Can you snorkel wearing contact lenses?

Answer

Absolutely. It's possible, though, as with any other physical activity, to lose a conatact. In the fifteen years I've been scuba diving and snorkeling, I've lost a lens only once, when a wave at the surface hit me squarely in the face. If you're worried, though, and depending on your vision, it's helpful to know that the refraction of water often allows someone with poor vision to see better underwater, so you may find you don't need the lenses as much.

Correction

Most of the time you can snorkel safely with contacts (barring the risk of losing them). However, in extreme cases (where you snorkel a lot, very deep, or both) you can interfere with gas exchange (nitrogen in this case) over the surface of the cornea, and in very extreme cases you can seriously damage the cornea as micro-bubbles form.

For most snorklers, this is a very unlikely problem. However, it shoud be noted that groups of pearl divers in the South Pacific actually got the bends while free-divig for pearls (90' dives, 4 minutes surface interval between dives, lots and lots of repetitiion).

As studies have not conclusively investigated gas exchange across the cornea, I would personally avoid diving with contacts. Note that it's easy and inexpensive to get almost any prescription lens sized for your mask.

Cjonb 23:08, 2 Jun 2008 (UTC)

First answer by ID1159875617. Last edit by Cjonb. Contributor trust: 103 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 75 [recommend question]