Kent Elastomer Products is a US company that manufactures rubber tubing for different applications, including speargun bands. I tried their rubber years ago and found it inferior; too easy to stretch, has less power, and poor power retention after a short time in loaded state. Recently I revisited Kent with the idea of offering another more economical rubber option for those spearos with a tight budget. As Kent rubber is priced significantly lower than other manufacturers. This time around I found the product to be even worse.
Kent rubber is nice in appearance, uniform in shape and color, and arrives clean with no residue from the extrusion process. But that's where the positives end. I cut two bands for a 120cm speargun at %250 stretch. The speargun shot soft and the bands were too easy to stretch. So I cut them down to %300. As soon as I did that and loaded the bands for the first time, they became practically useless. I could not get penetration on a 2lb fish at 6ft distance. I will never use Kent rubber again for speargun bands.
How to know if you're buying Kent rubber? Some shops advertise it outright like Austins Austin's Diving Center | Kent Elastomer 5/8 Latex Rubber Tubing. Others don't but you can normally tell by the price. If it's less than $3/ft retail for 16mm (5/8") rubber tubing you're probably buying a Kent product. That's not to say that some sellers will not price their Kent rubber high to pass for better quality.
I felt compelled to share this information because I was truly surprised at what a poor performer Kent rubber was. At the same time I realize this raises the question; how to be sure I'm buying good quality speargun rubber? To me the answer is easy, Speardiver rubber is a trusted source always offering only the highest quality rubber Speardiver Small Hole Speargun Rubber Tubing.