Zach Stewart is the Surface Waters Program Manager for Douglas County, Wisconsin, where he leads a conservation program focused on protecting lakes and rivers across the Lake Superior watershed. Outside of his full time work, Zach is an ACA Level 4 Instructor and serves as Director of Programming for the Freshwater Paddlers Symposium. He coaches the Gales Storm Gathering, works as a safety boater with Minnesota Whitewater Rafting and regularly works with paddlers ranging from beginners to experienced boaters in both lake and river environments.
“It comes to most paddlers eventually. Usually not on the water, but standing at the put-in, digging through gear, realizing something small just became a big problem.
For years, that problem didn’t really exist for me. I drove an old car with a simple metal key. I just clipped it in my PFD pocket and let it get wet.”
“Then I upgraded my vehicle and was shocked to learn that the key fob costs somewhere in the region of $500 to replace! I guess the new tech is packed with electronics that definitely weren’t designed for cold water, repeated submersion, or the general chaos of paddling.”
“If you surf, run rivers, or spend time launching from public access points, you already know the dilemma. Leaving a key fob locked in your car is a risk because someone could smash a window, grab the vehicle, and go.”
“But taking it with you isn’t exactly reassuring either. One big swim, or a fumble when digging through your drybag, and you’ve just turned your day on the water into a very expensive headache.”
“That’s why I turned to the Keymaster Mini from Aquapac – hoping for a waterproof solution that I can rely on. The Keymaster Mini is IPX8 rated and is about as simple as it gets, but that simplicity is exactly why it works. It’s purpose-built for small valuables like keys, and the closure system gives you immediate feedback. You close it, double-check there are no wrinkles in the plastic at the seal, and you know it’s waterproof.”
“Out on the water, that kind of confidence matters. It got clipped into a PFD pocket, tossed into gear piles, splashed, dunked, and generally treated the way small pieces of gear inevitably are. It never leaked, never popped open, never made me wonder if I should check on it mid-day. That alone puts it well ahead of the DIY solutions most people rely on.”
“At the end of the day, I can strongly recommend the Keymaster Mini – it kept my shockingly expensive key fob bone dry through surfing, playing, dozens of rolls, class III rapids, and clumsy hands at lunch. Good to go.”
“The less time you spend worrying about your gear, the more time you spend actually paying attention to why you’re out there in the first place.”