Steel spring heel straps

[Mr T.]

Hey Budgy,

SS heel-straps too expensive??! At £28 a pair?? Davey and I stood next to Andy Hayhurst whilst he lovingly made a pair (complete with plastic sheaths to reduce wear on your boots) in his workshop the other day - the man's an artist!

I don't know whether you've read the earlier stretches of this thread, but Halcyon knock 'em out at about £69.00 a pair. Andy's are a steal by comparison. HTH.

[John Gulliver]

Hi Budgy,
Thanks! I'll try doing it your way next time I do a shore dive.

[budgy]

Bren, I want a couple of stainless steel extension springs to make my own, I don't think the springs should cost me £1.50 each retail.  I don't say Andy doesn't do a good job or his labour doesn't offer good value for money.  Look at the links I put up, it just doesn't look like a difficult DIY job and if I could get the springs it shouldn't cost me a £5.
P.S. Its a bit of a flash unnessary item I wouldn't like any of you to think I was some kind of wild spendthrift just because I live in Scotsland, maybe I should make do with a piece of hosepipe and some bungy that is only 50p a metre.   
John, Good luck with the floating fin fitting technique.


(Edited by budgy at 5:49 pm on Dec. 29, 2002)

[Mdemon]

Budgy,

No jet holes to poke boot out! I'm using Typhoon Hurricane and they had no drain hole at all!

Tried two ideas to help with the floating sticky fin problem on the last dive;

Plan A - reduce friction by wrapping foot in something (a piece of bin liner this time!)

Plan B - a length of strap fixed to finstrap running along sole of fot, round the toe and back along insteap with enough to grip showing above ankle.

Plan A - total failure - just as sticky as plain boot on fin.

Plan B - Partial success actually, but a fuss to put on and still not the "unclip and go" that I'm after.

Plan C is to compress the sides of the fin on removal - I'll try it on the next dive.

Anyone else had any luck?

John

[darthmoll]

I am not trying to be funny, but do your fins fit properly? I used to use XL huricanes and always had a problem removing them, i swithched to Plana Quatro XL and have never had a problem, my foot fits into the fin much better and comes out without any trouble.

[Pierre Farrugia]

Hello All,
Remember me saying never had a buckle or strap fail in 7 years diving, I have to admit that happened to me as well. The only difference is that I switched from Cressi Frog to Mares Avanti Quattro. As soon as I hit the water and got under and tried to tightened the strap again but the pin that holds strap gave way. Altough with a piece of line and 5min underwater problem got sorted. Tomorrow I replace all 4 pins with SS bolts and lock nuts. Anyone had same problem mine I used them only for 10dives or less.

[Andy Phillips]

Not the same, but I'm on my 4th strap in 14 months, they all go in the same place, namely at the first raised bit. Now want a pair of those nice metal ones.

Andrew

[Mdemon]

Hi Darth,

They fit OK - go in nice and easy, although I do use the straps to ram them in good and firm.  My dry boots are quite large, which might be the cause of the problem.

I might borrow some Frogs and see if it IS the boots...

[darthmoll]

Pulling your straps over tight will cause them to fail prematurly, UV dont you know. I never tighten my fins when i put them on, in fact i recommend to all my students not to use the QR feature on their fins, bits get lost and break. I have had the same set of straps on my fins for over 4 years, no dought they wil break next time out.

DM

[Andy Phillips]

Hey Bren,

Tried to follow the link to get some of these straps, but it no work, can you let me have the phone number

Andrew