Posted by tleemay on August 11, 2001 at 17:31:11:
I recently took delivery of my newest TLS350
Signature Special Production cave cut. An
awesome performing suit for anyone wanting to
eliminate the bagginess & extra material of a
regular cut OTR or Signature series... it's
buttah in da wattah!
With my suit came one of DUI's newer products
- the Mask Control System, or MCS. Actually, I
received two of the systems - one came with my
suit, the other sent to me from a shop asking
for my evaluation less than a week later.
The system is a series of plastic clips and
buckles that allows a diver to directly connect
the mask strap to the side of the hood roughly
adjacent to the ear on each side. You replace
your original mask straps with the custom
connector and length straps provided in the kit.
The ends of the straps then fit into a clip
assembly essentially similar to the collar and
post clips you would find on most plastic fins,
but smaller. On the side of the hood near the
ears, you punch a small hole with the provided
punch tool and block. They even included a set
of yellow stick-on targets you can atatch to
the hood if you can't remember where to punch
the holes. A screw-in nylon anchoring post is
then inserted into the hole and the two pieces
are screwed together securing the anchor to the
hood (repeated on the other side of the hood
of course).
I installed the set-up on one of my old hoods in
less than 10 minutes. The straps click into place
easily. It takes a bit practice to un-clip the
mask though since the release lever is small, and
would be even more of a challenge with thick
gloves on. I had it at Pt. Dume this AM and had
no problem after about 3 tries in gloves with the
index finger and thumb cut out.
Length adjustments to the straps themselves is
done at the strap to mask connection - as with
most masks.
Since the mask requires the anchoring posts on
the hood and the special straps & connetcors,
this is not a piece of gear for team divers - so
I would not consider it DIR by any means...
unless all team members had the same MCS system
in place. Personally, I have no use for such a
system - it creates more problems that it solves.
But if you are a diver who tends to get their
mask pulled or blown off for whatever reason, the
MSC does I suppose have value. The ponly positive
thing I see with the system, is if you do break a
strap, you need to use DUI's replacement as a
regular replacement mask strap will not work.
Now here's the kicker for those who read this post
so far - who wants one of the two systems I have
at N/C other than packing & shipping.