Hi everybody. And welcome to Scuba Diver Magazine. I'm Mark. And I've been teaching people how
to scuba dive for well over 10 years now. So you'll probably recognize me from the Simply
Scuba channel and even my own channel, SAFEDIVING. For this video series, I'm going to be going
back to the basics of scuba diving so that if you're just starting out or even if you're
just feeling a little bit rusty, you can dive back in, fresh in the knowledge in the scuba
diving basics. If you enjoy this video and find it useful, then don't forget to like
and share it online so that your diving friends can see it as well and brush up on their skills.
If you have any comments, questions, queries, or even corrections at any part of the video,
then let us know down in the comments below and we, or even our community will help you
out. So let's get into it. Hi everybody. In this Back To Basics video,
we're going to be taking a quick look at how to change the mask strap on your mask. Now,
this is a pretty easy procedure. There are a few little pitfalls and a little hints and
tips that I have for doing this. So if this is your first time, then yeah, hopefully this
will just step you through. Or if you're stuck on a little bit, because sometimes re threading
them can be a bit complicated or you don't know how hard you can actually pull on that
strap. I'm basically going to show you. So yeah, replacing your mask strap, it can happen
because either your mask strap is broken. Over time they do sort of wear out so you
do need to replace them every now and then. You might be upgrading it, either swapping
out the mask strap completely, or you might be fitting a neoprene sleeve on the back so
it's a bit more comfortable, but the procedure is exactly the same. So let's take a quick
look at how to change your mask strap. Okay. So first of all, you need to remove
the old strap. So this is pretty easy. The first thing I'm going to do is show you why
this can be tricky. And that's because on the end of the mask strap, this is the very
edge of the mask strap, you'll see it's got a chunky section right here, and it's also
got this flared section as well. And these are both mechanical ways of stopping that
strap from accidentally going through the mechanism. They're there for safety, but they
do make your life a little bit trickier and this might be where you're getting stuck.
So the first thing is, is that on most masks, you should have a strap retainer, which is
a solid piece of plastic. And this is just a loop that sits on the mask strap and stops
this end bit from flapping around and just being annoying.
And as you see, the mask strap doesn't want to go through it because it's got that big
chunky lug that even if you do pull on it, it doesn't want to go through, so that's fine.
This is our first obstacle. Now the thing is with silicone straps, you can pull them
pretty hard. They do take a certain amount of strain, but it's important to look either
side of the mask strap and look for any nicks or cuts, because if there's any kind of imperfection
in that edge, if you do pull it a bit too tight, you are going to split the entire strap.
So do look out for that first. But to pull this lug through the retainer, what we're
going to do is pull on one edge of the strap until that very tip goes under. You see how
it's tucked under? Now, it's very easy to pull that through and you're past the first
obstacle. The next thing is, you've got to get it through
the buckle. It's very easy to get it through. Most buckles will have some kind of mechanism
where you push a button or you lift a tab or something. On this one, I've got a button
on the bottom and a button on the top. So we're going to squeeze those together. And
that just lifts this mechanism up and that's the ratchet system that stops it from sliding
out. Pulling on the strap, just to get it to that point. And that lug again is stopping
it from going through. That's what it's designed to do. So what we're going to do is exactly
the same as before. Just pull on one side of the strap until it tucks under, you see
how it goes in nice and easily when you just pull on one side and then just keep pulling
it at a slight angle and that will just pull it through that mechanism.
So there we have it. There we have the old strap off. You of course do exactly the same
on the other side, but the mechanism is exactly the same. So now we're going to jump straight
to putting that strap back on as if we're putting
a new mask strap on. Okay. So putting the new mask strap on. This
can be fiddly a bit because some mask mechanisms they're just a little bit shrouded, so it's
a bit hard to get your fingers in. So sometimes I use a teeny tiny little Flathead screwdriver,
but you can use a toothpick or anything because you might need a little hook to get it through,
but sometimes you don't. So the first thing is, is that you need to
make sure which is the front and the back of the strap. And as a general rule of thumb,
the logo is going to be on the outside to the back of the head, but also you want these
ratchet systems, they're going to start off on the inside. So they're going to be against
the side of your head and that's what's going to activate the mechanism. So it's always
going to be these ratchets on the outside. Getting the new mask strap back on is pretty
easy. What the buckle will have, we've already seen that mechanism, but it'll have a roller
this kind of piece of plastic, and you want to go on the inside of this and just poke
the tip of your mask strap in through there whilst holding down that mechanism. And this
is where a lot of the time it can get complicated. So you see how if you just do it like that,
it just mashes itself into that mechanism. So if you can get it through and get that
real tip through, perfect. Just grab hold of that and we'll show you that mechanism.
If you can't, then you might need to use that toothpick just to ease it through because
some mechanisms, they just get a little bit complicated and that mask strap you're trying
to push a soft noodle through a mechanism. It's not always the easiest. So sometimes
a pair of tweezers or some kind of hook, just to get that tab out.
Soon as you got that tab, just give it a tug and that's pretty much it. Then you can pull
that ratchet mechanism, depending on how tight you want it on your head, and then you do
the same with that strap retainer. You'll have two recesses in there. The one that stays
actually on the main body of the mask strap is going to be a bit deeper. You can see how
this section is about twice as thick as this section. So some of them have cut throughs,
so you can quickly release them. But yeah, the wider of the two sections always goes
on the main body of the mask strap. And then the smallest section is for this little tab,
and that's just going to stop that from flapping around.
So again, we've got those two mechanisms that are making a bit hard for me, but because
it's silicone, it's nice and flexible. The first one goes through pretty easy. The second
one, if you pull it at a slight angle, it goes through and there we have it. It's pretty
easy. It's a basic skill, but if you've never done it before, knowing how strong you can
pull on that mask strap can feel a little bit as if you're going to damage your mask,
but your silicone mask straps, they are pretty tough. They can deal with quite a lot of pulling
and a stretching and squeezing. Just try and make sure that you don't have any nicks or
cuts because as soon as you get any kind of imperfection in that, that's how you're going
to rip through the entire mask strap. And that's it. How to change your silicone
mask strap on your dive mask. Okay. So now you're a bit savvier with your
scuba diving basics. Don't forget to subscribe to the Scuba Diver Magazine channel to stay
up to date with the latest scuba diving news and advice. And don't forget to put your comments
down below in the comments. Thank you for watching. And of course, safe diving.