In my board.
Bummer if you break it or lose it in the surf!
install usually goes in the tail section between the fins on a thruster (deck or bottom), parallel with the fin box in a longboard, or behind the fin box. if you use a leash, that should be the part still attached to you if the board breaks. if you don’t use a leash and have a history of breaking your board in half, then this device may not be for you.
I keep an extra door key in a magnetic hide-a-key stuck behind my back bumper that I reach for only when I am leaving. My actual car keys I toss on the floor in the back of the van when I close and lock the doors. Once I get the doors unlocked, I toss the hide-a-key in the back, and put it back behind the bumper after I get home.
I have also kept an aluminum key, which you can get made at Lowe’s or Home Depot, in the key pocket that’s in just about every leash. I’ve lost keys that wer tied onto the little key loops in my baggies before, so I don’t do that much.
We really don’t seem to have the theft problems that you hear so many stories about, though. Over the course of a year, if one surfboard gets lifted out of the back of a pick up, that’s about our yearly average. If you wanted to steal a car here, probably 75% of the surfers simply place their whole car key set on top of their front tire, or if they’re really trying hard, inside the door of the gas tank.
yeh. lots of places to keep the keys.
there was a breakin locally a day or two ago. i had a board taken from a locked van a coupla years ago. for guys on sways, i would think 99% of them could do the install with their eyes closed, and the other 1% would make a custom, hollow, redwood/mahogany/ebony/teak/epoxy install in their one of a kinds.
no doubt that if someone really wants to jack your ride, a hammer thru the side window and a screwdriver into the ignition switch would do the job on most cars.
pete.
WinDog…
I lived in chucktown/folly/J.I. for 5 years or so…rarely locked my car, and then only if it was super crowded at the washout. never had a problem with theft at all. i even had a jeep sin top and doors for a couple of those years, and the only time i took a loss was when i was parked downtown.
If i did lock up, i just left keys in a backpack in the rocks or somewhere. ahhh memories…probably shouldn’t have moved
Anyone ever try a close fitting necklace with the key attached? Or perhaps one of the velcro armbands runners use?
rllogies, that’s what my truck sports too. Very sweet deal.
There’s a old guy (gray hair) who rides this yellow longboard, who wears a yellow dive key box (size of a box for deck of cards) around his neck. I’ve seen him at the Shores . … usually when it gets big (8-10 ft), he brings out his yellow board.
I’m going to need to consider the HitchSafe. My current method is OK though. I have a pretty big pickup with a cap, a bed mat, and a ton (mebbe a ton-and-a-half) of crap piled inside the bed. I keep my keys under the mat, pretty well back from the tailgate and toward the center. I also lock the tailgate. but not the cap door. It doesn’t sound too secure, but… Even assuming a wannabe thief had an idea that my keys were under that mat, a systematic search would involve a large area, moving a lot of s*** around, and generally be pretty conspicuous. I also make an effort not too be obvious when hiding or removing the keys - I keep the rest of my equipment in the bed, so I’m always doing something besides the key business under there. I also generally fake locking the cap cover and palming a set of keys, in case anyone is watching. I’ve always supected that with an unlocked magnetic cubby, anyone who put in some time watching could easily get a good idea on what and where.
-Samiam
I’ll be hiding mine in WindDog’s van 
Did you ever see “Pulp Fiction?” Think “the watch.” Haven’t lost it yet! Ha!
I used the key pocket on my leash’s rail saver… only to have my key bent. I had to do a little custom metal work to get it in the door. Use to use the tire, for years, now, the pants pocket… Got a pocket in my suit, never used it though.
“I’ve always relied on the kindness of strangers…”
A buddy of mine had his key flapping on the end of his zipper string. The lip snapped his head back just as the key got caught between his lower neck and the base of his skull. Messed him up real good with a puncture to his head bone. I think it was his cerebral cortex that got infected. Took years to get better.
Probably don’t want to do what he did…
Hey Taylor,
You gotta be kidding right?
“The watch”
Captain Koons: Hello, little man. Boy, I sure heard a bunch about you. See, I was a good friend of your dad’s. We were in that Hanoi pit of hell together over five years. Hopefully…you’ll never have to experience this yourself, but when two men are in a situation like me and your Dad were, for as long as we were, you take on certain responsibilities of the other. If it had been me who had not made it, Major Coolidge would be talkin’ right now to my son Jim. But the way it turned out is I’m talkin’ to you, Butch. I got somethin’ for you.
(The Captain sits down and pulls a gold wrist watch from his pocket)
This watch I got here was first purchased by your great-grandfather during the first World War. It was bought in a little general store in Knoxville, Tennessee. Made by the first company to ever make wrist watches. Up till then people just carried pocket watches. It was bought by private Doughboy Erine Coolidge on the day he set sail for Paris. It was your great-grandfather’s war watch and he wore it everyday he was in that war. When he had done his duty, he went home to your great-grandmother, took the watch off, put it an old coffee can, and in that can it stayed ‘til your granddad Dane Coolidge was called upon by his country to go overseas and fight the Germans once again. This time they called it World War II. Your great-grandfather gave this watch to your granddad for good luck. Unfortunately, Dane’s luck wasn’t as good as his old man’s. Dane was a Marine and he was killed – along with the other Marines at the battle of Wake Island. Your granddad was facing death, he knew it. None of those boys had any illusions about ever leavin’ that island alive. So three days before the Japanese took the island, your granddad asked a gunner on an Air Force transport name of Winocki, a man he had never met before in his life, to deliver to his infant son, who he’d never seen in the flesh, his gold watch. Three days later, your granddad was dead. But Winocki kept his word. After the war was over, he paid a visit to your grandmother, delivering to your infant father, his Dad’s gold watch. This watch. (holds it up, long pause) This watch was on your Daddy’s wrist when he was shot down over Hanoi. He was captured, put in a Vietnamese prison camp. He knew if the gooks ever saw the watch it’d be confiscated, taken away. The way your Dad looked at it, that watch was your birthright. He’d be damned if any slopes were gonna put their greasy yella hands on his boy’s birthright. So he hid it in the one place he knew he could hide something. His ass. Five long years, he wore this watch up his ass. Then he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of metal up my ass two years. Then, after seven years, I was sent home to my family. And now, little man, I give the watch to you.
Rio
I used to use the leash or jam pockets, have used a necklace as well. But I worry about the long term effects of inserting my salt-encusted key into door and ignition locks…
-Samiam
Great idea, While were are on the subject of security have you come across this. A global database for surfboard & wetsuit ownership ownership.
Tracking surfboards and there owners.
Let me know thoughts guys[url]www.surfboard-tracker.com
[email]andrew@surfboard-tracker.com
Just picked up a lock box at my local surf shop. It has a 3 number dial a hasp and a button on the side. When you push the button and have the numbers set right the box opens, and so does the hasp. I picked it up because my new van has the ele. door opener on the key, and I thought getting it wet was not a very good idea. $35.00 and it is big enough to put a few bucks and cards in also. I forgot who it was that was worried about salt water and his locks, I always just put the key in my mouth before I stuck it into my lock. I figuered that would get the salt off.
Quote:
Just picked up a lock box at my local surf shop. It has a 3 number dial a hasp and a button on the side. When you push the button and have the numbers set right the box opens, and so does the hasp. I picked it up because my new van has the ele. door opener on the key, and I thought getting it wet was not a very good idea. $35.00 and it is big enough to put a few bucks and cards in also. I forgot who it was that was worried about salt water and his locks, I always just put the key in my mouth before I stuck it into my lock. I figuered that would get the salt off.
That was me, and thanks, I never thought of that. No, you don’t want to be dunking the chip/key/opener gizmo. I heard they are bongo bucks to replace…
-Samiam
Hi Bagman,
How much surfboard theft is going… Itsam jor problem over here in Europe. I have founded a database that really works. You can check it out if you like.
You comments would be useful.
Cheers
Andrew