Where do you put your excess gear when shore diving?

[spectrum]

Locked in the van with the keys on a lanyard around my neck in my suit or tied off in a BC pocket when diving dry. It's a dedicated set of vehicle entry keys.

I leave a 1/2 liter bottle of fresh rinse water near the curb or tire to rinse my key before putting it in the lock.

Pete

 

[Pearldiver07]

I put most of it in the car, since the advice of others is right. You should minimize what you bring with you.

Now for the extra tanks, who wants to keep them in the car? I put a 2" brass ring on the neck of my tanks during their last viz. Now I thread a metal locking cable through the rings and lock it around a tree. Since I dive at a location where there's other people, I don't think anyone will be walking around with a set of bolt cutters.

Trident used to sell a PVC tube that locked and secured into the ground, but I couldn't find it on their site. It was pretty innovative, but maybe not enough people wanted it.

Steve

 

[lucybuykx]

Dumb question maybe, but all you guys taking car keys down...what type of keys are they? My car has electronic locking so can't risk getting the keys wet it costs £250 to replace them!

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I only buy vehicles with keyless entry with shore diving in mind. Then I don't have to figure out how to carry the keys. I just lock them inside the truck. I also have a Roll-n-Lock for the truck bed to secure the gear. I really wanted a Jeep instead of a pickup, but there no way to secure gear on the way to and from diving.

 

[Charlie99]

Dumb question maybe, but all you guys taking car keys down...what type of keys are they? My car has electronic locking so can't risk getting the keys wet it costs £250 to replace them!

I have a Honda Civic with a smart key (it looks like a normal key, but has electronics that must exchange some sort and handshake with the car computer before the ignition will turn on). I paid $6 at the dealer to have a dumb, mechanical only key cut. It opens the doors, but won't start the car.

I just leave both the remote keyless entry and the smart key inside the car while I go diving.

The smart keys are pretty well sealed, and I have taken some rental car smart keys diving with no problem, but for $6 I choose to play it safe with my car.

 

[lucybuykx]

Well, despite having a very popular car brand I may suffer from a 'feature' of protective keys which can only be bought at a brand garage. Therefore £250.

Next time I buy one I might ask about that only opening the door option. Or just buy a heap junk that no-one will want to break into

 

[rrjc5488]

I leave a 1/2 liter bottle of fresh rinse water near the curb or tire to rinse my key before putting it in the lock.

Pete

Ahh, great idea. Never thought about that.

 

[sambolino44]

I drive a heap of junk that nobody in their right mind would want to break into. It only has dumb keys, one of which I carry either inside my drysuit, or clipped to my harness. I try not to bring much extra stuff, but I leave it all in the car, tanks too. I'd rather have the key clipped to something than just in a pocket. I'm seriously considering one of those waterproof boxes, though, so I don't have to leave my wallet in the car.

I recently did a dive where we carried our bins of gear down to the beach, suited up there, and left the bins unattended on the public beach. It was my buddy's idea. Nobody took anything, but I didn't have anything very valuable in there, either. Personally, I'm not comfortable leaving anything unsecured anywhere anytime.

When the water's cold, the weather's warm, the distance from the car to the entry point is long, the entry point is at a public beach, and you're wearing a drysuit, there are no easy choices.

 

[Charlie99]

Well, despite having a very popular car brand I may suffer from a 'feature' of protective keys which can only be bought at a brand garage. Therefore £250.

On most cars the "protective" feature is only needed to start the car, with the unlocking of the doors relying on straightforward mechanical portion of the key. You should ask again for a dumb key. A normal key for my Honda is something like $75. The dumb key was $6.

Which brand of car do you have?

 

[nice-diver]

I am parinoid to theft so I even lock my dive bag in my buddys pickup. Our tanks are locked in his tank rack.

we have never had any problems and people have been cool but I don't want to take that chance.