H2O Ninja to Revolutionize Diving? Don’t Hold Your Breath
LifestyleTech December 9, 2024 Damon Mitchell
Snorkeling can change your life. It’s the closest you can get to communing with alien worlds without leaving the planet.
All the chaos of your life, the noise pollution, the nagging, the endless contributions to your anxiety, all floats away. Even that extra weight you’ve been wanting to lose?
It all goes away.
The H2O Ninja transports you with just your face below the water. The only challenge with snorkeling, once you get past the possibility of seeing a shark, is the gear.
We’ve come a long way making snorkels and masks comfortable. Still, even when fitted by a good dive shop, once in the water you may find the snorkel drags.
The folks at H2O Ninja came up with a low-tech wearable solution you’re gonna love.
It’s a bigger mask, so you don’t have to plug your nose with a centered snorkel. You’ll spend more time snorkeling, less time fighting your equipment.
Just, don’t plan on diving too deep.
The Mask
If you haven’t experienced the underwater splendors off the shore of Hawaii or in the Caribbean, you’re missing out. If you’ve already experienced one of these, you may still have missed something.
Your traditional mask covers your eyes and nose. Masks can be two or more windows, or they may be one single. Regardless, windows limit the view. You lose your peripherals, even with side windows.
The H2O mask covers your whole face, so you can see more. The seal wraps around your chin.
The actual window, a large bubble on your face resists fogging. Attached to the top center portion of the mask is the snorkel.
The Snorkel
You haven’t snorkeled until you’ve battled with a snorkel that doesn’t work well. It’s too small, lets water in, or won’t stay put.
If you’ve ever spent half your time in the water struggling to use a snorkel, you’ve spent at least that much time wishing the darn thing didn’t exist.
Unless you’re free-diving, you have to have a snorkel to hover at the surface. A good snorkel makes resurfacing easier too.
The H2O snorkel is right where you want it, in a fixed position, straight up. There is no mouthpiece, no flimsy tubing, no clip-on attachment to come unclipped.
You breathe into the mask. That’s it.
If you dive down, you still have to hold your breath, but the streamlined snorkel won’t create drag.
The Dive
With regular snorkel equipment, you have to clear your nose as you descend.
You accomplish this by plugging your nose and “blowing out your ears,” so to speak. You have to do this to avoid pressure building up in your ears.
With the H2O mask, you cannot do this, as your nose is inaccessible.
The upside of this news is you don’t have to let it bother you. The downside is that you cannot dive as deeply as you would with a traditional mask.
What you get in return for that lack of depth is a more hands-free snorkeling experience. You also get more time. You can’t go as deep, but you can go down and stay down longer.
The H2O comes in two versions, the original and the GoPro version. The latter facilitates mounting a GoPro above your forehead.
It’s a great mask for beginners or someone who wants to take things slowly, maybe see more.
What I wonder is if they could fashion a hybrid version? As an experienced snorkeler, it would be great to enjoy the full mask feature but also be able to dive when I want. With all of our advances in robotics, it seems a mechanical nose plug is within reach.
In any case, the H2O is a lifestyle wearable to watch.