Allergic to Latex

[skydivemermaid 0]

Hi. New to the sport. I am highly allergic to latex, therefore unable to use rubber bands when packing, I have heard of the tube stows are not latex however I have heard about some bag locks. Any other options? Thanks in advance.

[councilman24 37]

I've always assumed tube stoes were latex tubing. May be a moot point because it seems the company may be out.of business. There are 'stowless' bags but they still use bands for locking stows.

There are silicon stow bands made by Parasport Italia. Used to be on sale in US but haven't seen anyone carrying them for awhile. Never became popular here. Google above company. Look in accessories.

Beaware that bungee cord is used in some parts of parachute assembles. And any packing area is usually littered with pieces of rubber bands.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Ugh yeah. My dropzone is a freaking latex minefield. Rubber bands and bungees everywhere, with occasional rubber band wars breaking out during wind holds. Walking to the trailer on both my jumps today, I had my bag in my hand and the smell of the rubber bands was very noticeable.

I'd swear I saw a fully-stowless bag a while back, that used magnets or tuck tabs or something to close. Sadly, I don't recall the details at all.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[riggerrob 643]

Tube Stows are made of surgical rubber tubing. Surgical tubing is available on two or three different types of rubber. There is also a black rubber version of Tube Stows. Surely you can find a synthetic rubber version of Tube Stows that will not aggravate your allergies.

Speaking of allergies, what happens to your fingers when you handle latex rubber?
IOW What are your symptoms?

[virgin-burner 1]

google Mpod or lazybag

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[skydivemermaid 0]

Thanks for the info

[skydivemermaid 0]

Thanks everyone. I have to wear gloves when handling anything w latex. Severe allergy w anaphylaxis. So I have to be extremely careful. Any 8nput is great and I appreciate all the info I can get.

[RMK 3]

The Parasport Italia Sillibands https://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/silibands-stow-bands work great. They are my preference if I have them available. Otherwise, I always used TubeStows.

Re the comment above of them not really catching on - as you can it was the price.

"Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

[costanza 0]

Allergic to latex too, but I have never had a reaction handling the bands, and I just get hives, no anaphalaxis thankfully.

Also might consider talking to folks at your dz about a stowless dbag. that would cut the number of potential encounters down too.

[DougH 270]

You can make your own tube stows. Just source silicone tubing.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[tjb 0]

Check out Silirings. Made of Si, awesome wear resistance, but will break when they need to break. I have used them for years and swear by them.

https://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/silirings-stow-bands-3406

[maggyrider 10]

http://www.pgasus.be/start.php?pg=text&item=mPOD

I use this one - completely stowless. Works perfect.

EDIT: Regarding experience with the mPod - most of the staff jumpers on my dropzone rely on it. So alltogether there have been about 4000-5000 jumps on it, with zero hard openings due to line dump or premature release of the canopy from the pod, no line-overs, no bag locks, etc. There has been one single malfunction when the pod fell over the nose of the canopy, all magnets alligned on top of each other, caught a single A-line that could not be released anymore and caused the canopy (Velocity 96) to spin violently.

Nice words are not always true - and true words are not always nice.