Water Protection Phones and Keys

Anyone have tips for protecting mobile phone (+ car keys)?

Recently destroyed iphone during capsize, despite being sealed inside 2 "waterproof" bags. Any hints on products available in Aust much appreciated, as I anticipate many more capsizes in future, and I need my phone for "on call" work.

Not sure what bag you had? I have a clear plastic one that has a buckle. The top folds over 3 or 4 times and then you do up the buckle to make a circle at the top (if this description is helping). Made of nice thick clear plastic. Go to a ski boat shop or yachting supplies place...I find the "waterproof" boxes are no good.

As for your keys, either use the spare if it is non electric and manually lock your car or leave it in the club / pub...

Maybe try to not fall out??

I use an aquapac brand case, it's worked well on it's own for the past 1.5 years. We also use them at our local surf club but due to extra wear and tear they don't last as long.

www.aquapac.net

I use the Aquapac as well. Unfortunately mine is only big enough for either the phone or car key, but not both, so I’m planning on buying another bigger one. I bought it from a local boat accessories shop.

Hassle with aquapac is they are prone to pin prick holes.

I have used them for years and they have cost me a few phones. Where the hard plastic of the locking plates meets the soft plastic of the bag, this fold point is a weakness and develops leaks. Also if you buy one that has a hole for a lanyard punched through the soft plastic, holes are common around the lanyard hole.

I agree with Andrew and that plastic fold buckle bag is the way to go.

I use a hard plastic canister that seals with a thread and an o ring. This is ideal for car keys.

Whatever method you use, I would also recommend a ziplock bag around the phone before it goes into the waterproof bag as extra insurance. Also buy or retrieve from the back of a drawer an old el-cheapo phone so that your new iPhone is not at risk.

Don't forget where your iphone is hanging when you remount !

With my keys I had a spare made that has no electrics in it.

I then manually lock my keys in the car with it, and go happily paddleing

I too have a set of 'ski' keys with no electronics and no extra keys, just one for the car and one for the house.
And instead of carrying a smart phone on my ski, I bought a Samsung B2100 Waterproof phone. Its small, light, simple, relatively cheap (I paid $120 US for mine) and thus far (over a year) has been great. I've gotten it wet on the beach post-paddle several times and its never had an issue. It takes a SIM card, so I just put in an extra SIM and go, no worries. Casio makes a waterproof flip phone but its much more expensive and, at least in the US, doesn't take a SIM card. There is also the Sonim phones, but they are big, bulky,and expensive.
I take the B2100 and my keys and put them in a waterproof pouch of the roll and plastic buckle design. I mount that under the bungee at the front of my cockpit on my V12 and buckle the buckle around the bungee, that way its secure and not hanging or falling out when I take a swim and remount.

Black Wolf also make a waterproof phone pouch which is the ideal size for an iPhone (I use a seperate pouch for my keys).

They can be difficult to find however - camping shops are usually the best bet.

Agree with the non electric car key.

My phone (and emergency $20 note) goes in a small "Sea to Summit" roll top dry bag (4 folds) then this goes into another similar dry bag (4 rolls also). After many accidental swims from the ski and lots of immersions from the sea kayaks when doing rolls, practicing rescues etc, this system has been totally successful, for several years now.

Bag is clipped to the cockpit bungee on the ski and in my PFD pocket when kayaking.

+1 on the Aquapac waterproof pouch; on my 2nd one in 8 years, and the 1st did not leak, just got old.

+1 on a non-electronic key; just $2 or so, hide the original, also more compact to fit in pouch, just check key for sharp edges though!

+1 on using an old phone, most of us use a back-up/old phone with a 'Twin-SIM' card in it; same phone number as the 'daily' phone, just switch one of, and then activate the other phone.
Cheers

I agree with the twin sim and the samsung B2100. Mine has been submerged many times (not in a bag) and still works perfectly. That way my smartphone is safe and the Samsung is always charged and ready to go with my kit.

No way is my precious iPhone going anywhere near salt water so I got a duplicate SIM and bought a $30 simple Nokia phone as my emergency handset.

I use an Aquapac - also on my second one.

Always check that it's airtight by squeezing it when you've closed it. That's how I found that the old one was leaking and my stuff didn't get wet.

Some guys over here use a small lock/safe that attaches to the car. It looks like an oversize padlock; the base opens up and has enough room for a set of keys. You put your keys in, attach it to the outside of your car, turn the combination and your keys are safe (and on dry land) until you come back from your paddle.

Check out one such product here: Surflock.com.au
They're available in South Africa too: surflock in South Africa

I use the Black Wolf phone bag which fits the iPhone nicely. Thought about a second phone to preserve the iPhone but really like the additional safety I get with the iPhone. Using a free GPS app (motion x) it automatically emails my location every 15 minutes to any email addresses I set. It can be set to automatcally email at 5, 15, or 30 minute intervals.

Many thanks to all those contributors above. Some great suggestions!

How does one convince the phone company (Optus in Aust) to give you a duplicate SIM card? When I contacted them they implied paying for 2 plans in order to have 2 cards




www.surfski.info/components/com_kunena/t.../emoticons/dizzy.png

Funny you should mention that, I'm also with optus and was going to visit/call them tomorrow with the same question since I have a spare old phone I want to use when I'm in the ocean.

Your other option is to buy a pre-paid sim from someone like vodafone. My father never uses his phone so we bought him a $20 pre-paid which last for 12mths before expiring or adding credit. The reason I didn't mention Optus is because there more expensive, something like $30 and 3mths. I know where not taking big bucks, but hey every $$ counts.

My theory is, it's only an emergency phone which I'll hopefully never need to use so a second phone number is no big deal. Just leave your good one hidden in the car or at home.

Interesting - clearly it depends on the operator and country. Here in South Africa it's common practise to have a duplicate SIM. With Vodacom the package is called "TwinSIM".
The two SIMs work off the same phone number - with the last phone to be switched on taking precedence on the network ie incoming calls will ring on the last phone to be switched on. It's advisable to switch off one phone so as to be sure what's going to happen.

Australian Telco's have the most restrictive policies in the world.
'Service' is only provided if some bonus chasing manager can see dollar signs in his eyes.

You could try just calling them and saying that your current card has stopped working/ lost down a drain when you were swapping it to another phone/ whatever, and get them to send out another.

Me, I'm just going to ask them if they will supply me with another card or will I need to buy one from their competitor.

Here in South Africa the twin sims were originally released to be used in car phones only. With the advent of hands free kits they should have been phased out but we still issue them.If you delve into technicalities and the fine print it is actually fraudulent to use them as we do, but some people still run older car kits with a dedicated phone so I am yet to see them make an issue. On the Vodacom network it works as explained in an earlier post where the device that is on becomes the master so SMS etc. will be routed accordingly.
On MTN though on the back end there is actually a different number allocated and if you do not answer the primary then the call is diverted to it before voicemail. You can technically run it independently but share the primary accountants airtime bundle.
This is more than likely why many operators will not offer it, they loose out on the revenue of a second subscription.