Would/Do you loan out your gear?

[Northeastwrecks]

In the early fall, I was finishing up after an OW class. I was the last one of the group to leave.

An unknown gentleman walked up to me, said that he dove out of my LDS, said that he have forgotten his fins and asked to borrow mine.

I asked him a couple of questions about the shop and its owner to determine whether the guy was legit, then gave him my Blades. I told him that I was on my way out and that he could return the fins to the shop.

The next day, the fins were there, along with a very nice bottle of Cabernet and a kind thank you note.

Totally unexpected, but it was nice.

 

[Amanda]

I've voted "Depends on how cute they are". It happaned to me, when I was working in a dive center in Corsica, to lend my BCD to a friend whose BCD had been robbed, so he had to do all his DM dives with an old BCD.

I've also lended my Mares computer to a very good frin for a WE. He wanted to decide wheter to buy this one or anoother one. Seemed fair to me !

Of course, I wouldn't lend my reg, computer or BCD to anyone unless I really trust him/her, but all the small stuff is OK.

 

[Lead_carrier]

I have loaned and will continue to my some of my spare basic gear to a lot of different people. My life support? We're talking in a different world here. I'll loan it to my friends that I trust to be my dive buddy, no one else. If I can trust them to take care of me if I need assistance then I figure they will take care of my gear. It can be replaced with for a price, I figure I'm worth a bit more than that, even tho some people will argue that point with you.

 

[detroit diver]

I think half of the last DIR Fundamentals class here was using my gear! And I really didn't know them. Fortunately I had a good buddy watching over everything for me.

Amongst my dive buddies, we swap whatever we need. And between us, we can stock a small LDS! Well, a DIR LDS anyway...

 

[BCS]

I'm with Amanda on this one. Well, I'm not "physically with Amanda, but, what I mean to say is that I agree with Amanda. If the borrower needs something and they are a good lookin' female. Well, hell yes. If it's just some bloke (like D.D.), well forget that noise, he can log on to the board and just talk about divin' that day.

 

[detroit diver]

BCS once bubbled...
I'm with Amanda on this one. Well, I'm not "physically with Amanda, but, what I mean to say is that I agree with Amanda. If the borrower needs something and they are a good lookin' female. Well, hell yes. If it's just some bloke (like D.D.), well forget that noise, he can log on to the board and just talk about divin' that day.

I hope you need my bungee cord one day....

 

[Amanda]

BCS once bubbled...
If the borrower needs something and they are a good lookin' female. Well, hell yes. If it's just some bloke (like D.D.), well forget that noise

LOL

That's not what I was saying.....

Are you the kind of person who votes for the most good-looking candidate ? :bonk:

 

[BCS]

Amanda,
Not necessarily. BUT if two people, an attractive young lady and, let's just say for argument's sake,...Detroit Diver, were running in an election and it came down to all other things being equal, well, then hell yes. She's definitely getting my vote. So I'm a little shallow, what can I say.
Actually, I use to loan all kinds of gear out to friends, students, and even friends of friends, even to the not so attractive people, like DD. I still do loan some of it out, but I do notice that sometimes things don't always make their way back to me. Things like hoses, gauges, weights seem to come up missing when I need them. The bigger items always seem to make their way back to me, it's the little things that I forget are loaned out. I am trying to move away from that practice. I think I am going to institute a "no loan" program where I will not loan anything else out, but whoever needs it is welcome to buy it from me at a fair price of what it will cost me to replace if they so desire. That might help me feel a little better about loning gear out.

 

[frogxman]

I would say that everything depends on situation. Usually I will loan my gear (but of course not the computer during the dive series) to my friend. I think is that the friend is about. And I would not give my expensive items to a stranger. But... It happened to me more than once that during a pool sessions of OW course (with more that 20 people in class) somehow the number of regulators/BCDs was miscalculated. It happens when the class is big and somebody of the students does not attend the theortetical part and comes straight to the pool. In such a case I gave my equipment to the student and assisted instructor while snorkelling.

FrogX

 

[Groundhog246]

pchelp once bubbled...
O.K., but what about your computer?

If I'm diving, loaning my computer would be a no-no as the "extra" dive would make the computer's profile useless.
I have loaned a spare reg BC to a buddy to save them having to rent and another when the shop was closed and it was loan or no buddy/no dive. Always been someone I've been diving with. Oly exception has been loaning a cylinder (it had better come back full).