Island Times Blog

It’s April and time to prepare for another exciting summer adventure! My name is Kelsey and this is my third summer sailing the Caribbean waters with SeaTrek. I needed to go to the dive store in my town to buy a new mask for the summer of 2013. For those of you who are not divers, it’s very important that all your dive gear fits properly (makes a lot of sense right? If your mask fills up with water, it’s pretty hard to see and who wants water up their nose during a dive? Not me!)

Kelsey H. is a SeaTrek Intern for the summer of 2013

To ensure that I bought a proper mask that fit well I decided to try on every mask in the store!!! You know the store owner loved me!!! There are a lot of ways to check a good fit. One way is to get your hair out of the way and press the mask onto your face so that every edge is tight against your skin, and so that there’s a bit of suction. Then look down. If the mask stays on your face with a bit of gravity pulling on it, then chances are that mask will work great. (just make sure you’re not inhaling through your nose, creating an artificial seal) The best way to check your gear though, is to actually get into the water with it. A lot of gear stores have a swimming pool attached to the storefront which they use for fitting gear and for SCUBA lessons. They will usually allow you to put your new mask on and splash in to test the fit. Trust me: the time to find out that your mask fits like a loose t-shirt is not when you’re out in the ocean and a long way from your dive shop! I can’t wait for summer to get here so I can get down-island! See you there!

BTW if you’re not sure about what you need to pack for your voyage, you can find your packing list here.