Surfing is a sport that hosts a number of unique challenges. From wave consistency to how much free time you have on weekends, many of the hardest parts of surfing have little to do with how well you actually surf. Another unique challenge is your keys. What exactly do you do with you car keys when you’re out shredding gnar?
Complicated problems require creative solutions. And everyone who drives and surfs has already asked this question. What to do with the car keys? Unfortunately, the world isn’t a safe place. Even if you park your car in a busy place that you’ve known for years, you can still get got. Being a local doesn’t mean anything to someone desperate enough to steal. You could even get robbed by a fellow surfer. So what the should you do with your keys while you’re surfing?
1. Bring Them With You
One option is you simply go surfing with your car keys. You can put your car keys inside a waterproof case and keep it under your wetsuit. The majority of neoprene wetsuits have either interior or exterior cords to attach your keys. This way the keys are literally on your body the entire time you surf.
2. Put Them In Your Zipper Pocket
You can also buy shorts with waterproof pockets. Be sure that these shorts come with zipper pockets to ensure the water won’t affect their security. This way you’ll be free to take your key to the water with you, with your keys securely by your side.
3. Buy A Wetsuit Top/Vest With A Pocket
Many wetsuit tops now have a zipper pockets that are perfect for small items like keys. Simply buy a small waterproof box to prevent rust damage or just general damage to your keys if they’re electronic. Then be sure zip them all the way up before you surf thus ensuring that the only way a thief could get your keys is if they paddle up next to you and pry them from your pruned fingers!
4. Put Them In A Pack
You can also purchase a waterproof fanny pack or hip pack to keep your keys at your side while you surf. Just like you were traveling in an unfamiliar place, fanny packs are one the most secure ways to keep your belongings together. Many of these packs will float if, god forbid, you get separated from the pack during a nasty wipeout.
5. Wear Your Keys Around Your Neck
Another option is to tie it to a string around your neck and put it in your wetsuit. You probably want to use some kind of elastic cord and make sure that it’s pretty tight around your neck. This is because the risk is that it could come off and end up lost in the water is real. Waves and riptides can throw you in every which direction when you wipeout so if you do this, make sure your keys are nice and secure around your neck. If the waves are looking big and treacherous, maybe avoid this method.
6. Have A Friend Look After Them
Give the car keys to someone at the beach: is your girlfriend, boyfriend, or family member enjoying the sun? He or she will keep them protected from sand and salted water. In many ways, this is the best call. There’s no risk of someone finding your keys like they could if you’re hiding it and unless your friend or lover has the motive to make off with your set of wheels, you should be fine.
7. Get A Security Lockbox.
Get a surf key box: you can easily attach it to different locations on your car, and only a four-digit combination will unlock it. Most people leave them in the car, under the seat or glove box, in jeans, others use key safes that hide in or around the car or a padlock you put on a door handle or tow loop on the car chassis. Some have a steel lockbox under the front seat, cable locked to the seat rails, to put valuables in a drawer and lock.
8. Keep it with Local Shop, Beach Bar, Restaurant etc.
Ask a local coffee shop to keep your car keys in a secured place: a loyal customer deserves a special treat. It’s a win-win situation. Just make sure you have a rapport and relationship with the person you’re handing your keys too. If you can help it, definitely defer to older staff members who have been there for a while and know the lay of the land when it comes to trusting them with your keys. You could also ask if they have a lockbox or safe you could keep your keys in, as most restaurants do because of how much cash they have on deck.
9. Leave It In A Diaper
While this one is certainly on the odd side, it’s actually kind of brilliant. When thieves are looking for classic key stash spots they probably won’t think diaper. It’s a perfect smokescreen. Why would anything of value be in a diaper? Do you have an answer? Exactly! This is the last place that someone will expect keys to be in. The only problem is someone brave may throw it in the trash.
10. Hide Them On The Car Itself
Now, this may sound impossible but there is a trick to hiding a key on the car itself. It involves buying a magnetic box (often known as a Hide-A-Key box) that will securely attach itself to part of the vehicle, typically beneath the car in most cases.
However, this may be too obvious, and some thieves are well aware of this tactic, so you may want to be a little more creative when hiding it on your car. The overall size and shape of your car will influence the best places to hide it using a magnetic box. You can use some duct tape if you’re in a pinch, just remember that tape isn’t as secure!
11. Put Them In A Safe Deposit Box
Well-hidden and completely secure, a safe deposit box is a great choice for stashing your keys while you surf. I’ve done this a lot of times before and provided you place it correctly under any one of the vehicle’s wheel arches between the suspension coils you should be fine regardless of whether it’s a keyless entry car or not. Magnetic key holders are also a decent idea if you do this regularly.
12. Don’t Bring Any Keys At All!
Nowadays, many modern cars apps allow you to temporarily give access of your car to someone via a mobile app, check if your car has this feature. Though getting a hiding a phone presents its own challenges, it is objectively harder to break into a phone to access a car than simply finding the keys and pressing a button on them. Look into your car’s model and app features to see if your vehicle can operate without keys themselves. Many push to start models can also be activated with a smartphone instead of a fab.
13. Hide Them Under A Rock Or In Your Towel.
This should be one the last resorts but you can always hide your keys somewhere discreet like under a rock or a towel. However, you should be extremely wary about who’s watching and who could easily stumble across your keys. Ideally, you want to hide your keys somewhere that’s not in the immediate vicinity of your car or hosts a lot of foot traffic on the beach.
12. Dig A Hole For Your Keys
This may sound primitive but the fact remains that finding a key in a bed of sand is harder than finding a needle in the haystack. Simply find a good spot that’s far enough from your car, but close enough to where you’ll be surfing, make sure no one’s looking and bury your keys. Be sure to mark it or truly know EXACTLY where you left it. Because you always want to hide your keys somewhere that’s hard to find, but not so hard that you can’t find it yourself. You came here to surf, not to become the “metal detector guy” of your local beach!
13. Hide Them On the Inside Of The Bumper
This is a technique that will work assuming you are using the magnetic Hide-A-Key. You also need a few specific features on your car for this to work. First, you must have a bumper and more specifically, one that it is made of metal. With newer cars, you don’t have as many choices as to where you will place a magnetic Hide-A-Key, because your car is most likely made of mainly plastic or fiberglass. But it is a good a place as any and you will be happy to find it there after a nice surf sesh.
14. Hide Them Behind The Front License Plate
This is a favorite hiding spot for a spare key among surfers and non-surfers alike. Hiding your key behind the front license plate is like hiding your key in plain sight.
There is a strong magnetic source from the license plate and it’s fairly well concealed. Depending on the shape of your front bumper and the depth of your license plate holder a standard hide a key should do well.
But if you are looking for something a little more robust, there are license plate spare key hiding containers. These attach to your vehicle and then you attach your rear license plate to the enclosed container; essentially making the license plate a hatch.
15. Hide Them In The Tire Well
The tire well is nothing short of a classic place to hide your keys. Of course, they were much more common back when cars were mostly made of metal and it was easy to find a place to stick a Hide-a-Key.
Nowadays, cars do not have quite the same amount of metal that they used to have. So you may have a little bit harder time finding a place in the wheel well to place a hide a key. However, you may be able to find a small metal ledge or perhaps a piece of the frame that is easily accessible, these would be perfect for a place to stash a spare key.
16. Hide Them In The Gas Cap
Inside the gas-cap is an option, but it’s not one of my favorite places to hide a key. It’s too easily accessible and its a fairly commonplace to put a key. In addition to this, you may need to use duct tape to securely hold the hide a key in place. It’s also worth mentioning that the gas cap is one the less secure places to hide a key seeing as most gas cap hatches are not very secure and could easily be pried open.
I suppose if you have no other options then this is better than nothing. I would have rather had a key in my gas cap than be locked out of my car. Given the limited number of places to put a hide a key, I thought I would offer it as an option.
17. Hitch Receiver Box
The hitch receiver box is a very cool innovation. Probably the most secure of all the solutions to hide a key on the outside of the car. However, there are certain requirements that need to be met first. First, you need to have a two-inch hitch attached to your car. Also, you obviously can’t be using the hitch because then there would be no room for the box.
This is basically a little safe, with a combination and everything that you can insert into your hitch and keep your keys in there. Yes, this type of Hide-A-Key is more obvious, but no one is going to try to break into it either. It’s worth mentioning that many people are against Hide-A-Keys. If someone finds it you give them access to your car which is why it’s suggested to buy one with a combination lock on it.
18. Buy or Rent A House Near The Beach
Now before I get into this I should say that this could only be possible with a pretty large level of financial freedom. But it is a solution nonetheless. Cuz hey, you don’t have to worry about car keys if you don’t have to drive to the beach at all! However the price of owning or renting beachfront property can be insanely expensive. But hey, if you’re ready to commit to the surfing lifestyle, maybe the kids have moved out and you’re looking for something to do on a daily basis and got the cash to spare, go for it! You’ll never have to worry about what to do with your keys again. Just make sure you can make that mortgage payment every month.
19. Befriend The Locals
If there are houses near the beach, see if you can quickly make friends with the people who live there and ask to leave your key (and the rest of your personal belongings) with them. Now I should mention here that you should only do this if you’ve known this person for a long time or a trusted friend of family member does. I would love to sit here and tell you that you should trust your fellow beach dwellers but this simply not the case. Make sure these locals are solid before you trust them with your most prized possessions. Also make sure that the keys themselves are being held in a secure location in the house itself. Because hey, what’s the point in leaving your keys with someone if they just leave it on a table outside etc.
20. Use Public Transportation
So going back to the theory that you can’t get your car get stolen if you don’t drive there in the first place, you can always use public transit to get to the beach. Plenty of cities host public transit to the beach including Long Beach, Miami, Newport, Virginia Beach, Myrtle Beach and Rehoboth etc. Save yourself the hassle of hiding your keys and reduce your carbon footprint in the process.
Now it’s time for the kicker. Transporting your board and gear will be extremely difficult on a city bus. Your best bet probably to get in the way back and have the board sit on your lap all the way across. Alternatively you could also have the board standing up straight assuming you’re not riding a longboard and the board won’t hit the ceiling. Either way you do risk the possibility of sincerely pissing off your fellow bus riders.
Final Tips
There are a few smart ways to keep your car from getting stolen. If you’re a surfer, avoid drawing attention to the surfing equipment. I know we’re all prideful of the surfing lifestyle, but maybe don’t coat your entire car with surf stickers. Also be fast and discrete when putting on your wetsuit and waxing up your board. The reality is, the more incognito you can be while getting to the water, the better.
Keeping your car in good shape, showing an alarm sticker, hiding valuable objects, parking in safe areas, and installing an alarm system will also help prevent car thefts. Little steps like these can go a long way. So overall, find out which method of stashing your keys (or not) works best for you and worry about your car and all your other material objects for that matter after you come in. If you’re focusing too much on what’s happening on land, what’s the point of surfing? Keep your keys safe and your mind open. Happy surfing!
