Home DEMA Show Coverage New Adaptive Full-Face Mask Unveiled At DEMA Show 2016

New Adaptive Full-Face Mask Unveiled At DEMA Show 2016

Diveways' Adaptive Full Face Mask
Diveways' Adaptive Full Face Mask

Are you a handicapped scuba diver or know someone who would benefit from a full-face mask with an adaptor that could hook up to another regulator?

When I passed by the Handicapped Scuba Association’s booth at DEMA Show 2016, I saw a full-face mask that sported just that: an adaptor allowing the diver to breathe off of another regulator. Now I don’t know if it is the very first one of its kind but this is an innovative way to address the need to remove a full-face mask to breathe off of another regulator.

Take a good look at the above picture of the face mask. It has one feature that I’ve never seen before which is the ability to hook up a second regulator to the face mask. HSA Japan seems to be teamed up with Japanese dive manufacturer Diveways. The HSA team at DEMA walked me through the mask’s capabilities and I was impressed. Although this doesn’t appear to be in mass production, it hits key notes in the full-face mask world.

Down to the details: This mask has more than one way to breathe compressed gas: First, there’s the 2nd stage that is connected to the mask. If the 2nd stage breaks then there is a port whose primary function is to blow air onto the mask lens giving it a quick-to-use defogging tool and another method of breathing in a controlled manner. Now, drum roll please: Diveways has replaced the mouthpiece on a normal regulator with a silicone adaptor that will twist and lock into place on one of the mask’s ports and VOILA!

Although this mask is good for people who might have issues donning and doffing the mask, it also supplies a realistic solution to the shared-air method. No info on price yet, but forward thinking like this will help transform how we use full-face masks.

By Mike Sasso