Personalizing or customizing gear for identification - anyone do it?

[MrsGodfather]

Black, black, and more black. For cryin' out loud, could scuba gear be more uniform? I'm whining about this because on a dive trip with my husband and his brother, I kept mistaking one for the other, and accidentally pinched my brother-in-law's butt underwater thinking it was my husband's. Good thing bro-in-law is easygoing. We both merely ended up grinning and flooding our masks, then continued on the dive after clearing. (Yes, I managed to then pinch my own husband's butt successfully on that dive.) Also, on a different trip, we frequently dove with a group that had a member who looked a lot like me underwater. Or perhaps I looked like her? Regardless, her dive buddy kept trying to communicate with me thinking I was her; this happened on multiple dives and my husband did the same to the other lady thinking she was me. Hubby and I tend to stick quite close to the dive group, as you can infer.

So, to the point, I'm thinking of somehow customizing or personalizing my fins or my husband's, or perhaps our hoods, or _____? Something to help indicate to each other who we are in a crowd, and help indicate to other divers that we're not who they're looking for. Perhaps patterned or colored tape on our fins, or paint on our hoods, etc.?

Another thought is to do some of this personalization simply to identify our equipment from other people's.

Does anyone do something like this? If so, what do you do, specifically? Any suggestions for me?

FYI - Both of us have 3mm black wetsuits and hoods, black blades, black mask or yellow mask. (I'm the renegade with the yellow trim on my mask. Yee haw!)

 

[tstormdiver]

I've seen all sorts of things from white paint markers, Silver Sharpie pens, colored zip ties, tags,... you name it. As for identification underwater, maybe a splash of color (snorkel, fins or such) some people will use unique hoods with shark fins, dragon scales, rabbit ears, once again,.. you name it. Just use your imagination.

 

[BluewaterSail]

On black gear I simply write my initials in a nice script with silver paint markers. If there is a light colored area, I use black permanant magic marker.

 

[t-mac]

For simple ID there is scuba goop. To identify each other underwater you need to jazz it up. There are non-black things. My wife has white fins, which are very visible. My main wetsuit is not black and easy to spot. One clever thing I saw was a couple who had a set of pink and a set of yellow fins. They each wore one of each -of course that requires a common foot size.

 

[CaliDenna]

I bought fabric paint from Michael's (same as scuba goop but cheaper and in more colors) and I painted a tribal sort of design in hot pink on the back of the lower leg on one wetsuit. Easy to spot underwater.

On another wetsuit I masked off the side panel sections and used the spray fabric paint with glitter to lightly fill it in.

I also use this paint in different colors to mark my weights, my name inside the back of my BCD, made a design on the back of my gloves so can be spotted underwater, inside my booties, etc. It is easy to use, you can get creative, doesn't come off. And if you made a mistake when painting you can quickly rinse it with water, let it dry and start over.

 

[Damselfish]

I've seen a fair number of people write their names on their fins in big letters. Boring and usually ugly, but also simple and effective if someone is looking there.

I think hoods are a good place to mess around plus easily spotted, whether you do it with paint pens or get something like this.

 

[DevonDiver]

I got rust and oil stains all over my kit from wreck penetrations. After a while, it kinda looks 'tie dyed'. You'd know it was mine. LMAO

 

[milbournosphere]

For dives with large groups, I wear a set of these tags:


(SCUBA Tag Comb Pack)

I got them on a sale long ago and they're *extremely* helpful when one is on vacation and we're all wearing the same rental gear. I only break out the tank band when I'm in a very large group. The BC tag lives on my right strap; between that and my white C200 primary reg, my buddy never has a problem picking me out. My main buddy wears white Volo fins and a yellow cover on his primary reg, which I can always spot a mile away.

 

[NAM001]

My tanks are marked with my name and a number. Faber white tanks. There is no mistaking who they belong to. pant markng on rubber is no so efffective. There is a down side to this as no one pinches by backside underwater thinking i am thier hubby. darn......

 

[MrsGodfather]

How fantastic! You all have presented me with so many ideas, it will be tough to choose which ones to use. Hubby will be thrilled at another excuse to get out the equipment and play around with it as we wait the interminable 5 weeks until our next dive trip. Thanks, SB peeps!

KWS - I guess you'll have to hope some goose-giving lady's hubby has Faber white tanks. Then you, too, can be sexually harassed while diving. Ha!