Stolen Gear

Driving up to an hour to get to the beach sometimes, I'm taken both board options, three kites sizes and a back up bar in lines for emergencies.

As the value of gear I'm holding has steadily increased, I've been more and more sensitive to people posts about stolen gear. Especially the cars being broken into in carparks, windows smashed and gear stolen. So after a bit of research I decided to buy the bluetooth tracker called Tile Mate. Bought four of them on ebay, about $30 each.

Good things: down load the app, easy to set up, fitted nicely in perfect hidey spot on top of kite bag (see photo), and the fourth spare one is already proving very handy with my car keys around the house

Bad things: works better with a bigger community of users, like the US. There are other products like Trackr, but Tile seemed to be the market leader. Trackr they have a different app as far as I know, and one group of users is of no use to the other for finding stuff. Also tile lasts for about a year and have to replace.

Anyway because the Tile Mate is bluetooth, the range is about 15m to the nearest phone running the tile app. Every time a phone running the app comes within 15 metres it updates the items location to the cloud (a big computer in the sky ;-), and can message the owner if they had called it out as lost. In essence the more people with Tiles, the more apps are installed on phones and the better the ecosystem works to locate peoples lost stuff.

Was thinking this might be something more kiteboarders could do, to be effectively be looking out for each others gear. If someone steals kite gear, moves it online and the new user takes it to a kite beach without knowing the Tile Mate tracker is in the kite bag then I have to think more gear will be recovered.

On Cabrinha bags the label near the handle is quite a good spot to hide a "tile mate". Its got a velcro opening and the tile fits neatly, disappearing behind the kite label.

You might have a hard time convincing people to install an app that needs to run all the time, when realistically the chances of it helping a fellow kiter with stolen gear would be very very low. It's a bit of a flaw in the system.

Another thought: I'd consider slitting a seam and sewing them in, rather than leaving in a pocket. Harder to find/remove.

yup insurance makes sense, and I'll likely do that also. Was an SB thread on that recently, pretty boring though. Something about the idea of people nicking gear getting caught, however remote the chance, really appeals to me...

plus I love my gadgets, this is not a sales pitch. think I called out more negs than positives actually. only thought it might similarly appeal to other gadgety types. the app runs in the background, you forget its even there until you loose the keys and wanna make em' beep.

last week I couldn't find my house keys for a two days, thanks to the missus "borrowing" them and leaving in her handbag. when I remembered the app, and cause she runs it on her phone, was pretty obvious who had the keys when the map showed her work address. not a million dollar outcome or anything, but was a bit satisfying.

and like green arrows, I too caught a couple of guys trying to steal my back pack while I was out surfing. it was 7am at freshwater beach, two guys chose to sit within 1mtr of my backpack on an otherwise completely empty beach. contents was electronic car key and a towel. I was immediately suspicious and watched them like a hawk. within 5-10mins they stood up, and taking the bag with them calmly started for the carpark. I paddled in, yelling my head of as I did. they stopped looked at me all bewildered like, dropped the bag and hastened their pace for the carpark. by the time I got to the carpark they were driving off down the road in a rusted out old car, and too far away to get a numberplate.

this was years before I got into kiting. but I often think about it when leaving my kite bag and pump while out riding. also it was the catalyst for my getting a wet key which goes in wetsuit zipper...

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gdownie said..
yes insurance.
Had my gear stollen,found the guy,his address ,phone number and pics he sent me,in Scarborough .
police said they were too busy.
crim watch was NO help.
insure for loss or theft on contence house insurance,AAMI.

Nothing makes you realise how easy it is to get away with crime like catching a thief red handed with miles of evidence then having to do all the police work yourself provide all the evidence and proof only to have the police say they have other stuff to do.

The irony is if you go and steal it back your the only person with the motive and will get in trouble with the cops