A question, (rhetorical)

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Magnificent post thanks David Wilson

So one must ask which colour skirt Lou Gossett Jnr was wearing and it's tensile strength
Couldn't make a movie like that today without the villagers bringing out their pitchforks
 
cold water anyone?
 
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According to conventional wisdom, the appearance of Jacqueline Bisset in the 1977 movie "The Deep" (above) was a key factor in boosting the popularity and hence the early sales of diving masks with clear silicone skirts. She allegedly used this kind of eyewear in the film because the extra light admitted made her facial expressions more visible and photogenic for the cinema-goer and not because it provided her with superior underwater vision or protection against allergies. Fashion and aesthetics sometimes outweigh science and technology when it comes to diving equipment as well as everyday clothing.:)

For what it's worth, I once purchased a clear silicone mask because my preferred choice of a traditional oval rubber-skirted mask was unavailable at the La Jolla store where I obtained snorkelling gear on a trip to southern California. The feel and glare of the mask spoiled my snorkelling experience at the Cove and I have never snorkelled with any kind of silicone-skirted mask since.
Winged BCD are highly overrated! After seeing that picture I am firmly backing front flotation devices or BBC.
 
... the question; why do they even make clear skirted masks

She allegedly used this kind of eyewear in the film because the extra light admitted made her facial expressions more visible and photogenic ...

Yes, I learned (somewhere) that U/W photographers sometimes prefer that their model wears a mask having a clear skirt because more light more easily reaches the model's eyes. (All portrait photographers understand the importance of having a sharp focus on a model's eyes.)

My first mask, purchased in 1987, was a US Divers triple-panel wrap-around mask having a clear silicone skirt. This mask is similar to the black-skirted mask that used to be worn by military rescue divers. I liked it (even though it wasn't a very low volume mask). I wore it even on extended range Great Lakes dives, until I eventually replaced it with a Scubapro Frameless mask (black skirt) in the mid 1990's, which I continue to wear today.

The type of silicone used for the US Divers mask would cloud up eventually. And then I would have to boil it, which would restore it back to being reasonably clear.

ETA: This pic is of me diving the SS Chester A. Congdon off Isle Royale (Michigan, Lake Superior) c. 1995. (This was my very first Scubaboard avatar, iirc.) I am wearing my US Divers mask in this pic. Photo taken by the late Richard J. Roost, Jr.

197605_1032759312657_8947_n.jpg

rx7diver
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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