davidbaraff
Contributor
I've been to Casino Pt. on six or seven dive trips over the past four years. Although gear safety hasn't been an issue there, I did something a little dumb this time and I paid the price. I wanted to warn people, so nobody has the same issue I did.
On Saturday (5/19), I did two dives with a group of people (an A/OW class, actually) and we finished the second dive around 3PM. Our gear was along the wall to the right of the stairs. Since we were coming back for a night dive in a few hours, and since it had never been a problem leaving stuff out, I moved my wetsuit to the far right wall, around the corner, next to the water on the inside of the cove, to catch the most sun possible. Unfortunately, this left it a good ways away from all our other stuff, and kind of obviously set it apart.
Now, I'd never even consider leaving something like a dive computer out visibly (in fact, I took it with me in my bag -- i wouldn't even let it sit inside a gear back on its own). And there was a dive computer, hanging visibly off of a bag, when I left. But a wetsuit? It's not like it has high resale value. (And think of the bad karma, I said to myself.)
Long story short: when I came back at 6PM, my suite was gone: someone had simply walked off with it, and it never came back. (We checked all the shops, and if someone had taken it by mistake, it would have been back by now, or a shop would have called me to let me know.) Fortunately, my night dive (the main reason I had joined the class in the first place) was saved by a kindly Scubaluv employee who was diving with us and who whisked me over to the (now closed scubaluv shop) and back in ten minutes, to borrow a suit for the night dive, and the remainder of my stay, thus saving the next two days of diving for me. Thanks again, Rick...
So while I still think gear in clumps near other gear, and not off its own is pretty safe, be careful if your gear appears to be off its own. Way too tempting for someone, obviously...
On Saturday (5/19), I did two dives with a group of people (an A/OW class, actually) and we finished the second dive around 3PM. Our gear was along the wall to the right of the stairs. Since we were coming back for a night dive in a few hours, and since it had never been a problem leaving stuff out, I moved my wetsuit to the far right wall, around the corner, next to the water on the inside of the cove, to catch the most sun possible. Unfortunately, this left it a good ways away from all our other stuff, and kind of obviously set it apart.
Now, I'd never even consider leaving something like a dive computer out visibly (in fact, I took it with me in my bag -- i wouldn't even let it sit inside a gear back on its own). And there was a dive computer, hanging visibly off of a bag, when I left. But a wetsuit? It's not like it has high resale value. (And think of the bad karma, I said to myself.)
Long story short: when I came back at 6PM, my suite was gone: someone had simply walked off with it, and it never came back. (We checked all the shops, and if someone had taken it by mistake, it would have been back by now, or a shop would have called me to let me know.) Fortunately, my night dive (the main reason I had joined the class in the first place) was saved by a kindly Scubaluv employee who was diving with us and who whisked me over to the (now closed scubaluv shop) and back in ten minutes, to borrow a suit for the night dive, and the remainder of my stay, thus saving the next two days of diving for me. Thanks again, Rick...
So while I still think gear in clumps near other gear, and not off its own is pretty safe, be careful if your gear appears to be off its own. Way too tempting for someone, obviously...
