Cautionary Tale

bummer..Sometimes they just take a credit card and put key back in hiding spot.You never know they were in your car.This gives them days to max out the card. Usually at Stonestown...

Yeh, thanks for the red flag. This technique has been used for years. Sorry you had to learn the hard way. As fin mentioned, if they had put the key back you might not have known till...? So it could have been worse. One thing I like about rip curl wetsuits is the convenient and easily accessible exterior key pocket location on the lower leg.

couple of armed robberies along G Hwy recently. be vigilant.

#thumbnail:

that sucks. Hopefully somebody catches these guys in the act.

I had that happen to me at Lindy a few years back. The thief headed directly for Best Buy and bought a $2000 flat screen TV before I was even out of the water! Fortunately, my credit card company reversed the charge immediately.

I bought a key lock box for about $25. Great for stashing keys with computer chips in them. The lock box can attach to the door handle. The lock box is sold online at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002YP1VC

Leave everything unlocked and dont drive mom's audi. Drive a jallopy pos.

Which lot was this?

i'm wit piss. drive a piece of shit or a decent car but don't wash it and make it look like u live in it. I'm talkn leave towels everywhere, underwear on the dash board, empty milk cartons, socks, etc. also don't bring anything but ur license/ a photo copy of it. u would be surprised how many people will avoid u and ur bucket of bolts if it looks like u live in it

Or, if you have one of those electric key things, there is always the metal key part that comes out of it. Just leave the electric part in the car in the center console and lock your car with the metal key. I wear the metal key around my neck on a long piece of string with a clip. You have to push the key into your armpit actually in order to avoid paddling with it on your chest, or you can wear it on your back. Either way, your key is with you buried beneath the neoprene and not going anywhere.

I've had good luck with the key box such as @rashguard posted. Though sometimes if my fingers are cold its tricky to push the unlatch button/lever. Yesterday afternoon I had a little trouble getting it open and I was roaming around the lot looking for a rock or stick to help get a little leverage. I tripped out the car next door to me with a teen couple fooling around in it. I started stressing for a minute thinking I was going to have to mooch a phone call and dial up the wife.
Ended up just using the the butt end of my detachable leash between my finger and the lever and it worked just fine.

also you might count yourself lucky in that several cars got jacked this way a few years back.

My truck is decorated "dirtbag surfer home" look. I also never stash my key. It has worked for years. My wifes car has the remote/key combo. I went to Lockworld on Geary and had them make a metal key that only opens the door and put that in my wetsuit pocket. It cost around $30 but now they gotta break my window if they want my shit. I'm also thinking about a lockbox inside the car for the real key. I have seen someone walk into Wise in a wetsuit, his car was gone.

Tinted windows too, out of sight, out of mind and lower temps. inside the car.

Never understood why people would stash a car key when wetsuits have key pockets and leashes too.

Or why people drive nice cars to the beach. You are going to get sand and probably a melted bar of wax in it, so why be a slave to your car when you know you are going to mess it up?

Dirtbags unite!

who cares? it's mom's!

I will unite with any dirtbag posse that mounts. Big surprise, right?

Rip Curl has neen having an issue with calf 'key pocket'. Trust at your own risk

Hmmm, maybe my community college parking sticker with STUDENT written on it with huge letters deters potential thieves since most don't associate community college students with wealth. I think my books are the most valuable thing in my car and scumbag thieves have no need for books.

@thrillhax- dont bank on books not getting stolen. In college, it happened to a handful of my friends.

Especially since text books are so damn pricey these days. Hey that could be a hussle, instead of slangin crack one could slang text books, half off the Used sticker price.

Im tellin' you brah, crack heads are on to that shit

books are a hell of a drug

leave an animal or two with sharp teeth in the car while you surf. also animals like the beach.

Here's what I've rigged up and it works real well. Goes around the neck and under the wetsuit, either in front or back. Don't even know it's there in the water, and no chance of losing it.

I used a piece of parachute cord, looped the key on it, and then tied two half hitches to adjust its diameter.

I gotta say @WG, the key around the neck scares me. Too many horror stories of the key piercing through the chest on brutal wipeouts. Be careful with that one. Yikes!

@uf, I understand what you're saying, but with me, no waves so big that I'll ever have a "brutal wipeout." Besides, my chest has already been pierced, and has the 'zipper.' You can wrap duct tape around it or wear it on your back. Wetsuits are supposed to fit tight.

Good tips, everybody - sorry you got burned , @sanoffsky, but your posting might keep folks from getting burned...

Recent car upgrade meant that I now have one of those fancy new keys - I'd need to get a 'metal -only' spare made at the VW dealer ($150, fuck that!) Instead I use one of those reusable ziplock plastic baggies that I discovered in HI http://www.loksak.com/products/aloksak I just shove bagged key into the velcro-shut pocket of my boardshorts...

get a valet key made san electronics and hide all your stuff in the trunk or somewhere else.

I'm with wave glider! Key on the rope trick, but I use to hide the key under the hood in my 79 chevy, I would act like I was checking on the oil and stash it in a good spot,plus not many people could open the hood release unless they knew how

@thinmanspits, careful w/those "waterproof" baggies. They do ultimately leak over time. As others have said, just go to the locksmith & have them fashion you a metal key that'll open the door. Like a couple others, I also go w/the key necklace. Bonus: Chicks dig guys w/key necklaces. Means they can afford a car.

Chicks dig having their doors opened for them electronically. If you happen to have just a mechanical key with no radio/electronics, Audis respond to mechanical keys and can still open all doors. You can open all doors by counter clockwise turn, consecutively followed by another counter clockwise turn.

Or you could purchase of of these New 2013 vehicles with the 'hands - free Power talegate Ford Escape and invite everybody to steal everything out of your car with a simple swipe of their feet. Makes no sense, because you need to leave the car 'unlocked' for it to work.

No one was watching. Every crook knows electronic cars are likely to have a hide a key magnet in a surf parking lot.

Your car might have a cap that snaps off part of the door handle. If you have a 'valet key' that pops out of the electric thingy then you have a hidden cap to discover.

I used to have a nice car, but now it's all full of dirt and sand. I don't care.

I used my Rip Curl "calf-pocket" today for the first time. I used to jam a piece of wax in there, instead of my car key. i gotta say, it held my key.
I heard the hang up with that pocket was the zipper. they apparently jam up. anyhow, safe car-safe surf.
hope it all works out

Cautionary tale on the calf pocket feature. Definitely use the elastic keeper cord if one is stitched in there. I had used the calf pocket on my ONeill about 200 times without incident then on the 201st time the bugger popped out and sank. A kind, kind friend had to drive my still wetsuited self across town in morning rush hour traffic to get my extra set of keys.

I accept that this is probably so obvious that it doesn't need to be said, but wasn't obvious to me until I got burned once.

Never had a prob w RC key pocket...of course I always use the provided tie loop. Saul Goodman says "I smell a law suit. Fleece rip curl for not warning you, chadical.....like the old lady who successfully sued Mcdonald's because her coffee was hot. It's their fault."