Tip on Duct Tape

If your kit is held together with duct tape, remember that the tape might not last the whole trip. If it comes undone it may make its way to your dome port. If you are as quick thinking as I am, it will only take 4-5 shots before you realize what's wrong with your shots.

Now, once you have removed the tape from the dome port and stuffed it somewhere, it may take you a couple of dives to notice the adhesive residue. Once you've downloaded the card to your laptop and you notice these strange aberations on all of the images, it may finally occur to you to check the port. Once this was done, I took my ear juice and rubbed off the adhesive from the dome port.

On a positive note, the duct tape may actually substitute for a gray card if not too shiny.

When using duct tape as a gray reference, it's best that they be holding together your fins, not your lens port.

George

I had that happen to me when I was shooting a blue ring octopus changing colors into pink etc. Fortunately it was in the corner and I managed to sell that clip even though it was flawed. I actually knew it immediately but could do nothing since it was inside my housing. I used masking tape to tape down my dessicant and it ran loose and HAD to land around the lens area. :glare:

Craig, I'm not sure having fins held together duct taped is approved by DIR or even PADI.

<snip>Now, once you have removed the tape from the dome port and stuffed it somewhere, it may take you a couple of dives to notice the adhesive residue. <snip>

This is why gaffer's tape is infinitely preferable to cheap old conventional duct tape.

All the best, James

George,

Personally I like the shot. Even if you were using props not endemic to the region. Kind of needs a title though.... something like ribbon of life

Jim

it's a fragile world if you have to use duct tape to keep it together

it's a fragile world if you have to use duct tape to keep it together

I used to have a favorite wet suit with a tear in the thigh area. I would duct tape the suit. It looked like I was diving with a pulled hamstring. But the suit stretched and pulled and when I took the suit off, the tape would pull the hair off my leg.

My dive buddy refused to dive with any more if I wore that suit. She wondered why a guy with a $5k camera rig needed a taped up wet suit. She said the same thing when I taped up my favorite tennis shoes. She's obviously never been poor enough to have lived in a Buick.

I was trying to refer to the "fragile world" instead of calling the 5K rig fragile :-)

I had a double bladdered stabjacket where the outer bladder was worn badly. Over a year I more or less replaced the outer bladder with the tape. I think I dove 2 years (including scapa !) with that until I upgraded to a "new" secondhand rig.

My signature on another website is (I borrowed the quote somewhere)

You only need two tools:

if its loose and shouldn't, use duct tape

if its stuck and shouldn't, use a hammer

You only need two tools:

 

if its loose and shouldn't, use duct tape

if its stuck and shouldn't, use a hammer

I've heard the same wise saying, although I thought the second line ended "use WD-40"

I used to have a favorite wet suit with a tear in the thigh area. I would duct tape the suit. It looked like I was diving with a pulled hamstring. But the suit stretched and pulled and when I took the suit off, the tape would pull the hair off my leg.

 

My dive buddy refused to dive with any more if I wore that suit. She wondered why a guy with a $5k camera rig needed a taped up wet suit. She said the same thing when I taped up my favorite tennis shoes. She's obviously never been poor enough to have lived in a Buick.

How many of you ever saw Doug Hoffman, Wedding Photographer on Maui/underwater Photographer with his wetsuit wrap of Duct tape.

He would put on his wet suit and then his wife or dive buddy would wrap him like a mummy in Duct tape.

I recall in 1998 on a trip from La Paz on the "Don Jose" Doug's buddy held the tape and Doug spun around till he was wrapped up tight.

Debf told me that she had seen the same thing performed on Doug at least 2 years before I did.

That had to be one of the funniest things I ever seen in relation to diving in 25 years of diving.

Certainly some of the San Diegans on the list must have seen it. How bout it Phillip Colla, did you ever see that?

I used to have a favorite wet suit with a tear in the thigh area. I would duct tape the suit. It looked like I was diving with a pulled hamstring. But the suit stretched and pulled and when I took the suit off, the tape would pull the hair off my leg.

 

My dive buddy refused to dive with any more if I wore that suit. She wondered why a guy with a $5k camera rig needed a taped up wet suit. She said the same thing when I taped up my favorite tennis shoes. She's obviously never been poor enough to have lived in a Buick.

Spinnaker repair tape works better on wetsuits than duct tape. And it comes in lots of colors that even your dive buddy might admire. Best if applied with urethane glue, which has a multitude of other uses. (I used it to glue cloth sections to hold a Halcyon Wing together for two weeks on a liveaboard. The seams were coming apart. (I used duct tape on the inside over the seams.)

Duct tape, plastic ties, hose clamps, shock cord and synthetic braided line were all invented during our (speaking for my cohort, anyway) lifetimes. Where would be without them?

Frogfish (Robert Delfs)

At the Long Beach Scuba Show I learned about RESCUE TAPE. They had a booth but I didn't have time to pick any up. Walter from OCUPS did, so I'll ask him for a "product review". It looks like stretchy duct tape but it uses no adhesive and is waterproof.

http://www.rescuetape.com/

Could this be an underwater photographer's deam come true?

Bonnie

I'm not 100% sure, but from the description on the "Rescue Tape" web site, this looks just like the "self-amalgamating tape" that yachties have been using on their boats for many years. It comes in black and white. You stretch it as you put it on, and it immediately amalgamates to itself to form a solid rubbery coating around whatever you put it on.

It is good stuff, though a bit expensive, and certainly not new. (Somehow I think the "Rescue Tape" brand might cost even more.) I carry a roll in my dive tool box, but I must say I've found it more useful for the boat - at least I haven't found any great uses for dive or camera gear.

I used to use self-amalgamating tape to cover exposed cotter pins and rings, especially on the life-lines, turnbuckles on shrouds and backstays. Saved a lot of torn sails and (more important) torn-up hands. I also to seal above-deck connections for running lights and solar panels, but that was just for waves, rain and spray. I don't think I'd want to rely on it to hold a seal under a lot of pressure.

Frogfish