Stop Losing Expensive Dive Gear! This can be annoying and costly.

I think I have figured out why scuba diving is so expensive. It’s because most everything we buy ends up “being donated” to the ocean. We lose each item to the seas at least once! Sometimes multiple times. On the flip side, I have found items others have lost. I must have five lobster nets in my garage, and I didn’t buy a single one. With that said, I would trade all those nets for one of my flashlights back. As a matter of fact, I would rather have back that flashlight I borrowed from my instructor that I lost.

Losing little inexpensive items are just annoying. Losing expensive items are a bit more disheartening. I have lost things as small as caps, o-rings, and weights all the way up to my Nautilus 2-way radio and speargun (well, the gun was found…..twice). I got super lucky with my speargun on one occasion; I lost it on my first dive and was fortunate enough to have a captain and divers willing to dive the same area to find it. Forty minutes into the dive when I was about to give up, I angled myself to go a little deeper and drifted right over it. That Navigation Course came in handy!

There have been many reasons I have lost items. To name a few, I have:

  • put something down and forgotten about it
  • put something down and couldn’t find it
  • dropped things unknowingly
  • dropped things due to over-tasking
  • dropped things due to panic
  • lost items due to over-zealous fish
  • lost items due to weak clips

Through experience, I have learned to clip EVERYTHING.

There are many different types of diving clips used for various purposes. If you are diving in the ocean, make sure the clips you buy will hold up to the harsh, salty water. It will rust them quickly if they aren’t resistant like Stainless Steel, Brass or Titanium.

You will want to make sure you have the right clip to serve it’s purpose best.

For my speargun, I use a coiled shock clip. It allows me to keep the gun close to my body when not loaded and gives me the ability to load and maneuver the speargun when unclipped yet still attached to me at all times. I keep my shears on a retractable clip for easy and quick use allowing it to retract when I am done using them. For most other items, I like the Double Ended Snap clips. I feel they are easy to use with gloves and reliable. Discard broke or rusted clips as they will inevitably fail you at some point. They could also become a danger if, for some reason, you need to unclip quickly.

Clips are not going to solve this problem 100% of the time, but since I started jumping in the water empty handed, I have cut down on losses dramatically. I am also pretty vigilant about re-clipping items after each use during my dive. The excitement and beauty that the depths of the ocean offers can be quite distracting. Your attention off of something you put down briefly can easily be forgotten in the moment. Give it a try, clip EVERYTHING!

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