AGA Masks

[Jupiter]

Does anybody here use them? Other than the ability to have a buddyphone, what is the benefit they have over standard mask/first stage?

Anybody have the full kit with buddyphones and surface intercom?

[Crimediver]

Many advantages. I dive a variety of FFM such as the Kirby Morgan Bandmasks like the EXO-26, POD style mask and even the old KMB 10 fiberglass bandmasks. I even dive old General Aquadyne masks. The AGA is one of the lightest, high performance mask on the market.I dive them with UW comm such as the Buddy Phone or other Ocean Technology military grade comm and have dove them with hardwired comm with an umbilical. I use them when I need to be able to talk and use them a lot in cold water to keep my face warmer. From a safety standpoint, you will be able to breath if you are unconcious or having a seizure unlike usind a second stage which will most likely come out of your mouth.
I use both positive and non-positive pressure masks. The positive version will blast air out of the reg if your mask seal is broken and helps to keep dirty or polluted water from entering the face mask. While not really designed for contaminated water diving it does help to keep it out if a diver is inadvertently diving in bad water.
The breathing gas is directed across the faceplate to virtually eliminate mask fogging.
The mask is low profile with little drag factor and is easy to clear.
The mask seals well to a variety of face shapes.
The AGA is US Navy approved and is a phenomenal mask. Most public safety diving teams have them in inventory and depend on them. It is a superior design, unlike some other FFM I have used.

[Crimediver]

Oh, I almost forgot. I have the surface unit as well. It was set up for military frequency and I had it changed to be compatable with the BuddyPhone and is the same frequency as the other Ocean Technology System comm. I am doing this from memory but I believe we also use the SSB2010 comm. The surface unit I think went for about $ 3,500 when we got it about 10 years ago. OTS makes another surface unit a lot cheaper.

[terrillja]

The AGAs are nice, but I went with a less expensive option, the Ocean Reef Predator. With the comm unit, it was half the price of an AGA with comm. I've been happy with it so far. No surface unit, but my buddy and I both have the predators, so we can communicate underwater.

[Crimediver]

Like many things you get the quality you pay for. The Ocean Reef masks have some inherent design flaws. There is a pressure differential that causes a diver to constantly fiddle to adjust the intermediate pressure or suffer changes in breathing effort or free flow situations as the body position changes in relationship to the second stage. This is a non-issue with the AGA.
The Ocean Reef design started out with them being used as a gas mask design not designed to be used underwater. Later developed as a scuba FFM it has not been sucessfull in meeting the demands of a high performance FFM for professional use.
EBay is chock-a-block full of folks selling them to get rid of them. I have had nothing but bad experiences with the Ocean Reef FFM. Your experiences may differ.

[cummings66]

Crimediver hit every single point square on the head. He's exactly right and I really suggest if you want a FFM mask that's the best in that category you look at the AGA mask. There is no comparison between it and it's competitors.

[terrillja]

Originally Posted by Crimediver

EBay is chock-a-block full of folks selling them to get rid of them. I have had nothing but bad experiences with the Ocean Reef FFM. Your experiences may differ.

I'd be careful with this statement, most of the Ocean Reef masks on ebay are the NIRA, not the Neptune Space variants (Space, Predator and Raptor). These are completely different from the NIRA, which was version 1 of the design, the Space variants show a huge evolution and what the company learned from the NIRA.

If someone gave me the option of an AGA for Ocean Reef Space at the same price, sure, I'd grab the AGA, but for twice as much, that's hard to justify for me personally.

[Crimediver]

A dive team member I work with had a situation with one recently and had to depress the purge everytime he needed air. It was sent back to the LDS where he obtained it and "tuned" Same problem next time he dove it. He got rid of it and dives an AGA. He would have been ahead money-wise to have started with an AGA.
I have bought a lot of dive gear in the past 40 years, much of it was the wrong gear and I later had to upgrade and I wish I had gotten the proper gear to begin with. I hate spending money twice. As much diving as I do in a FFM I want something I trust to work right everytime.

I suspect the Ocean Reef will get the job done but I won't recommend this mask to a diver who really needs a good FFM. When the USN starts to use them I will give them a second look.

[mm2002]

I have been curious about full face masks, so this is interesting. Not trying to change the subject at hand, but how do you equalize your ears with a FFM?

[terrillja]

Originally Posted by mm2002

I have been curious about full face masks, so this is interesting. Not trying to change the subject at hand, but how do you equalize your ears with a FFM?

With the oceanreef, there are little plugs that block your nose, and you equalize your ears by pushing on the top of the mask, which pushes the plugs to your nose, then when you exhale the ears equalize.