My Kirby Morgan mask seal ripped during a 90-foot dive in Norfolk yesterday

Had a tiny tear in the neck dam during a hull inspection. Had to abort the dive and surface slow, cost me a full day's pay. Anyone else carry a spare seal in their kit bag now?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_charles2mo ago

Was the tear in the neck dam itself, or along the sealing edge where it meets the rubber? I've seen a lot of guys carry a spare neck dam but not a full seal, mostly because the dam is the part that actually fails on those older masks. Curious if you were running a 37 or one of the newer composite shells.

alicew682mo ago

The tear was right along the sealing edge where it meets the rubber, not the dam itself. That's the failure point I see most on the 37s, the adhesive just gives out after enough heat cycles. A spare dam won't help you there, you'd need the whole seal assembly if that edge goes. I've started keeping a full seal kit in my bag after it happened to me on a drift dive and I spent an hour fighting a slow flood.

hugo8251mo ago

The sealing edge failure is a pain, I've been there. Managed to patch one on the surface once with some neoprene cement and a bike inner tube patch kit, but that was just a temporary fix to get through the day. A full seal kit is the way to go, especially on the 37s where that edge is bonded in. I keep one in a dry bag taped to the inside of my kit bag lid, easy to grab if something goes wrong. Test the new seal in a bucket of water before you splash it though, a dry pop test isn't good enough.