Police your Dive gear!

Do you look like an underwater yard sale while diving? Are you losing pieces of gear during your dives? Have you ever had a piece of dangling dive gear entangled? If so, this article will help you get your gear all cleaned up and streamlined. 

The more streamlined you keep your gear and body in the water column, the more efficient and safe you will be. Also, if you keep your gear from dragging around and dangling all over the place you are less likely to damage aquatic life!

Here are some ways to stow your gear that will keep it in the same place each time you dive. This helps develop muscle memory which in turn results in faster response times to deploying gear when needed.

Attaching Flashlights
When divers add flashlights to their kit it is usually tied off to their wrist or dangling around somewhere. With the use of a bolt snap, line, and bungee you can get it out of the way when not in use. Check out the pics below and see how you can adapt these modifications to your own gear.

Before

Some bungee, line and bolt snap.

After

Attaching Line Cutters
Unless your spearfishing, pumpkin carving, or a few other random activities that I can think of, you probably don't need a dive knife. If you decide to use a knife for your diving activities you can do a lot with some cable ties and your bcd to keep it nice and tidy. Also, the inside of your calf is a pretty good place to stow it with knife straps. Line cutters are a much more efficient tool to use to cut yourself free of entanglement. They are much easier to stow and keep streamlined to your body. Try attaching them to your dive computer to keep them out of the way and easy to get to. Check out the pics below

Attaching Slates and other accessories.
Many divers employ the use of underwater slates for more complex communication underwater. They are normally bulky pieces of gear that dangle all over the place. Instead of buying a big slate, consider a wrist slate. My personal favorite is wet notes that I can stick in my thigh pocket. My drysuit has a thigh pocket on each side. If you don't own a drysuit that is no big deal. We sell glue-on thigh pockets that work nicely on wetsuits. We also sell a pair of shorts that go over your wetsuit that have thigh pockets on it. Thigh pockets are a great addition on how Check out the pics below.

Bad idea

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Drysuit Pocket

Better

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Pocket Shorts For Wetsuit

Wetnotes

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Glue-on Thigh Pocket

 Snaps VS Retractors
I believe that bolt snaps are a much better option than retractors and lanyards in most cases. Bolt snaps are much less bulky and keep gear more streamline. Some divers are intimidated with using a bolt snap and fear dropping gear and losing it. However, just some above water practice deploying and stowing equipment will prove that it is not a problem. Buy good quality stainless steel snaps. Zinc snaps will corrode and the gate will jam or you will be unable to open them just in a few dives in salt water. Even in fresh water the cheaper snaps gate spring will begin to rust and you will have trouble using them. We sell SS snaps that are always available at the dive shop.

With Retractor

With bolt snap

SS bolt snaps

Octo and Boat Snaps
Try using a small bolt snap with some bungee or large o-ring to clip off your octo to avoid dangling. This works better than most manufactured octo holders. All you have to do it pull the octo off and it will pop away from the bungee with ease.

Learn a Hand Signal
Below is the hand signal to say, "You good sir, have a dangley". You should use this hand signal to help your dive buddy police their dive gear