Best way to mark your gear?

[shoupart]

Hi.
So after the loss of a very expensive piece of gear, I've decided to mark ALL of my gear w/ the phone number in case I can be easily contacted in case of the worst.
But I want to know what methods the community recommends.
What do you guys do? I would like to make it extremely permanent- so maybe punching in letters on my tank, or engraving it into the first stage of a regulator, etc?
What works best for what equipment?

I want to mark: My BC, my regulators, my tanks, my lights, dive bag, my speargun, mask, knife, and fins.

If any of you wise experienced divers could give me some advice, I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Green_Manelishi]

Unless you have a thief in your midst the only reason for marking gear is to prevent confusion and someone accidently packing your gear in their bag. This is 'specially important if you and your buddies are DIR. If you DO have a thief then marking the gear is helpful but will not necessarily prevent it being stolen.

I think that "paint pencils" are used guite frequently. I'd choose something short and sweet rather than an entire phone number. Even an indentifying mark can be used.

Also, if it's expensive enough to have a warrantee card, complete the card and send it. If the item is stolen/lost and found, etc. it might help in retrieving the item.

 

[pipedope]

but I don't even want to do THAT. :11:

Record all serial numbers and then use durable but not so permanent markings on your gear to keep it from getting mixed up with others at dive sites.

You don't want to stamp anything on your tanks, only the hydro tester should be stamping tanks.

 

[NOVIZWHIZ]

Cheap a$$ finger nail polish on the rubber / plastic stuff. I lost a dive light 25 years ago diving for shark teeth, one of my friends found it about 3 months ago and you could still read my name on it......no, it didn't still work...

http://www.beaufortgazette.com/local_news/story/3135352p-2836822c.html

 

[murphdivers286]

Green is correct, engraving your items will not stop some one from steeling your dive gear. I work as a deputy, and worked as an alarm installer previously installing alarms in banks. We had a saying, "A lock keeps the honest person honest". I agree with pipedope, record all serial numbers of all your gear. I suggest using paint markers to either put your name or a special mark on your gear. Then take a picture of the mark on your gear with something that has that day's date on it. (example, newspaper). Put the photos away with the recorded serial numbers.

It may help, or not. I hope this was helpful and didn't just take up space.

 

[shoupart]

I'm not so concerned about people stealing my stuff- i'm concerned about losing it while diving.
If stuff I lose happens to be recovered, then hopefully people will just call me and get it back.
I know I can't always rely on people to get lost stuff back, but at least this way it's way easier for them to find me.

 

[RICHinNC]

Went to the store and had some "dog tags" stamped out at a buck each with all the info on it I needed. Put on with electrical plastic ties

 

[miketsp]

It's not a question of theft, it's just common sense to mark equipment. On most dive trips I regularly see equipment identical to mine stacked alongside. Many dive boats put all the fins together in plastic crates.
It's also a safety factor especially with the number of integrated weight BCs around now. You don't see the weights - just the removable pocket. I don't want to slide in someone else's weight just before jumping in.
I paint large initials on everything using aluminium wheel paint with a fine brush. This reflects really well under water and at night. People that see it generally like the idea - helps a lot with identification.

 

[Iruka]

A couple of options....the white paint markers are easy to use, but tend to fade after a while on neophrene (wetsuits & boots), another thing you could use would be plastic tags, on which you can write the information you need, and attach them to the gear with the plastic zip ties. If you're too cheap for plastic tags (like me, ha ha) I make my own from an old weight belt...cut them the the right size, then melt the frayed edges (I use the stove & a pliers; a cigarette lighter would probably be ok) and punch a hole in the tag...I then run a HOT screwdiver through the hole to melt the loose strands there. As for tanks, of course you can paint them distinctively & put on your intials or phone number....I also use a...what's it called?....die set? to put in my shop's initials. It's easy to paint over paint, but hard to remove stamped in initials. Of course, some of the tanks here on Guam have been through so many owners that they get quite a bunch of intials stamped on them. Here we often have 5 or more dive shops using the same beach at the same time, often sharing gear among the smaller shops, so it's real important to have the gear marked...more to prevent accidental "theft" than the real thing.

 

[SDAnderson]

Paint pens rule - they last a long time but can be removed if needed. This won't stop a thief but what will? Besides, I don't let my stuff out of my sight very often and do a careful inventory before the boat hits the dock, so there aren't many chances for things to accidentally walk away.

• My tanks are marked DIR style with my initials and the serial numbers recorded.
• My regulators (firsts and seconds) are marked with my initials and the serial numbers recorded.
• My fins are marked DIR style with my initials and have a loop of red tape wrapped around the spring straps.
• My bags all have a lime green DAN tag on them.
• Pretty much everything else gets my initials done in paint pen, including my backplates, wings, masks, storage boxes, anything that I carry into the water with me, etc.

I've not had theft problems in more than 30 years of diving, perhaps in part because I'm cautious, perhaps in part because my stuff is prominently marked, perhaps in part because divers are basically honest types - if you can get past the war stories.