Atlantic Pro Divers: Jacksonville Scuba Dive Boat & Scuba Lessons

Atomic Aquatics Venom

The only antidote is salt water, and lots of it!

THE SPANKING-NEW ATOMIC MASK

Atomic Aquatics is calling this mask the Venom, and from what we can tell, it's a blending of their SubFrame and Frameless masks. It has a reinforcing internal frame that's molded directly beneath the surface of the silicone rubber skirt, like the Subframe, yet it offers the relatively low profile of the Frameless. Also, its faceplate is single window like the Frameless, but it has a high bridge and tear-drop shape similar to the SubFrame's dual-window design.

The Venom comes across as a high-concept, stylish-looking piece of gear when it's being held in your hand, and it's really comfortable when mounted on your face. Its easy-to-use squeeze-to-adjust buckles are soft-mounted to the mask skirt, which allows a little bit of flexibility in strap positioning, plus they can be folded flat for packing.

Where the Venom differs from its SubFrame and Frameless cousins is in its faceplate construction. While the SubFrame and Frameless lenses use Ultraclear glass, which has quite a rep for optical quality in its own right, on the Venom mask Atomic uses an even higher-quality glass imported from Germany. Called Schott Superwite glass, it apparently allows more light to penetrate than even Ultraclear glass.

In the water, we find a testament to a good mask is that you don't notice it on your face. The Venom does a good job of getting there. Like its cousins, it offers an above-average field of view, and the soft skirt and watertight seal combined to make the Venom feel like a part of our face. And while we didn't actually put any measuring devices to the faceplate glass, cruising along at 30 feet on a sunny day with pretty good viz, we found looking at the sights through this bright distortion-free Superwite glass was like looking through no glass at all.


Price: $199 Warranty: Lifetime on the frame, 1 year on buckles and skirt.

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SCUBA GEAR REPORTS
JUNE 2011