How to Choose a Mask Strap Cover (and How to Get It On)
If you've decided you want a neoprene cover on your mask strap, the next questions are the practical ones. Will it fit my mask? How does it go on? Which design? Here are the answers, including the part most sellers skip.
How a slide-on cover fits
Mine are the slide-on style. The cover is a neoprene sleeve that threads onto the silicone strap your mask already has. Nothing clips, nothing sticks, nothing closes — once it's on, it's on, and there is no closure to wear out, snag your hair, or let go at depth.
It fits standard scuba and snorkel mask straps, which is nearly all of them. If your mask came with a split strap or an unusually wide one, message me before you order and I'll tell you honestly whether it will work.
Putting one on takes about two minutes
The one-time bit of fiddling is worth knowing about before your package arrives:
- Pop the strap off one side of your mask. On most masks the strap slides out of a buckle or a clip on the frame — no tools.
- Feed the loose end of the strap through the cover, the same way you'd thread a belt.
- Center it, so the cover sits at the back of your head rather than off to one side.
- Reattach the strap to the mask and adjust as normal.
Do it at the kitchen table, not on the boat. And do it before your trip, not the morning of your first dive.
Single sided or double sided
Single sided has the design on the outside and plain neoprene against your head. It's the simplest and the least expensive.
Double sided has a different design on each face. Flip it and you have a second look with no second purchase, which is genuinely useful on a week-long trip when you're taking photos every day.
Choosing a design you won't get sick of
Two honest pieces of advice after making a lot of these.
Pick something you can describe from across a boat. The real job of a printed strap, beyond hair, is identification. "Mine's the one with the sea turtles" is a much better answer than "mine's the blue one." Every wetsuit and every mask on that bench is black or blue.
Bright reads better in the water than subtle. The colors that look most sophisticated in a photo on land are the ones that go grey at 40 feet. Deep blues, hot pinks, oranges and turquoise hold their punch. There's a reason my most popular designs are the loud ones.
If you want a specific animal, I make turtles, sharks, octopus, jellyfish, manta rays, whales, reef fish and lobsters. If you want something that isn't an animal at all, keep reading.
Or send me a photo
The custom double-sided strap takes any photo you send: your dog, your kids, your dive buddy, your boat, your shop's logo, or your own name in whatever style you like. This is the one that ends up in other people's vacation photos, and it makes an unmistakably personal gift for a diver.
Caring for it
Rinse it in fresh water with the rest of your gear and let it air dry out of direct sun. Don't put it in a hot car for a month, and don't wring it out. Neoprene and printed fabric both last years if you treat them like the rest of your kit.
Related reading
- How to stop your dive mask ripping your hair out — the six fixes, of which this is one
- What to get a newly certified diver — if you're buying for someone else
Everything is sewn and printed by hand in Barberton, Ohio. If you have a question I haven't answered here, ask me directly — I'd rather talk you into the right one than sell you the wrong one.