Over the course of the pandemic, my husband and I have been doing a lot of shore diving. One issue that came up was: What do we do with our electronic car key? We looked and asked but never really found a good answer. While we saw some good options for surface-based watersports, there was nothing that we would trust to take down to any real depth with us when scuba diving. So, we developed our own product, the DRYFOB Waterproof Car Key Container.
The STORY of DRYFOB
For a while, we carried our key in a surface float but got a real scare one day when the float sprung a leak. Another time, the rope broke, and my husband had to surface and swim after the buoy as it headed towards the boat channel! Thankfully we were diving at the Blue Heron Bridge, in about 10 feet of water so it was shallow enough to surface without doing a safety stop. After that we tried an old GoPro case, but it was too small. Then we started using one of my video lights with the battery removed but we were concerned about damaging the battery connectors. A good video light is too expensive to be used as a storage case and of course I prefer to keep it for pictures!
We also considered hiding the keys near the car but if the fob is too close to the car, the doors can be unlocked. So, this wasn’t an option unless we could hide them far enough which wasn’t ideal. The last thing you need is to surface and realize your car was stolen while you were diving! We regularly see others hiding their keys in the bushes, on the tire, in a lockbox, or even leaving their cars unlocked. Did you know that this practice may even invalidate your auto-insurance?
Long story short, we started looking into making our own product. From various failed attempts using piping and PVC tubing, we ended up getting a machine shop to make us some prototypes. We used these on our shore dives and as we talked about them realized that others could use them too.
The creation of DRYFOB
We took the plunge and formed a company that would make DRYFOBs in production quantities and bring them to market for divers. It has been exciting and challenging at the same time, and we are only beginning! From filing patents and trademarks, to calculating O-ring sizing and working with labs to obtain depth certifications, and to developing our marketing and sales strategies. I must say we have learned a lot.
We have also met some great people along the way. So many have gone out of their way to offer advice and time and provide discounted rates and spread the word about DRYFOB to help us with our new venture. We are so grateful.
We just launched the product mid-May and we’ve already made sales from the East Coast to the West Coast, and even as far as Canada. We have dive shops on both coasts signed up as resellers and DRYFOB is even available on Amazon Prime.
Somedays we wonder what we’ve gotten ourselves into and whether we’ll be spending the rest of our lives packaging and shipping DRYFOBs all day and every day. All the same, we take pride in each one, and personally assemble and inspect every DRYFOB ourselves. We put them in their shipping boxes with our business cards and a thank you note and wish them safe travels! We are thrilled that our little invention can help the dive community and has been so well received.
We continue to do dive our favorite sites here, and we always take our DRYFOB waterproof car key container with us. We no longer have to worry about what to do with our car key when shore diving. We simply place our key fob inside the DRYFOB and bring it with us on the dive. The only thing that has changed, is that I now clip it on my D-ring so it’s very visible for all to see instead of keeping it in my BCD pocket. If you see me, ask me about my DRYFOB, I’ll be happy to tell you all about it!
Read more about DRYFOB and please help us spread the word.
Follow us on Facebook / Instagram / Twitter
Happy and safe diving!