Quote:
Originally Posted by lmorin
Quote:
Originally Posted by CompuDude
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Personally, I think the hype and concern over plastic buckles is a little overblown. Is eliminating them safer? Yes. But how often do the buckles break? ......
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I made my own spring straps precisely to avoid ANY buckle. I hated the buckles on my Mares fins (a stated selling point of the fins). They repeatedly rotated on their attachment posts. After only limited wear, one buckle began to come completely off its post when I was taking my fins off at the boat ladder. Also, on some dives my hands were too cold or, with gloves, my fingers were too bulky to operate the buckle properly. The "problem" of strap breakage was, to me, rather irrelevant as deterioration of the strap should be easily detected by reasonable visual inspection way before breakage during dive conditions. I love my spring straps because only one finger (with or without glove) is necessary to remove the strap and, in the same motion with the same hand, I can loop the strap over my hand onto my wrist. I don't have to worry about losing a fin. As simple as pie. |
There are many kinds of "plastic buckle". And for the record, I agree with you... I bought my wife a pair of Mares fins, and while the fins are nice, I find the Mares buckles absolutely abhorrent. I can't wait to replace them with spring straps... and neither can she.
The plastic buckles I was referring to are the relatively simple fastex-style buckles used in the EZ-Spring Straps. (See the links earlier in the thread)