Has Your Mask Adjustment Buckle or Pin Broken or Become Lost?

[jim T.]

Thanks for the pics. This is very educational...
I can't tell for sure from the pics but it looks similar to my buckle/pin.

 

[drbill]

Bill I do to, but what do you do about the bubbles going in front of your face in the upright position? I have one but can't use it for video or camera work! Other than that I like it! I use the old three window SCUBA-Pro so the bubbles are routed away!

Agree about the bubbles in your face. I usually hold my breath when I'm filming (as long as I'm stable on the bottom) so they don't usually bother me, but they are a problem.

 

[jim T.]

Hmmm...just occured to me, all of the posters here are cold water (or reasonably cold water) divers. I'm wondering if hood wearers are having more of a problem than warm water hoodless folk? Extra stretch and stress on buckle/pin systems?
Any hoodless divers have this problem?

 

[Belmont]

I have used that mask mostly without a hood in the south or in the pool.
I think that using a replacement velcro strap that has little stretch can put extra strain on the weaker parts, such as the pin housing.

 

[drbill]

Although I dive with a hood, I keep the mask strap inside the hood in case the strap breaks.

 

[kidspot]

I have had the retaining clip break 2x on my "seamo betta" mask from Snorkel Bob's (yes, that's a real mask) - buckle is the same type as pictured in post #9. Fortunately I use a neoprene mask strap, so I simply rethreaded the velcro thru the frame and kept diving. Both times Snorkel Bob's has replaced the clip/buckle assembly free of charge. Kudos to Snorkel Bob's for good customer care I guess it's not too bad as I've had the mask for 5 years now and put nearly a thousand scuba or snorkel dives on it.

Aloha, Tim

 

[BabyDuck]

it happened in a dive rite. first time i was putting it on and PING - off went the post.

eh, it was a free mask and leaked anyway - one of the lenses has a spot without aquaseal or whatever they use. sad, though, since i think it was gonna fit really nice.

i don't remember plastic or metal & can't run go look since we're hospital-bound right now.

 

[denbon]

We had the same thing happen to us in Grand Cayman. We lost the strap adjustment pin. When I got home I started going through the junk drawers and found a piece of rigid hollow plastic tubing close to the same diamater of the pin on the other side of the strap. Next I cut it to length so it would fit snuggly between the two outer flanges. I then went in to the garage and started digging through the tool box, I found a stainless steel rivot roughly the same size of the hole on each end of the side flanges. I removed the pin from the rivot, put the strap between the two flanges, put the plastic tube between the flanges, put the SS rivot pin through the first hole of the flange, through the plastic tube and then through the second flange hole. The rivot pin will have a head on one end so it won't slide through the flange hole. I pulled the pin tight, left about 1/4 inch sticking out the other end then bent that over. Voila! Guarnteed never to fall out again. I hope!!!!! You can find everythning you need at the local HDW store.

 

[Wayward Son]

not on my masks, but I have personal experience when other divers have had such failures.

 

[FritzCat66]

Here's a pic showing my original Cressi Big Eyes mask, where the left side has the proper pin cap in place, but on the right side it has gone missing. It's hard to see (apologies for the focus), but there is still a pin in the right side mounting hole, it's just missing the cap. But without the cap, under certain situations the pin can come right out.

It's worth noting that the newer Big Eyes Evo mask, which replaced the original Big Eyes a year or so ago, has a completely different attaching mechanism.

Unfortunately, however, the new Big Eyes Evo doesn't fit my face quite as well as the original Big Eyes, so I keep the newer one in my BC pocket as my backup mask.

I am thinking of removing the pin entirely and running my SlapStrap directly through the hole, as recommended by DevonDiver in another post.