Lifestyle

Prescription Dive Mask – Snorkelling with Sharks at the London Aquarium.

Did you know you can get prescription goggles and dive masks from Boots Opticians? I was excited to get the opportunity to try out a dive mask made with my prescription. It was a simple process, pop in to my local Boots Opticians to have an eye health check, and let the lovely staff help me order the dive mask I needed. Simple!

And what’s the best way to try out a dive mask? Snorkelling with the sharks at London Aquarium of course!

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I was filled with adrenaline when I arrived at the London Aquarium to snorkel with the sharks! We had a quick look around, admiring the sharks from outside the tank.. I say admiring, I may have felt some fear too!

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Then we were treated to a behind the scenes tour, including our guide showing us what the sharks were fed, and how frequently (apparently they’re only fed three times a week.. I hoped today was a day they had been fed!). Finally the time arrived to get ready to leap into the cage sitting in the shark tank, to try my prescription dive mask out!

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I’d already adjusted the mask and prepared it to help prevent it fogging up, the lady helping me with the snorkel was also on hand to provide some anti-fog spray. After a quick change into my wetsuit and boots it was time to get into the water!

I’m not going to lie, the water was cold and initially I was a bit of a wuss, barely daring to move away from the ladder let alone put my face in the water! Suddenly being this close to such big sharks – and believe me they are big – didn’t seem like such a great idea! Then I remembered that.. more people die from hippo attacks than shark attacks each year, and yet I still think of hippos as cute!! With that I found myself under water alongside Betty the Bowmouth shark, she was huge and intriguing. With my mask it was like wearing my glasses, so I could see her markings really clearly!

Betty the Bowmouth shark

The mask was comfortable to wear, it was soft against my face and to be honest I quickly forgot I was wearing it! I loved being able to see really clearly under the water and it reminded me how much I used to love doing things like this before my eye sight required me to wear glasses!

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I’m now planning a new adventure to take my diving mask on, though I’m not sure I’ll be able to beat snorkelling with sharks!

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Look closely at the back of this image and you’ll see where I was!

 

Disclaimer: The Mask and Snorkel with Sharks experience were provided by Boots for the purposes of this review, all thoughts and images are my own.