Off-Season Gear Care: How to Store Your Scuba Equipment Until Your Next Dive
Phillip Hetherington Sep 03, 2026
If your gear bag is about to sit in a closet or garage for a few months, how you pack it away now decides what kind of shape it's in when you pull it back out. A little bit of care at storage time saves you from mildew smells, cracked rubber, and a regulator that needs more than a rinse before your next trip.
Rinse Everything First, No Exceptions
This is the step people skip, and it's the one that matters most. Fresh water, lake water, and pool chemicals all leave residue behind, and that residue is what breaks gear down over time. Give every piece a full rinse in clean, fresh water before it goes anywhere near a storage bag. Salt is the worst offender, but even lake and pool gear needs this step.
Let everything air dry completely before you pack it up. Storing gear even slightly damp is how you end up with a moldy wetsuit or a musty BCD bladder six months later.
Wetsuits and Booties: Dry Fully, Store Loose
Hang wetsuits on a wide hanger, not a wire one, so the shoulders don't stretch out of shape. Keep them out of direct sunlight, since UV exposure breaks down neoprene faster than almost anything else. Once fully dry, fold them loosely or hang them rather than cramming them into a tight bag. Booties and gloves just need to be fully dry and stored somewhere they can keep their shape, not flattened under other gear.
Regulators and BCDs: More Than a Quick Rinse
Regulators need fresh water flushed through the second stage, with the dust cap on and the purge button untouched while it's soaking, then a full air dry before storage. Store the regulator loosely coiled, not folded or kinked, so the hoses don't develop weak spots.
For BCDs, rinse the inside of the bladder too, not just the outside. Fill it partially with fresh water through the inflator hose, swish it around, and drain it out. Then store it partially inflated rather than fully deflated. A fully deflated BCD can let the inside surfaces stick together over months of storage.
Tanks: Check Before You Stash It
An aluminum or steel tank can sit for months without issue as long as it's stored upright, valve closed, with a small amount of positive pressure left inside rather than being drained completely to zero. An empty tank can let moisture in, which leads to internal corrosion. If your tank's visual inspection or hydro test is coming up while it's in storage, plan to bring it in before your next trip rather than finding out at the fill station.
Masks and Fins: The Easy Stuff People Still Get Wrong
Masks should be rinsed and dried completely before storage, and kept in a hard case if you have one, since a crushed mask frame or a scratched lens is an easy, avoidable cost. Fins just need a rinse and a flat or upright spot to sit where the foot pockets won't get bent out of shape from being wedged under heavier gear.
When to Bring Gear In for a Tune-Up
Off-season is actually the best time to get gear serviced, since you're not racing to get it back before a trip. Regulators generally need professional servicing on a yearly basis regardless of how much you dived that year, and a BCD inflator or dump valve that's been sticking is worth having looked at before it sits unused for months. If you're not sure whether something needs attention, it's easier to ask now than to find out the hard way on your first dive back. For more on what each piece of gear does and how to know what shape it should be in, our scuba gear guide covers the basics.
Questions About Your Gear? Stop By in Sugar Land, TX
If you're not sure whether a piece of gear is ready to be packed away, or it's due for service before your next trip, bring it by and we'll take a look.
Phone: 281-240-3483
Address: 3362 Highway 6 South, Sugar Land, TX 77478
