Before we get started, don’t forget to download our free guide “The 8 Tools You Should Never Dive Without.”
Have you ever lost a piece of expensive dive gear? As divers we all experience this at one point or another. I remember how frustrated I was when I lost a reel on a dive in the Keys. I saw it fall off of my rig and sink to the bottom, powerless to stop it. $125.00 dollars lost…
Why You Need to Clip Off Your Gear
First, dive gear is expensive and none of us want to lose our hard-earned equipment.
Second, clipping off our gear is important to protect the underwater environment. By making sure that our gear is both clipped off and snugly stowed away near our bodies and in pockets when we dive, we are ensuring the survival of the underwater environment that we so dearly love.
We are all familiar with danglies. It is the term used by divers to describe hanging gear. Maybe you’ve seen them on your own dives. You are swimming and you look at another diver who has an octopus or maybe a flashlight hanging low off of their BCD. Maybe you’ve even seen this gear clumsily crashing into a reef or wreck as you cringe in disbelief.
At Greatdivers we take the protection of the underwater environment VERY seriously. Because of this we teach all of our students how to properly stow away equipment so that it does not dangle and cause damage to the fragile underwater environment.
Over the years we have tried several things to stow gear to our BCDs but have found that tire inner tubes tend work extremely well. All you have to do is take a used tire inner tube (I got an old one from a local bike shop for free) and cut it into strips and use it to affix things like lights to the shoulder straps of your BCD.
How to Set Up Your BCD Pocket
Whether your BCD has pockets attached to it or you have purchased a pocket that you strap on to the webbing of your harness, all pockets should be properly set up.
Yes, it is true that pockets usually have zippers or Velcro that keep them closed, but that in and of itself is not always enough. It not uncommon for divers to reach into their BCD pockets, go to take something out and accidentally lose a piece of gear in the process.
This is why we configure our pockets to ensure that we never lose a piece of gear when we reach in to retrieve our compass, reel or any other piece of gear stowed away inside of it.
We do this by looping a piece of bungee cord inside our pocket. By doing so we can clip off all the gear in our pocket to the cord so that we can easily have access to anything inside the pocket without accidentally losing another piece of expensive equipment. The short video above illustrates how we do this so please take a minute to check it out.
The Different Types of Clips
There are several different kinds of clips that divers use to attach their gear to their BCDs. In this section, we are going to review the two we recommend and one that we think is dangerous and no diver should ever take with them in the water.
1. Bolt Snaps
2. Trigger Snaps
3. Carabiners
How to Tie Your Clips to Your Gear
We recommend braided nylon line.
We do not recommend that you use tie wraps to affix gear to clips. Tie wraps tend to deteriorate after repeated exposure to salt water and can fail. This happens quite often.
If you want more detailed information, check out our blog post by clicking the link below:
Don’t forget to download our free guide “The 8 Tools you Should Never Dive Without.”
In it, we go over several often-overlooked tools that you can use to navigate. Many of these tools are not reviewed by instructors so you definitely want to check it out.
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Thanks for watching
Rating: 4.68
How come is his buckle is exactly in the middle?
Stupid intro… almost lost my interest and said "Next!" Holyshityoutalkfasttttt.
Suggest to mention not to rely on cheap chinese (claimed) stainless steel , as its normally only 302 quallity. Will rust quickly with salt water. Use marine grade 316 made various western countries.
#flappysnaghazard
Only – people who always carry rechargeables, like flashlight, tend to forget to recharge or go without checking in a pinch, exactly because it's always on the rig.
Clip it to you car or something in your basement, never to be lost.
I prefer figure 8 knots. Easier and waaay more secure.
Simple but effective, thanks for sharing…..
Good video. Yes, u/w flash is great on any dive.
Where can I get those tire inner tubes you have?
What about using 550 cord.
u can use silicone spray on ur boltsnaps and they get nice and smooth to operate again.
Great video, I was wondering if you can recommend a style of attachment of a camera (5lbs) to the bcd?
You talk really fast, other than that it's a good video
Wow. You are a very experienced diver.