Bad attitudes about solo diving are still prevalent

[MaxBottomtime]

Am I the only one that has never heard of neoprene mask straps?

 

[JamesBon92007]

Now it could be that no one wants to try to tell someone their grandfathers age, that has been diving before they, or perhaps their father, were born what to do. And there is always "Go away kid, ya bother me."
Bob

I use that one too, along with "I was diving here long before you were born." Mainly to lifeguards.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Never had that happen and I dove/snorkeled one mask for 20+ years. Do you leave them sitting out in the sun or some other condition that causes ageing and premature failure?

I had a fairly new silicone mask strap break during a dive about 25 years ago. I've been using neoprene straps ever since.

 

[Rollin Bonz]

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Not what I was thinking when you said "neoprene mask strap"... Looks like the meat of the strap is webbing.

Seen them before, just wasn't aware that's what they were called

 

[Fastmarc]

View attachment 491232

@MaxBottomtime Is it as easy to put on? The back provides the elasticity? Similar elasticity?

 

[boulderjohn]

Straps of that kind in general are very common. They go on easily. They slide off easily. People with long hair and no hood absolutely should use them. They most commonly have Velcro fasteners, making them much easier to adjust than most standard mask straps. Go into the nearest dive shop and you will see a display of them, most likely with the shop's name on it. Some shops will nearly give them away with a mask purchase so you will carry around that advertisement.

 

[lermontov]

how far do you push solo? deco? overhead? cave? 70m+ it seems to me the further you go into what id call 'serious diving' the less a buddy can do for you- iI was doing a dive a couple of weeks ago when a buddy got stuck in front of me and left me trapped behind him with no other exits.
there seems to a tipping point where the disadvantages outweigh the benefits

 

[tursiops]

Not what I was thinking when you said "neoprene mask strap"... Looks like the meat of the strap is webbing.

Seen them before, just wasn't aware that's what they were called

Yes, Velcro webbing. I can't wear them, I guess my ears are at the wrong height. The webbing rubs on my ear and it is painful. I've never heard them called a neoprene strap, but rather by their trade name, a Slap Strap. There are other versions that use non-velcro webbing with a buckle system for tightening.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I use the buckle version, but I always wear a hood so I don't get any rubbing.

 

[SoloMonkey]

In Curacao I found that Blue Bay divers let me solo dive. I arranged with them ahead of time through Bonaire Fun Travel and specifically said "I AM A SOLO DIVER" I dive with a set of AP flexi pylons and 4 straps to make up a twindy set and use a tanspac wing.

I think in some cases you need to ring ahead and see what the score is rather than turning up and hoping for automatic acceptance. If you have the requirement there is always some other outfit who generally will allow you to do what you want.

Best regards

Solo Monkey

What's true of divers and dive shops is also true, to some extent, of destinations - some are more 'solo-friendly' or 'hostile' than others.

Researching Curacao, I noticed Ocean Encounters and Dive Bus forbid it. Go West Diving's website includes this blurb "Solo Diving is not allowed under any circumstance(s)," but a former employee indicated if you're solo certified & have proper equipment they'd allow it, and awhile back I e-mailed Go West and confirmed that was still the case. Here's a piece from the e-mail I got back in early August from Go West

"On Solo diving, we still have the same opinion Andreas had given you.

We do not, nor will we advertise with Solo diving at the moment.
We do accept solodivers that have all the equipment needed in redundancy, so if you have a 2 computers, 2 regulatorsets, a slate, extra mask, extra signaling devices, and so on....

You can rent tanks with us, that won’t be a problem.
But, like I said, we do not advertise with solo diving at the moment."

Compare that to the 'dive freedom' of Bonaire. And if you just enjoy contentious discussions vainly trying to get to the bottom of why a restrictive policy is in place, start a thread determined to solo shore dive on Grand Cayman.

Why is solo diving the 'red-headed step-child' of scuba diving? (Hoping the figure of speech is widely understood).

Richard.[/QUOTE