg.

I wish I could dive with contacts. Not crazy about my prescription
masks...and expensive replacements when there is a significant change in
prescription. However I wear bifocals and I havn't been satisfied with the
"bifocal" contact options. Contacts and gauge readers are also an option but
my experience with those readers has been less than satisfactory. So I guess
I'll stick with the prescription mask.
Gary

First, with most masks, she's not going to have much periferal vision
anyway.  That's probably not a major factor.  Second, she can forget
about not having to purge her mask.  Sooner or later, something will
happen and she will have to.

The choice really comes down to what she prefers.  One factor worth
considering, however, is that some people like to take their masks off
at the surface.  If her lenses are in the mask, she's not going to be
able to see if she does that.  With contacts, she can.

The dive shop wants to sell her a mask with lenses.  She should listen
to what they have to say, but also should remember that they are not
exactly unbiased.

Lee

I have always worn contacts while diving (about 120 dives), and lost a lens
one time. I always carry some spares, so it wasn't a problem. My optometrist
prescribes lenses that are made for active sports about three years ago, I
havn't lost one of those, even while surfing-I think they are Biomedics 55.

Lots of folks dive with contacts with no issues.  I had a mask kicked off
while diving the Mispah off WPB back in the mid 80s in some smokin' current.
Opened my eyes, yup, mask is gone, found it, closed my eyes, cleared, voila!
Burning eyes and BOTH contacts in place (gas permeable hard) AND not swept
off the wreck!  Back on the boat, my buddy didn't even have a clue he kicked
off my mask...I learned an important lesson that day about getting too close
to someone in current...

Losing a fin while diving?  Maybe in surf (seen that), but while diving?
Make me smile, guys...