How do you secure your scuba diving gear from prying hands et al.?

Hi everyone,

A few days back, I noticed a thread asking whether you would return to a lost-and-found mask to the original owner. That thread got me thinking:

1. Was there ever a time that you lost some pieces of expensive scuba diving equipment?
2. Were you able to retrieve them?
3. Have you ever had your scuba diving equipment stolen?
4. Have you ever had your scuba diving equipment swapped for another diver's?
5. How do you usually secure your own gear from possible loss, swapping, or theft?
6. Do you think purchasing insurance for your equipment is worth it?

I'm very interested in what you have to share. Thank you!

at home my gear is not insured unless someone steals it from my house (a thief would be very unimpressed with most of the stuff he finds there, except my wine anyway). so I keep an eye on it when setting up or assisting with classes.

on holidays I take out traveller insurance so everything is (in theory) insured. The reality is that it would be a pain in the ass to claim and I would much rather not.

therefore... dive watch stays on my wrist the whole trip, regs stay in room each night, camera/strobe stays in my sight even when rinsing in the tub or close to me, in my room all other times. the rest go in whatever is on offer from the resort either a locker of some kind or equipment room.

most places I've dived are full of serious divers who I highly doubt would steal, the locals have too much to lose from stealing (therefore I have felt much safer around them than some other divers). when it has been more of a traveller/backpacker environment (Cairns, Mabul) most people wouldn't know the value of my equipment anyway, apart from the camera which I keep close.

to answer your questions....

1. no
2. NA
3. no
4. not to my knowledge, a DM has swapped fins with me due to being careless but I knew straight away, I don't think it was malace, his were much newer than mine.
5. See above
6. no, there's little point for me.

It all depends upon the situation. In a diver only situation like a live aboard or cocoview I do not really worry about my gear except to keep it contained and tidy out of everyone else's way. On My last live aboard trip one of the divers asked how to get a room key and the crew laughed at her, none of the doors on the boat had a key lock.

When there are random people wandering by (think land op anywhere in the caribbean) then I keep an eye on my gear and stow it in my locker when unattended.

Never lost anything. Most of my stuff is old. Not high on the steal list.

Insurance? No need for "extra" insurance. Since I own my gear it is automatically covered by my homeowners insurance for no extra charge. Just like my golf clubs, my hockey gear, the pots in the kitchen, the chairs in the dining room, the mattress on my bed and my running shoes. It is just another possession, nothing special about it.

I lost an almost brand new GoPro Hero 3 Black in Coz in October. I have not heard if anyone found it yet but didn't expect that I would.

My house has eaten a couple of pairs of booties and a glove.

I have not heard of anybody having gear disappear around here and most divers don't leave gear unattended for long periods but are not paranoid about locking things up.

1. No
2. N/A
3. My 1^st year of diving I let a friend borrow my tank, reg and bacpak. The gear got stolen.
4. No, A lot of my gear is old as in vintage nobody would want it.
5. I keep my gear close to me on a boat. Most of my diving is shore diving, my gear is in my car and I am frequently solo. So not much
6. Not for my gear. Maybe for a CCR

teecup:

Hi everyone,

A few days back, I noticed a thread asking whether you would return to a lost-and-found mask to the original owner. That thread got me thinking:

1. Was there ever a time that you lost some pieces of expensive scuba diving equipment?
2. Were you able to retrieve them?
3. Have you ever had your scuba diving equipment stolen?
4. Have you ever had your scuba diving equipment swapped for another diver's?
5. How do you usually secure your own gear from possible loss, swapping, or theft?
6. Do you think purchasing insurance for your equipment is worth it?

I'm very interested in what you have to share. Thank you!

Click to expand...

1) Not yet.
2) N/A
3) No.
4) No. I am careful to not mix gear.
5) In the back of my truck with regular tie down straps. If I am that worried, it gets locked in the cab of the truck.
6) My home owners insurance would cover any or all loss. If it was from the vehicle, then my content insurance for my vehicle would kick in.

I once had a nice Halcyon reel unclip itself from a d-ring as I dropped off a boat in 130' of water. I went after it so fast that I almost hit the bottom before it did, so collecting it was NBD.

Those stickers look ridiculous...I think I'd rather lose a Petrel than slap one of them on it. And with that general attitude in mind, I limit my anti-theft/mixup precautions to keeping an eye on my rig when I'm on the boat, locking up stuff that's small enough to wander when it's not in use, and carving initials somewhere unobtrusive.

With a Genesis scooter en route and an eCCR in my future, though, I may start looking at some kind of dedicated gear insurance. The CCR alone is looking like it'll cost nearly as much as my truck.

I recently had some gear nicked from my car. I was helping out on a DM training session at the pool and I was in a bit of a rush when I got home as I was going out straight after. I forgot to take a bag out of the boot of my car, contaning two sets of regs, two torches, two computers (one being my expensive Heinrichs Weikamp OSTC2n and various other bits. The bag wasn't on show and I have no idea how they got into the car.

I reported it to the police and emailed all the dive shops in the area with a full description. The following day, I got a phone call off the owner of one of the shops. The thick b******s had tried selling them the computers. They turned them away and took a photo of their car as they drove off. That night, the police banged on his door and got the computers and torches back. Within a couple of weeks, they had the rest back as the pillock they arrested named names.

Two arrests were made - one for handling stolen goods and one for the actual theft. Unfortunately our justice system is soft on these scrotes so they got some sort of community punishment order where they have to go on a course and learn how not to be thieving chavs.

teecup:

1. Was there ever a time that you lost some pieces of expensive scuba diving equipment?
2. Were you able to retrieve them?
3. Have you ever had your scuba diving equipment stolen?
4. Have you ever had your scuba diving equipment swapped for another diver's?
5. How do you usually secure your own gear from possible loss, swapping, or theft?
6. Do you think purchasing insurance for your equipment is worth it?

Click to expand...

Yes.
Sometimes.
No.
No.
Buy specialized equipment that's generally obnoxiously expensive and dissimilar from other divers (and generally charter boats to dive with people I trust)
No.

teecup:

Hi everyone,

A few days back, I noticed a thread asking whether you would return to a lost-and-found mask to the original owner. That thread got me thinking:

1. Was there ever a time that you lost some pieces of expensive scuba diving equipment?
2. Were you able to retrieve them?
3. Have you ever had your scuba diving equipment stolen?
4. Have you ever had your scuba diving equipment swapped for another diver's?
5. How do you usually secure your own gear from possible loss, swapping, or theft?
6. Do you think purchasing insurance for your equipment is worth it?

I'm very interested in what you have to share. Thank you!

Click to expand...

1/ no
2/ n.a.
3/ yes, a watch
4/ only my buddy
5/ I take reasonable precautions. I keep expensive pieces that are easily stolen like lights and my computer locked and trust in human nature for the rest. Most of my diving gear is not new anymore so it wouldn't be the kind of stuff the casual thief would be looking for.
6/ I have supplemental medical/travel insurance specifically for divers that includes insurance for my gear. I didn't choose for the gear insurance, it was just included in the policy. I've had a couple of cases of things that I should have claimed on the gear insurance (broken mask lens, stolen watch) but I didn't bother. I would make a claim if *all* of my stuff went missing from, say, an airplane because you can prove that you checked it in and you can prove that it didn't come off... but how likely is that?

I worked for a time in an insurance company in the Netherlands and one of their claims people told me that their policy at the time was to *always* refuse to pay out theft claims. She said they didn't even look at the claim unless the client forced the issue by filing formal objections or by hiring a lawyer to threaten them. The claims people also hated the clients because, of course, clients were always complaining.... She did tell me that they were planning on changing the policy to pay out on claims that they were sure a court would force them to pay because it was costing more to refuse than it was to pay in some cases. I can understand an insurance company not wanting clients to cheat them but when the company makes it its business to cheat the clients, then there's something very very wrong. My sense is that this level of greed and cynicism is rampant in insurance companies.

Anyway, because of that, and because of other personal experiences I have absolutely no trust in insurance companies to pay out in the event of theft. Frankly, for anything that costs less than a month's wages to replace, you'd be FAR FAR better off just putting away a sum of money in a savings account every month and being your own insurance company. Why would I want to pay some company to become unreasonable and difficult with me when I can pay myself to be prepared..... and I can keep the money if it never happens.

So no, I don't think it's worth it to buy theft insurance for diving gear. The main reason being that *if* something gets stolen then you'll have a hell of a time proving that it was stolen. Even if it was in your car and someone smashes a window to get in, then the insurance company is going to say, "prove that your item was in the car at the time". You can't win with them. You literally can't.

R..