Protecting gear - lots of gear

[OTGav]

I help out at a club, a problem that has recently cropped up is the protection of our gear in transporting it to the dives and during a weekend trip.

At the moment we put it in large tubs to go on the trailer, but they take up a lot of space when we do big hires, and it ends up with gear being crushed to fit it in.

Also having the gear all together seems to lead to confusion about which bit belongs to which diver - yes they are all numbered, but guess what, they all forget their numbers

Does anyone have a good solution to containing large amounts of gear (10 sets+) when travelling and over the course of a weekend?

Thinking about getting a load of bags, to contain each hire's indavidual gear - lifespan of the bag could be a problem though?

Thanks

[OTGav]

Just spotted bags thread - not sure if this belongs in there, sure the overlords can move it if they think so.

[datamunk]

i honestly dont understand your situation, are the people you hire just for alittle bit?

[OTGav]

I probably didn't eplain things as cleary as I could.

Will try again.

University club with lots of non-student members, dives are organised for day trips or whole weekends. The members come and hire the gear for the trip, for one day or a weekend.

The gear is then put in tubs, and loaded on the trailer to go to the dive site. My problem is that the small ammount of tubs and limited space on the trailer means that people tend to try and fit too much gear in the tubs, crushing it - and then as all the gear is mixed up to best fit in the smallest space, people get confused about which bit is their hire responsability. So when there is a breakage and I need to discuss deposits and what happened, the inevitable "well I hired it, but someone else grabbed it so I used another one" comes out.

(The gear comes back to the club after the dive - they don't hire a set for an extended period)

So I'm looking for a way to better protect the gear - cheaply, and if possible to keep each hirers gear together so that they use what they hired.

That make any more sense?

[Bill22]

Here's how we do it. We all went out and bought those big clear basket bins.... you know the ones they store clothes etc... in. At the club each person readies their gear and puts it in their bin. Then he puts the lid on it an places it in the van, car, truck.. etc... At the dive site he unloads his bin and he dresses out of his bin and sets up his tank near his bin, since everything is right there. The only thing that is separate are the tanks. When we're done.... we-reload our "wet" gear into the bins, then load them back into the vehicle. The bin is quite effective at containing wet equipment, so the interior of your car doesn't get wet. When we get back we have a wash tank at the club and places to hang wet gear. No confusion since the gear stays with the person who's using it, pretty much through the whole evolution. Each person washes their own gear. We have a large rinse tank and can put two sets in at a time. Usually buddies will clean their equipment together. When they're finished they hang it up. They may come back in a few hours. They come back the next day after the gear is dry and put it away. It seems to work well for us. Maybe it will give you some ideas. We don't have issue with people forgetting their numbers because the bins are provided by the individuals and not the club so of course they can write their name on it. If there isn't enough room for all the equipment on the truck or on the trailer, then sound like you need a bigger truck or perhaps split the gear up so that some of it can be carried in individual vehicles.

During our recent two day trip to Izu here in Japan, we had a big truck to carry our tanks, our grill, food chests, and the majority of our gear. There was still some gear and personal items that rode up in the individual vans that carried the people.

I'm also trying to figure out how they still get it confused... don't they own all their own gear? Everyone in our club owns their own gear. Any of my gear that could get mixed up easily is marked with my name or initials. There is actually one member of the club who has the same fins and wetsuit that I have, even same color. Course his look brand new and mine look hard used ;-) but it's not unusual to have the same gear. A good marking pen works well in marking the gear so it doesn't get confused. Name or initials works well. You can put it out for all to see or have it marked in unobtrusive places. As an example my fins are marked with my initials just inside the fin pockets. My old fins were marked in large block letters on the bottom of the paddle portion of my fins. Anyone swimming above me could tell who I was immediately :-)

Hope this helps :-)

[paintsnow]

get a bunch of white gaff tape, not duct tape as that leaves residue, gaff tape doesnt.

then have the person loop a bit through their gear and write their name on it.

or better yet

make a spreadsheet style printout.

then write in everybody's name and the numbers of their gear.

then attach a list inside a trailer so that everybody can reference it and know what number of what they have been assigned.

[OTGav]

Originally Posted by Bill22

I'm also trying to figure out how they still get it confused... don't they own all their own gear? Everyone in our club owns their own gear.

One of the big things the club has going for it is cheap hire, all the gear is clearly tagged with numbers, but at 6am when they are all jumping to get in the water the numbers that reffer to their gear seem to fly out of their heads.

Personal bags/buckets, wrist bands, & print outs all sound like workable solutions - will try and work out which option is the most cost effective and the minimum PITA factor for the admin types.

Thanks for all the help.

[Damselfish]

I think each person should have a bag or bin with all their stuff that they are responsible for while they have it. You could just put a nametag on the bag for the day. Bags may take less space. The right bags could be a reasonble price and pretty durable.

[Silverlode]

When I was in Asia doing my diving, I had to hire my gears, and they came in a cheap mesh bags. I'm responsible for my own bag, the whole trip when it comes to carrying and moving to and from vehicles and boats. Tanks were provided by the boat operators and kept on the boat.
If each hire is given his/her own mesh bag (and tagged or numbered whatever) with all his/her gear inside and then all dumped into a big tub or something (for all the water dripping out after the dives!), there should not be too much confusion. Worse come to worse, if they mixed up their number or something, they can't fit into their gears

[tbuckalew]

Originally Posted by Bill22

Here's how we do it. We all went out and bought those big clear basket bins.... you know the ones they store clothes etc... in. At the club each person readies their gear and puts it in their bin. Then he puts the lid on it an places it in the van, car, truck.. etc... At the dive site he unloads his bin and he dresses out of his bin and sets up his tank near his bin, since everything is right there. The only thing that is separate are the tanks. When we're done.... we-reload our "wet" gear into the bins, then load them back into the vehicle. The bin is quite effective at containing wet equipment, so the interior of your car doesn't get wet. When we get back we have a wash tank at the club and places to hang wet gear. No confusion since the gear stays with the person who's using it, pretty much through the whole evolution. Each person washes their own gear. We have a large rinse tank and can put two sets in at a time. Usually buddies will clean their equipment together. When they're finished they hang it up. They may come back in a few hours. They come back the next day after the gear is dry and put it away. It seems to work well for us. Maybe it will give you some ideas. We don't have issue with people forgetting their numbers because the bins are provided by the individuals and not the club so of course they can write their name on it. If there isn't enough room for all the equipment on the truck or on the trailer, then sound like you need a bigger truck or perhaps split the gear up so that some of it can be carried in individual vehicles.

During our recent two day trip to Izu here in Japan, we had a big truck to carry our tanks, our grill, food chests, and the majority of our gear. There was still some gear and personal items that rode up in the individual vans that carried the people.

I'm also trying to figure out how they still get it confused... don't they own all their own gear? Everyone in our club owns their own gear. Any of my gear that could get mixed up easily is marked with my name or initials. There is actually one member of the club who has the same fins and wetsuit that I have, even same color. Course his look brand new and mine look hard used ;-) but it's not unusual to have the same gear. A good marking pen works well in marking the gear so it doesn't get confused. Name or initials works well. You can put it out for all to see or have it marked in unobtrusive places. As an example my fins are marked with my initials just inside the fin pockets. My old fins were marked in large block letters on the bottom of the paddle portion of my fins. Anyone swimming above me could tell who I was immediately :-)

Hope this helps :-)

Great idea here! Just use the Gaff tape suggestion a couple posts down to add the name of the individual to the bins and you're done! No crushing, no confusion. If keeping things in check is needed, a simple sign-out sheet with the bin number and what each person was issued would fill in anything else.